Some interesting quotes here from TOS:
Things didn’t go smoothly for Vanderbilt basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse in his first season on West End, as the Commodores looked like a potential surprise in the SEC early before likely first-round pick Aaron Nesmithand starting center Clevon Brown both suffered season-ending injuries around the New Year. Even so, the team improved as the year went on and won three SEC games late in the campaign, starting to show some life.
Stackhouse hasn’t spoken publicly since the Commodores’ season-ending loss to Arkansas in the SEC Tournament first round on March 11, as in-person activities are limited by the spread of coronavirus. But he made an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the Coaching U podcast with former NBA staffer Brendan Suhr, who also served as LSU’s associate head coach from 2015 to 2017.
Over a 45-minute-plus interview, Stackhouse touched on many aspects of his coaching background, inspiration and his first season at Vanderbilt — as well as his decision to coach the Commodores in the first place, leaving his assistant coaching position with the Memphis Grizzlies to work for former athletic director Malcolm Turner.
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“The thing is, it happened so fast,” Stackhouse told Suhr. “I was really gearing up to probably go into the offseason thinking about interviewing with NBA teams only. I didn’t really think about college at all, honestly. Obviously, coming from North Carolina, that’s kind of in the back of your mind, always a dream job of going back home at some point. But other than that, it was just more about pro teams, because that’s the game that I know, the game that I’ve been around for the last 25, 26 years.
“... Malcolm reached out, and the next thing I know they come to Memphis, and things kind of escalated pretty quickly. I started reading up on Vanderbilt, reading up on the SEC. … I’m like, ‘This feels like my kind of place.’ A little boujee, but knows how to party. … The difference from being a head coach to an assistant is being able to make suggestions as opposed to making decisions, and I like to make decisions. I got an opportunity that I didn’t know what was gonna happen with the pro teams, but here I had something that was ready to go. My mom always said a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, so I think I really understood that when that situation came about.”
North Carolina coach Roy Williams is 69 years old but hasn’t publicly spoken of retiring in the near future. Stackhouse said he felt that he learned more about how to run a college program as the season went along, as scheduling and recruiting to a school with high academic standards posed challenges he didn’t deal with in the NBA.
Thus, he tried to put together a staff that had experience in those areas. Chief among those was director of scouting and recruiting Andy Fox, whom Stackhouse called one of the best hires he has made.
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“The thing I had to go and make sure again when I did my contract and everything that I had a salary pool to go out and get the staff that I wanted,” Stackhouse said. “I think that was important for me to go in and make hires that I knew what I didn’t know and try to find people that did. So I got some more roles and different jobs that weren’t in place to make sure we had enough people to service our players and help build a program. Obviously, there was some learning curve in there.”
When Turner fired former coach Bryce Drew, Yanni Wetzell and Matt Ryan entered the transfer portal and ultimately left the program. Wetzell landed at San Diego State, where he averaged 11.6 points per game and 6.7 rebounds, earning Second Team All-Mountain West honors and helping lead the Aztecs to a top-five ranking in both major polls. Ryan went to Chattanooga and was named Second Team All-SoCon after scoring 15.4 points per game.
Stackhouse isn’t losing sleep over that. He took advantage of the transfer market by bringing in DJ Harvey from Notre Dame, Quentin Millora-Brown from Rice and Issac McBride from Kansas, and he said he’s high on Harvey and Millora-Brown for next year. Stackhouse can’t comment on McBride until he signs with Vanderbilt, which McBride told Vandy247 he will do in May. Once signed, McBride will have to apply to the NCAA for a waiver to receive immediate eligibility.
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“We had some guys that jumped into the portal once they had the coaching change, so we lost guys from that,” Stackhouse said. “I didn’t rush to track them down, because it was like, ‘OK, first sign of adversity, these guys are gone. They’re not guys that are really wanting to be a part of what we’re trying to build anyway.’ It gives me an opportunity to go and get my own guys. Even though it’s late in the year, can we find a couple of folks that make some sense for us that are still seniors? Then tapping into the transfer market, and I thought we did really good there.”
Things didn’t go smoothly for Vanderbilt basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse in his first season on West End, as the Commodores looked like a potential surprise in the SEC early before likely first-round pick Aaron Nesmithand starting center Clevon Brown both suffered season-ending injuries around the New Year. Even so, the team improved as the year went on and won three SEC games late in the campaign, starting to show some life.
Stackhouse hasn’t spoken publicly since the Commodores’ season-ending loss to Arkansas in the SEC Tournament first round on March 11, as in-person activities are limited by the spread of coronavirus. But he made an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the Coaching U podcast with former NBA staffer Brendan Suhr, who also served as LSU’s associate head coach from 2015 to 2017.
Over a 45-minute-plus interview, Stackhouse touched on many aspects of his coaching background, inspiration and his first season at Vanderbilt — as well as his decision to coach the Commodores in the first place, leaving his assistant coaching position with the Memphis Grizzlies to work for former athletic director Malcolm Turner.
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Join Us And Take On Anything
We are a team of a million unique and powerful individuals. And we’ve got a job for you. What’s your warrior?
“The thing is, it happened so fast,” Stackhouse told Suhr. “I was really gearing up to probably go into the offseason thinking about interviewing with NBA teams only. I didn’t really think about college at all, honestly. Obviously, coming from North Carolina, that’s kind of in the back of your mind, always a dream job of going back home at some point. But other than that, it was just more about pro teams, because that’s the game that I know, the game that I’ve been around for the last 25, 26 years.
“... Malcolm reached out, and the next thing I know they come to Memphis, and things kind of escalated pretty quickly. I started reading up on Vanderbilt, reading up on the SEC. … I’m like, ‘This feels like my kind of place.’ A little boujee, but knows how to party. … The difference from being a head coach to an assistant is being able to make suggestions as opposed to making decisions, and I like to make decisions. I got an opportunity that I didn’t know what was gonna happen with the pro teams, but here I had something that was ready to go. My mom always said a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, so I think I really understood that when that situation came about.”
North Carolina coach Roy Williams is 69 years old but hasn’t publicly spoken of retiring in the near future. Stackhouse said he felt that he learned more about how to run a college program as the season went along, as scheduling and recruiting to a school with high academic standards posed challenges he didn’t deal with in the NBA.
Thus, he tried to put together a staff that had experience in those areas. Chief among those was director of scouting and recruiting Andy Fox, whom Stackhouse called one of the best hires he has made.
PAID CONTENT BY U.S. ARMY
Join Us And Take On Anything
We are a team of a million unique and powerful individuals. And we’ve got a job for you. What’s your warrior?
“The thing I had to go and make sure again when I did my contract and everything that I had a salary pool to go out and get the staff that I wanted,” Stackhouse said. “I think that was important for me to go in and make hires that I knew what I didn’t know and try to find people that did. So I got some more roles and different jobs that weren’t in place to make sure we had enough people to service our players and help build a program. Obviously, there was some learning curve in there.”
When Turner fired former coach Bryce Drew, Yanni Wetzell and Matt Ryan entered the transfer portal and ultimately left the program. Wetzell landed at San Diego State, where he averaged 11.6 points per game and 6.7 rebounds, earning Second Team All-Mountain West honors and helping lead the Aztecs to a top-five ranking in both major polls. Ryan went to Chattanooga and was named Second Team All-SoCon after scoring 15.4 points per game.
Stackhouse isn’t losing sleep over that. He took advantage of the transfer market by bringing in DJ Harvey from Notre Dame, Quentin Millora-Brown from Rice and Issac McBride from Kansas, and he said he’s high on Harvey and Millora-Brown for next year. Stackhouse can’t comment on McBride until he signs with Vanderbilt, which McBride told Vandy247 he will do in May. Once signed, McBride will have to apply to the NCAA for a waiver to receive immediate eligibility.
PAID CONTENT BY U.S. ARMY
Join Us And Take On Anything
We are a team of a million unique and powerful individuals. And we’ve got a job for you. What’s your warrior?
“We had some guys that jumped into the portal once they had the coaching change, so we lost guys from that,” Stackhouse said. “I didn’t rush to track them down, because it was like, ‘OK, first sign of adversity, these guys are gone. They’re not guys that are really wanting to be a part of what we’re trying to build anyway.’ It gives me an opportunity to go and get my own guys. Even though it’s late in the year, can we find a couple of folks that make some sense for us that are still seniors? Then tapping into the transfer market, and I thought we did really good there.”
