Earl Grant hired to replace Doug Wojcik at College of Charleston

College of Charleston picked Clemson Assistant Coach Earl Grant to replace Doug Wojcik as its head coach

Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

In one of the more eventful coaching searches in recent memory, Clemson Assistant Coach Earl Grant has been named the new men’s basketball head coach at the College of Charleston. Grant replaces Doug Wojcik, who was fired at the conclusion of a month-long investigation into allegations of abuse towards players.

On Sunday, Charleston officials announced that they had whittled the pool of candidates down for the second time, this time naming Grant and former Charlotte 49ers Head Coach Bobby Lutz as the finalists.

Initially, the two finalists for the position were reported to be former Charleston standout Anthony Johnson and Wofford Head Coach Mike Young, but both candidates took their names out of the running shortly before the school was set to announce its new coach.

First Team All-ACC performer and NBA Draft pick K.J. McDaniels is one of 10 players Grant recruited to Clemson.

Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

Grant, who left Wichita State in 2010 to join Brad Brownell at Clemson, is returning to his hometown, where he launched his career as a coach. In 2002, Grant was hired as an assistant coach at the Citadel, a military college located in Charleston that plays in the Southern Conference. After two seasons, he left to join Gregg Marshall at Winthrop. Each of Grant’s three seasons at Winthrop ended with regular season and tournament championships in the Big South. Grant followed Marshall to Wichita State, where he helped restore the school’s winning ways. After failing to win 20 games in any of the previous three seasons, the 2009-10 squad posted a 25-10 record and made the NIT. Grant returned to South Carolina when Brad Brownell was hired by Clemson in 2010. He has been a key to the Tigers’ turnaround, landing the commitments of a majority of the players to sign with Clemson during that time, including 2014 All-ACC performer and NBA Draft pick K.J. McDaniels.

Lutz, currently the Associate Head Coach at North Carolina State, spent 12 seasons as the head coach at his Alma Mater Charlotte. He is the winningest coach in school history, with 218 victories. Lutz had a very successful run with Charlotte, bringing the 49ers to 5 NCAA tournaments and 3 NITs during his tenure. After being fired following a 1-7 finish that took the team out of NCAA Tournament contention, Lutz was an assistant for Fred Hoiberg at Iowa State for one season before returning to North Carolina to join Mark Gottfried’s staff at North Carolina State.

Both Grant and Lutz were among the initial list of candidates interviewed for the position before Young and Johnson were selected as finalists last week.

Wofford Head Coach Mike Young was a finalist for the same position at Charleston. Young withdrew his name from consideration on August 27

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Young had brief stints as an assistant coach at Emory & Henry College and Radford before being brought on as an assistant coach at Wofford in 1989. He remained in that role until being promoted to head coach in 2002, when then-Head Coach Richard Johnson accepted an offer to become the school’s athletic director. Young guided the program to the NCAA Tournament in 2010, 2011, and 2014, its only tournament appearances since moving to Division 1 in 1997.

Johnson, a 39 year old Charleston native, led the Cougars to 2 appearances in the NIT and a round of 32 appearance in the 1997 NCAA Tournament on his way to being inducted into Charleston’s Athletics Hall of Fame. As a senior in 1997, he was named the Trans America Athletic Association (now Atlantic Sun) Player of the Year. Johnson was drafted 39th overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 1997 NBA Draft, and went on to play for 8 teams in his 13 year career. He is currently a scout with the New Orleans Pelicans, a position he was hired to in 2012.

On August 27, Young withdrew his name from contention for the job.

At this point, it was considered a foregone conclusion that Johnson would be the school’s next coach, and articles began to circulate stating as much. But less than two hours later, unexpected news broke: Anthony Johnson had also decided not to take the job.

After a day with no news and a lot of speculation, it was revealed that Johnson took his name out of the running for the position because of a domestic dispute that occurred in 2011.

With both finalists off the table, the school went back to its original list and picked Grant and Lutz to move on to a second round of interviews.

At one point, former Charleston coach Bobby Cremins was rumored to be a candidate to return for one season with Johnson brought on as Coach-in-Waiting, but that never matriculated. Cremins coached Charleston from 2006 until 2012. He was only able to coach 20 games during his final season before health problems caused him to take a leave of absence and eventually retire.

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