Busting Brackets
Fansided

SEC Basketball: Ranking new head coaches for 2019-20

By Joey Loose

TULSA, OKLAHOMA - MARCH 24: Head coach Nate Oats of the Buffalo Bulls yells to his team during the first half of the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at BOK Center on March 24, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
TULSA, OKLAHOMA - MARCH 24: Head coach Nate Oats of the Buffalo Bulls yells to his team during the first half of the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at BOK Center on March 24, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 5
Next
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – SEPTEMBER 2: NBA basketball player Jerry Stackhouse of the Dallas Mavericks addresses a press conference on September 2, Seoul in South Korea. NBA Basketball players Jerry Stackhouse and Jay Williams will appear at the 2004 adidas Streetball Challenge Asian final in Seoul. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – SEPTEMBER 2: NBA basketball player Jerry Stackhouse of the Dallas Mavericks addresses a press conference on September 2, Seoul in South Korea. NBA Basketball players Jerry Stackhouse and Jay Williams will appear at the 2004 adidas Streetball Challenge Asian final in Seoul. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) /

4. Jerry Stackhouse (Vanderbilt)

Stackhouse is the latest in a line of coaches hired without any collegiate coaching experience, based solely on his NBA acumen. He played in the NBA for eighteen years after playing for Dean Smith at North Carolina. His brief coaching career has featured brief stints as an assistant on both the Raptors and Grizzlies, sandwiching two years heading the Raptor’s G-League team.

New Vanderbilt athletic director Malcolm Turner formerly served as the President of the G-League, and this hiring may have raised some curious eyebrows. Turner could have brought in someone like John Brannen or Matt McMahon, who had relevant college coaching experience, but he chose to stick with familiarity with Stackhouse.

Last season, things were not pretty for the Commodores. In Bryce Drew’s final year, the team completely fell apart after the injury to future NBA lottery pick Darius Garland. They lost their last 20 games of the season and were completely blanked in SEC play. The offense was a struggle all season long and touted recruit Simi Shittu never developed into the star everyone expected.

Firing Drew after this mess of a season wasn’t unprecedented, but the direction Vanderbilt chose to go is what makes this confusing. Drew just brought in the highest ranked recruiting class in Vanderbilt history, though losing Garland clearly through a wrench in their entire season. Stackhouse might be able to develop talent, but we simply haven’t seen it at the college level. The G League is very different from working at an NCAA institution.

In a few years, Stackhouse’s hiring is going to look either genius or foolish. Similar hires like Eddie Jordan and Chris Mullin were messes and there’s no guarantee that Stackhouse can rebuild this program. That being said, if he can recruit like Drew (or closer to Penny Hardaway at nearby Memphis) and can actually develop these players, then this hire has a chance of producing results for the Commodores. After last season, there’s really nowhere to go but up.

Home/SEC