2019 College Basketball Coaching Carousel

And we are thrilled, a few cranks who want to bring back Pitino notwithstanding. We always wondered would happen if somebody tried to money-whip him.

 

Can anybody name an NBA star who was handed a college head coaching job with no previous college coaching experience and succeeded long term?

Failures:
Chris Mullin
Avery Johnson
Clyde Drexler
Isiah Thomas

Time will tell
Penny Hardaway
Patrick Ewing

I must be overlooking someone.

 

Dan Majerle is 123-72?

I mean, here's the thing, most coaches fail. Most first-time college coaches really fail. Longterm success is a rarity. NBA stars are going to start late, have the resources to back out if needed.

 

Forgot re Majerle. Good call.

 

Terry Porter is struggling at Portland. Damon Stoudemire spent some time as a UA assistant before getting the Pacific gig.

 

Mullin seemed to have things going in the right direction. It took a while to get there, but St. John’s was in a really bad place.

 

I don't think that Sidney Lowe qualifies as an "NBA star," but he played in the league and was given a college head coaching job without having coached at the college level. He failed spectacularly.

 

From what I hear, Matta still isn't healthy enough to get back in the game. Sad. He's a phenomenal coach.

 

And much as Juwan Howard would be, he was hired exclusively and entirely because he was one of them, a Wolfpack guy. ("A Michigan Man will coach Michigan," etc.)
Yes, Lowe should definitely be on the list. What these guys have in common -- aside from their utter of lack of qualifications for a job that is heavy on recruiting -- is their financial security. They don't need the gig and don't need to succeed in it in order to be beloved by a large group of fans somewhere.

 

Sidney Moncrief went 4-24 in his one season at Arkansas-Little Rock. The story goes that in the midst of what would be a 16-game losing streak, they played at Denver. The rest of the team returned to Little Rock, and Moncrief and his family stayed in Colorado to go skiing.

 

IIRC- Didn't Stoudemire have 2 AC stints at Memphis (NCAA)?

 

I don't know why I didn't think about him earlier, but Fred Hoiberg.