NCAA Basketball: Grading recent coaching hires of 2020 offseason
Grade: C
Steve Smiley, Northern Colorado
Steve Smiley is not a splashy hire, but rather, he may be the most sensible one and possibly the ideal hire for Northern Colorado. Smiley, who does have head coaching experience, is a Denver native and had spent the last four seasons under Lindenras the team’s associate head coach. He was also the team’s defensive coordinator the previous four seasons, where the Bears twice finished in the top-60 in the nation in defensive efficiency, which includes this past season where they ranked 58th. As UNC ranked fourth in the country for 3-point percentage defense (28%) and 22nd in scoring defense (62.7 points) in 2019-20
Smiley went 153-43 in six seasons at Sheridon College (WY), where he also picked up two NJCAA North Region COY honors. While the Bears lost three of their top four players to graduation, Smiley does have several players he can build around, including 6-6 wing Brodie Hume (13.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg). Matt Johnson, Sam Masten, and Kur Jockuch are other key returnees.
Stan Johnson, Loyola Marymount
Long-time assistant coach Stan Johnson will be leading his first program as he was tabbed to take over the Loyola Marymount Lions on Friday. Johnson spent the last five seasons at Marquette, where he served as Steve Wojciechowski’s associate head coach for each of the past three seasons. Marquette reached the postseason three times, which includes two NCAA Tournament appearances.
LMU has only finished with a winning record just once in the past six years as well as one postseason appearance. Johnson will have a lot of work to do, but he should have their top three performers from a year ago, including Eli Scott, who averaged 15.5 points along with 6.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists.
Brad Korn, Southeast Missouri State
Brad Korn was hired by Southeast Missouri State on Monday. This is his first head coaching job. Korn has over a decade of coaching experience and spent the last five seasons at Kansas State, including the past four as an assistant coach. He has spent his entire coaching career in Illinois, Kansas and Missouri.
“Brad is a winner and has an incredible knack for building relationships with student-athletes while developing them both on and off the court,” athletic director Brady Barke said in a statement. “His energy and passion will bring a renewed sense of excitement to SEMO basketball.”
SEMO is coming off a 7-24 season and went 51-104 in five seasons under former coach Rick Ray. The Redhawks have not had a winning campaign since 2013-14 and 2000 was the last time that they reached the NCAA Tournament. The 38-year-old Korn has his work cut out for him.
Luke Yaklich, UIC
Yaklich has worked his way up from a high school coach to a high major assistant coach. He started his college coaching career at Illinois State and then spent two years at Michigan, where he was credited in revamping the Wolverines defense, before spending one season at Texas.
Next. 10 teams hurt most by tournament cancellation. dark
UIC won six of its last eight games and finished the campaign at 18-17 and reached the Horizon League Final in 2019-20. The Flames has finished with a .500 record in each of the last four seasons and has won 10 or more conference games in each of the last three seasons. However, they must replace three of their top four players from this past season.