Ex-UNC Head Coach Matt Doherty’s arrival in Dallas as Head Coach at SMU promises to erase some ghosts of the program’s past and will help bring the Mustangs a national profile.

1987 was a terrible year for SMU Athletics. Not only did the school’s football team get sentenced with the “death penalty”, SMU’s basketball program, which was rightfully ecstatic about the impending arrival of local product Larry Johnson, were to find out the devastating news that LJ couldn’t qualify academically. Johnson went on to junior college in Odessa and eventual stardom with UNLV, the NBA, and as a crossdresser in his famous Converse ads. SMU’s basketball program took an opposite path, fielding some competitive teams but never really mattering on a national level.

The announcement this spring of Doherty’s hiring was the first real step in bringing the program forward. Doherty’s influence and impact has been immediate, shifting the program from a Continue Reading »
Reason #99 To Be Excited about the ‘06-’07 Season: Matt Doherty’s Exorcising the Ghost of Grandmama in Bringing National Relevance to SMU