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

Mitch Henderson

Success as a collegiate head coach will likely be a prerequisite this time around for the Commodores, who didn’t see much success during Stackhouse’s first run at the college level. Not only does Henderson fit the bill for success, but he’s a decent geographic match who’s had coaching success at an institution that places high value on education.

Originally from Indiana, Henderson starred at Princeton in the 90’s before beginning his coaching career under his former coach Bill Carmody at Northwestern. He spent eleven years living and working around Chicago with the Wildcats before returning to his alma mater as head coach in 2011. The Tigers had some decent years early on, but his breakthrough success came last season, taking Princeton to the Sweet Sixteen as a 15-seed in a marvelous run.

That marvelous run was the exclamation point for Henderson, though it remains to be seen how interested he is on leaving his alma mater. Princeton has seen a number of coaches come and go, but Henderson has stayed thirteen years. Vanderbilt would be a significant upgrade from Ivy League to SEC and it’s fair to wonder how he’d handle that challenge. That being said, Henderson knows what he’s doing and spent over a decade coaching in the Big Ten.