Matt Doherty (basketball)

Matt Doherty (born February 25, 1962) is the head men's basketball coach at Southern Methodist University. Doherty accepted the job in April 2006 after a year as head coach at Florida Atlantic University. He is best known for his tumultous three-year stint as the head basketball coach at North Carolina from 2000 to 2003.

Playing career

Doherty played high school basketball in his native Long Island before being recruited to North Carolina by legendary coach Dean Smith in 1980. Doherty was a four-year starter for North Carolina, and in those four seasons the Tar Heels amassed a record of 117 wins and 21 losses and won the NCAA National Championship in 1982.

Doherty was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the sixth round, with the 119th overall pick, of the 1984 NBA Draft. Doherty did not last very long in the NBA. After leaving the NBA, Doherty worked on Wall Street for several years.

Assistant coaching career

In 1989 Doherty was hired as an assistant basketball coach at Davidson College by head coach Bob McKillop, who coached Doherty at Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville, New York. In 1992 Doherty moved to the University of Kansas as an assistant coach under Roy Williams, who had been an assistant to Dean Smith during Doherty's years at North Carolina.

Notre Dame

In 1999 Doherty was hired as the head coach at the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish had struggled ever since Digger Phelps retired in 1991, but in Doherty's only season as their coach they posted a 22-15 record and advanced to the finals of the NIT.

North Carolina

North Carolina head coach Bill Guthridge retired in 2000 and it was commonly believed that the job would go to another member of the "Carolina Family" of coaches. The school very publicly courted Roy Williams, who had left North Carolina for Kansas in 1988, but Williams refused the job. After other candidates such as George Karl, Larry Brown, and Eddie Fogler (all North Carolina alumni) refused the job or did not pan out for various reasons, North Carolina turned to the 38-year-old Doherty to lead the Tar Heels.

Doherty's first season was largely a success as the Heels shot to the #1 ranking in the polls in the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule. Fans and players alike seemed energized by his boisterous and in-your-face coaching style, which seemed refreshing when compared to the notoriously low-key Smith and Guthridge. (In fact, Doherty received a standing ovation when he was hit with a technical foul in the team's first game of the season.) However, a string of unexpected losses in the latter part of the year set the Tar Heels reeling and even though they finished with an impressive 26-7 record, they made an early exit out of the NCAA Tournament with a second-round upset loss to Penn State. Doherty was named as national coach of the year by the Associated Press.

The 2001-02 season would not be nearly as enjoyable for Doherty and the Tar Heels as the loss of the previous year's seniors, combined with a roster full of untested freshmen, proved disastrous. The Tar Heels finished the season with a record of 8-20, missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1975 and finishing with a losing record for the first time since 1962 (Dean Smith's first year as coach). The season also saw the end of UNC's run of 30 straight 20-win seasons and 35 straight seasons of finishing third or higher in the ACC.

In 2002-2003 the Tar Heels rebounded but still fell short of what North Carolina fans had come to expect, finishing 19-16 and earning a berth in the NIT. The team started extremely well, winning the preseason NIT with decisive victories over Kansas and Stanford, but an early, season-ending injury to Sean May hurt the team. Throughout the year many players (particularly Sean May) and other program insiders had publicly voiced their displeasure with Doherty, and fans began to call for Doherty's firing.

According to Blue Blood by Art Chansky (a longtime historian on the UNC program), Doherty was told on March 31 that he would not be allowed to return due to an irreparable rift with his players. Given the option of resigning or being fired, he resigned the next day.

According to Chansky, the seeds for Doherty's downfall were planted by decisions made soon after being named as coach. He announced that he would bring his entire staff from Notre Dame, leaving assistant coaches Phil Ford, Pat Sullivan and Dave Hanners out of jobs. He also forced out several longtime secretaries in the basketball office. In his first address to the team, he stated that he felt they hadn't done enough--something which jarred a group that had managed to make a Cinderella run to the Final Four in the previous season. The day after the resignation, Inside Carolina's Thad Williamson reported that UNC officials were very concerned about the lack of a respectful environment in the program. Three scholarship players had transferred, and several more were threatening to leave if Doherty had been allowed to stay on. Doherty had reportedly been given a year to make things more harmonious if he wanted to keep his job. [1] According to Chansky, apparently this didn't happen, as only two players supported Doherty's return for the 2003-04 season.

A commonly held (but unproven) theory portrays Doherty as being forced out by athletic officials at UNC in order to make way for Williams, who was tapped to replace Doherty. Doherty said as much during an ESPN interview shortly after his resignation. Finally in 2006, with many years separation from his supposed resignation, Doherty no longer spoke positively about his time at UNC and admitted he felt he was pushed out of his job. Williams refused to talk negatively about his former assistant coach Doherty. Although Williams would later admit that he felt the 8-20 season was a disgrace, he would never specifically mention Doherty's name. After taking the job, Williams publicly voiced strong criticism in various interviews of what he viewed as the heavy-handed manner the UNC Administration had handled Doherty's dismissal, especially the press conference held by Chancellor James Moeser and Athletic Director Dick Baddour. In an interview with Woody Durham he even said that the events almost made him decline the position a second time.

After North Carolina

Doherty kept a low profile immediately following his resignation from North Carolina. He served as a college basketball analyst on such outlets as ESPN and C-SET over the next two seasons and also covered a few Big 12 games on the Big 12 branch of ESPN-Plus. On April 18, 2005, he was named as the new head basketball coach at Florida Atlantic University. In Doherty's inaugural year there, FAU compiled its best-ever conference record (14-6) and only its third season winning record in school history. After a year at Florida Atlantic University, Doherty accepted an offer to coach Southern Methodist University on April 23, 2006; this will be Doherty's fourth stop in his coaching career.

On November 27, 2006, Coach Doherty was initiated into the Beta Zeta Chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

Record as Head Coach

Season	School	Overall Record	Conference Record	Postseason
1999-2000	Notre Dame	22-15	8-8	NIT Finals
2000-01	North Carolina	26-7	13-3	NCAA Second Round
2001-02	North Carolina	8-20	4-12	-
2002-03	North Carolina	19-16	6-10	NIT Quarterfinals
2005-06	Florida Atlantic	15-13	14-6	-
2006-07	Southern Methodist	In progress	In progress	??
All seasons		90-71	45-39

[2] Also played Les Averman in d2 Mighty Ducks and d3 Mighty Ducks

External links

• Stewart Mandel, From Tobacco Road to Boca: Matt Doherty has made most of second chance at FAU, Sports Illustrated.

• CBS article on Doherty at SMU

• FAU Season Review, [3]

• Matt Doherty's blog at SMU