Stackhouse, Howard couldn’t pass college test
Former NBA players have been jumping into college coaching for decades, but two notable names were fired this past week. Michigan removed Juwan Howard after five years, two NCAA Tournament appearances, and one NIT appearance. But the program had declined considerably and the Wolverines finished 8-24 this season.
In Nashville, Jerry Stackhouse was fired after five years at Vanderbilt, including a 9-23 record this season. Stackhouse was an NBA assistant before taking the Vanderbilt job, one of the more difficult in a Power Five conference. He took the Commodores to the NIT last season and coached NBA players such as Aaron Nesmith and Scotty Pippen Jr., but he could never lift the program into competing with the likes of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
Stackhouse, 49, appeared to be a man defeated Wednesday after his team’s 90-85 overtime loss to Arkansas in the first round of the SEC Tournament. He came to the SEC as an All-Star NBA player and decorated college star at North Carolina. Perhaps 10 years ago, that résumé would have worked wonders in recruiting. But not with NIL. Big names mean less and big money means more.
“There’s a lot that goes into college basketball. Changing landscape,” Stackhouse said after the loss. “The approach to college basketball has changed a lot from the time that we started. When we first started here, we thought that just getting on par with the other schools, having the facilities and things like that, would help. Now that’s not enough.
“Used to be where you could go, you make all the calls, you go show kids as much interest as you can, do all those type things. Now you’ve got to reach out to their agents. You know what I’m saying? That’s where it is in order to really get in the door.”
College basketball is no longer about whether you can send a prospect to the NBA but how much he’ll be paid while he’s in college. As long as some players are being paid handsomely in college, they’ll stay, regardless of how many AllStar Games their coach has played.
“NIL, that’s a big part of it,” Stackhouse said. “You have to be a player in that. Quite frankly, we hadn’t been a big player in that yet. So those are the things that have to become a part of it. I love the way we built it, though. I feel like we’re going to be ahead of the game. Vanderbilt is going to be ahead of the game because we’re doing it with the right kids. We built it with freshmen. We built it with development. That’s how we’ll continue to do it.
“If I’m not here, I would hope that they would be because it’s about this university, it’s about getting a first-class, world-class education. I would never hope that anybody had what I had coming in here with a pretty bare cupboard, having to try to go out and find this, that, and the other.
“I just think this is a great nucleus of young guys that has a really bright future. When things kind of balance out, when the dust settles from the COVID years, the NIL, it’s going to come back to high school kids. Nobody’s talking about high school kids right now. Everybody wants to get older.”
The NBA Draft has changed considerably because of NIL. The money has encouraged prospects to stay in school unless they are lottery picks or want to make the leap and perhaps play a season in the G League. NIL has made the transfer portal a college version of free agency, where players will quickly transfer for better financial packages.
“Once the dust settles on that, the teams that decided to still invest in younger guys, invest in development, will be the ones that win out,” Stackhouse said. “I love my job. I love coaching. I love teaching kids. I love the basketball part of it. I think early on, we all have some mess-ups. I probably messed up a little bit early on.”
Stackhouse was no-nonsense as a player and as a coach, and he said perhaps he was more intimidating than he expected. Like his counterpart Mike Woodson at Indiana, Stackhouse carried the pre-pandemic NBA style of wearing suits on the sideline. In today’s more casual society, does that make him less approachable and more imposing? He had to ponder that question.
“They don’t really know the context of why I wear these suits,” Stackhouse explained. “I wear these suits because going of to church on Easter Sunday. If you’ve done that, you know that. My mama used to try to put suits on layaway for us to go to church. One time she didn’t have the money to get that suit off of layaway. I saw that disappointment in her. So that’s why I wear these suits, because of my mama.
“For the time she couldn’t see me in that suit she had on layaway, she’s going to see me in a suit every day. She turned 95 [Tuesday]. She can barely see. But when she looks up at the TV, she’s going to see me in a suit.”
There have been plenty of college coaches who came from the NBA and plenty of those who eventually were fired. NBA playing experience is no longer a recruiting tool, or even an asset.
“I think it was just some type of bias from guys that come from the NBA,” Stackhouse said. “That’s always been a little bit of noise there. I just think if you really get to know me, you understand who I am.
“Because I had a career before I got to Vanderbilt, a lot of people, that’s all that they saw. They didn’t really take a chance to get to know me. Maybe that’s where the disconnect was with some fans. But, for me, the basketball has always been the solace, what I love to do, what I love to teach.”
The undeniable fact is regardless of the circumstances and the money and the transfer portal, the ultimate goal is the NCAA Tournament. If a former
NBA player can get you there, he’s got the job. If a junior college coach can, he or she will get that opportunity. NBA pedigree matters little, and Stackhouse said he realized that.
“I know the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate goal, right?” he said. “We haven’t done that. I haven’t done that. No matter what, those results are those results. We got close last year. Probably the same people that sit here and say that we never made the tournament in five years, those are the same people that were raising hell because they thought we were snubbed last year. That’s part of the battle you deal with. That’s part of being with coaching.
“I just think being here, it’s been a great experience. I’m so thankful for this opportunity. I came in here with an opportunity to grow. I’ve never been a head coach other than in the G League. I’ve never been a college coach before. I had an opportunity to come in here and grow with some people.”
Stackhouse would be a strong candidate to join an NBA staff and perhaps become a head coach. Or he could apply for perhaps lesser college jobs and rebuild his reputation. College basketball has turned treacherous for coaches, even those with household names.
“Nothing is going to change with me,” Stackhouse said. “I’ve had a job since I was 9 years old, you know what I’m saying? I used to go to work with my daddy cutting trees, bricklaying. I’m a worker. I had a work permit when I was 14 so I could work early. A job ain’t never been my problem. I’m thankful for this one. I’m going to be thankful for every moment that I’ve been here and use all of the experiences that I’ve had, all the great people I’ve worked with, to try to help me in whatever situation I am going forward.”