Vanderbilt Basketball: 12 candidates to replace Jerry Stackhouse as Head Coach

Preston Spradlin

How important will it be to Vanderbilt to hire someone with major coaching experience? We’ve already covered a few coaches who’ve been head coaches at the power conference level, though this name has been on staff at a different SEC team while also having significant head coaching success.

Spradlin played ball at Alice Lloyd College in his home state of Kentucky before joining John Calipari’s staff for five seasons. He was director of operations when the Wildcats won the national title in 2012 before departing for Morehead State two years later. Spradlin was an assistant with the Eagles for two and a half years before being promoted to interim head coach in 2016. He’d secure the full-time gig and remains at Morehead State, leading the Eagles to multiple OVC titles, including another trip to this year’s Big Dance.

With his entire coaching career in nearby Kentucky, Spradlin would certainly be a fine addition for Vanderbilt and knows the area well. He wasn’t recruiting or coaching much with the Wildcats, but he does have that prior experience in the SEC. The question is if Spradlin has done enough at Morehead State to justify jumping all the way up from the OVC, especially when more experienced mid-major coaches are out there.