Hiring the Right Coach: Part 4-The Assistant

Since the end of the 2010 season, 16 job openings have been filled by assistant coaches. We can break these down into two types, the promotion from within and the hire off another staff.

Promoted From Within

Ten coaches have been promoted from within, either replacing fired coaches or coaches that left or retired.

Of the 10, we can eliminate Brandon Miller of Butler who left after 1 season. An argument can be made he was a success since he brought Chris Holtmann aboard from a head spot at Gardner-Webb but his one season can’t be quantified.

The failure include James Johnson who replaced Seth Greenberg at Virginia Tech, Wyking Jones who replaced Cuonzo Martin at Cal and Kevin Ollie at UConn. Ollie won a national title with largely Jim Calhoun players and didn’t do anything afterwards and would eventually be fired with cause and be given a show-cause. UConn has not been the same program it was when he took over, national title and all.

I’m not sure where Mike Boynton of Oklahoma State and Tim Jankovich of SMU fall at the moment. Both programs are having decent seasons. Jankovich had a great team in 2016-17 but regressed mightily prior to this season

We can classify Greg Gard as a success along with Chris Holtmann at Butler. I believe we have to wait and see with regards to Aaron McKie at Temple and Travis Steele at Xavier.

Hired From Outside

Of these 6, 2 were abject failures. Ricky Ray hired from Clemson to take over Mississippi State did not work out for either party. Orlando Antigua was a train wreck at South Florida coming over from Kentucky.

3 of the hires were long-term assistants for coaching legends. Chris Collins and Steve Wojociehowski left Duke for Northwestern and Marquette. Mike Hopkins left Syracuse for Washington. None of them would be considered the heir apparents anymore from where they left. Each has had some middling success but all 3 sit on the hot seat.

Finally, Danny Manning was hired at Tulsa off the Kansas bench. He would make one tournament and bolt for Wake Forest where he would be unceremoniously fired.

Of all the names mentioned, Kevin Ollie is the only one with a Final 4 and his tenure ended with a show cause and probation. The best of the lot is Greg Gard, a coach who was doing a lot of heavy lifting well before he got promoted. Interestingly enough, there was enough scuttlebutt to suggest King Barry didn’t want to hire him.

Butler and Xavier followed a model that has worked for decades. The problem is, they haven’t found their Mark Few to stay in place. Breeding great coaches is awesome. Losing them every few years isn’t.

I think an argument can be made, if it’s not from within, hiring an assistant without any head coaching expereince is a risky proposition.