SMU should call Gillispie to rescue dormant basketball program
12:49 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 1, 2009
We all know SMU is among the most irrelevant programs in college basketball.
SMU hasn't participated in March Madness since 1993. Or the NIT since 2000.
The program doesn't have to remain irrelevant.
Steve Orsini, SMU's athletic director, could pick up his cellphone and place a call to recently defrocked Billy Gillispie and ask him to spend a couple of years turning around this dormant program.
Yes, the same Billy Clyde who was recently spotted on YouTube sprinting away from a Lexington TV crew to avoid discussing his job security at Kentucky. Since then, he's been fired.
Memphis coach John Calipari has reportedly accepted an eight-year, $35 million deal from Kentucky.
No, Billy Clyde isn't perfect. He probably wouldn't even accept the job because it's beneath him. But SMU had a brief dalliance with Billy Clyde before he accepted the Texas A&M job.
The Mustangs didn't get him then. Maybe they can get him now.
Obviously, it's a long shot. But it's worth making the phone call.
Billy Clyde, who's Texas bred, has always had success in his home state. He turned around programs at UT-El Paso and Texas A&M.
We all know he didn't win enough at Kentucky, which is why anyone with an ounce of knowledge about college basketball figured he would get fired after the Wildcats had to accept an NIT bid.
You do realize that Mayor Tom Leppert would give him the key to the city for doing that at SMU.
But it's unacceptable at Kentucky, a place steeped in tradition, which has won seven national championships and more games than any other program.
It's supposed to be a national power.
Every year.
When it's not, the coach gets fired.
You can't judge a man for his failures at Kentucky, where the expectations are obscenely high, and nothing short of a national championship satisfies the fans.
Aside from doing a wonderful job of working boosters and connecting with the program's few fans, Matt Doherty has done little to improve the basketball program in his three seasons at SMU.
Actually, the Mustangs have regressed.
SMU went 9-21 this season. It was 10-20 year before and 14-17 in Doherty's first year, following an 11-3 start.
Along the way, there have been losses to basketball powerhouses such as Alabama State and some school called USC Upstate.
It wasn't supposed to be that way when Orsini hired the former North Carolina Tar Heel, who was national coach of the year at his alma mater in 2001.
Doherty was supposed to be the splashy hire who made SMU relevant again. The big-money boosters have done their part, building a practice facility so nice the Mavericks used it for training camp. SMU also has a scoreboard with all the bells and whistles.
Still, the Mustangs remain irrelevant.
It shouldn't be that hard – even at SMU.
In basketball, one player can make a difference and get a program turned in the right direction.
Doherty, who is supposed to be a fantastic recruiter, hasn't signed any of those kinds of players; Billy Clyde could.
He's done it everywhere he's been.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area has become a basketball Mecca. We produce NBA first-round draft picks seemingly every year. Most hail from DISD schools.
But SMU hasn't signed a player of note from DISD since Lincoln's Bryan Hopkins stepped on campus several years ago.
Maybe, it's cultural.
University Park and the Park Cities are only 10 minutes away from downtown Dallas but a world away from Oak Cliff.
Maybe, it's a lack of effort.
Perhaps, Doherty hasn't found a way to bond with the AAU coaches or high school coaches to convince them that their kids can succeed at SMU.
Orsini has consistently said he wants to be a Top-25 caliber program in every sport.
Billy Clyde could help him do it.
Now, the powers-that-be at SMU would probably say a loose cannon like Billy Clyde would never fit in at the staid, conservative campus.
Maybe, he wouldn't. It's worth a phone call to find out.