Here's a decent profile of Matt Doherty, who just finished his first year coaching basketball at Southern Methodist University after a spectacular fall from grace at UNC. This was just a so-so season for the Ponies, but the future sounds far brighter.
Back into coaching and a year removed from a stint at something called Florida Atlantic, Doherty is like Pavarotti playing McFarland Auditorium. From the Petit Palace, somehow to midtown Dallas.Posted by Alan at March 8, 2007 06:07 PMHe finds himself with a five-year, $400,000-a-year deal commanding a program that hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since '93, fired its former coach for giving players unauthorized laundry detergent and burgers and has—dwarfed amongst giants such as Doak Walker, Eric Dickerson and Payne Stewart—a short, sheepish hoops history anchored by the extremely forgettable Jon Koncak.
"We'd like to be Dallas' university, but with only 3,500 fans at games we know we can't say that yet," says SMU athletic director Steve Orsini. "We're carving out our niche. We've got the right building coming up and, with Matt, we've got the right leader in place."