Stanford Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Jerod Haase as Head Coach

Matt Langel

Success as a collegiate head coach elsewhere is no prerequisite for Stanford, but this next coach is another mid-major legend who’s done it right. Langel isn’t knocking out teams in the ACC or SEC, but he’s turned Colgate into the dominant force of the Patriot League; and it didn’t exactly happen overnight.

He played college ball at Penn under Fran Dunphy and would begin his coaching career as Dunphy’s assistant at both Penn and Temple. That was his own basketball experience, outside of a few seasons playing internationally, before Colgate hired him in 2011. There wasn’t much of note in his first seven years, but his Raiders have won the last six regular season titles, five Patriot League Tournaments, and will play in their fifth straight Big Dance next week.

Making the jump from Colgate across the country to Stanford in itself is quite the leap, also consider the major difference between the Patriot League and the ACC. Langel just doesn’t have a ton of experience at the higher levels of college basketball and that’s a strike against him. Still, he built an incredible program when given time and resources, though Stanford would clearly be less patient.