By Ronak Patel
Sean Woods didn’t mince words at his introductory press conference in mid May when he was unveiled as the 13th men’s basketball head coach in Morehead State University basketball history.
He wants to make the Eagles “the Gonzaga of the South.”
To that end, Woods, the acclaimed member of the “Unforgettables” 1992 Kentucky East Regional final team, takes over a program that has achieved tremendous success under previous head man Donnie Tyndall, who accepted the Southern Mississippi job in late April.
Tyndall, who played for the Eagles from 1990-93, led the program to the NCAA Tournament twice in his six years at the helm. The most recent appearance took place in 2011 where Morehead State, who competes in the Ohio Valley Conference, defeated Louisville in the second round behind current Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried.
It was the program’s first NCAA Tourney win since 1984.
Woods, who was a tenacious guard for the Wildcats and hit the amazing running bank shot that served as a prelude Laettner’s miracle turnaround in the famed Duke-Kentucky 1992 NCAA Tourney game, accepts the challenge wholeheartedly of replacing Tyndall.
“I don’t know about living up to expectations but he did a heck of a job,” Woods said of replacing Tyndall. “Tyndall did a great job of getting the program to where they are at currently, and we have to continue it in the right direction.”
Woods knows a thing or two about building up a program. Prior to Morehead, he was a first-time college head coach at Mississippi Valley State. In four short years, he took a program that won seven games his first year to a 21-13 overall record this past year, including an impressive 17-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference mark.
He went 50-44 overall in his time at MVSU. Woods was awarded the Ben Jobe Award, which honors the top minority coach in NCAA Division I men’s college basketball.
“The change was right on time,” Woods said of his move from MVSU to Morehead.
Woods continued, “I’m trying to feel out the lay of the land.”
The Eagles went 18-14 last year and 10-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Despite losing guards Terrance Hill (13.3 points a game) and Ty Proffitt (9.9 points); the Eagles return several key contributors from last year’s team.
They include rising redshirt junior forward Drew Kelly (10.2 points, 4.8 rebounds), senior forward Milton Chavis (7.9 points, 4.2 rebounds) and promising sophomore swingman Angelo Warner (6.0 points).
Kelly was out for the summer because of shoulder surgery, but according to Woods, he’ll be ready when the season starts.
Woods inked four new players: 6-foot-2 guard Taariq Muhammed out of Centennial High School (Atlanta, Ga.); 6-11 junior center Chad Posthumus from Howard Community College (Texas) by way of Canada; 6-foot-1 combo guard Cordell James via McCallie Prep School (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Jourdan Stickler, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard out of Annapolis High School (Annapolis, Md.).
“We’re here to sell the history that was just created at Morehead,” Woods said of his recruiting vision. “More importantly, we’re here to show prospective recruits you can be successful at Morehead State as you can be anywhere else.”
In college basketball, there are many dynamics when a coach takes over a new program. There is an undertaking of what is suitable: do you cater your system towards the players on the roster or have the roster adjust to the system you’re bringing in?
Woods believes it’s a delicate balancing act where the pendulum will not swing heavily in either direction.
“You have to do a little bit of both,” Woods said of meshing system to player and player to system. “You want to give a crash course; you take what you do well and the roster you inherit and try to find a common bond.”
Woods continued, “You still have to win games but you can’t come in and blow it up because they are not use to your system.”
He will take what he’s learned from his time at MVSU and his previous coaching stops – they include assistant jobs at TCU (2006-08), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2005-06) and High Point(2003-05) – along with the tutelage he received as a player from coaching luminaries like Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan.
“You take all of the experiences — as a player working underneath the hall of fame coaching staff to the time spent as an assistant working with big time coaches,” Woods said. “You take what you learn from them and put it into your own deal.”
A big inspiration to him was the late Neil Dougherty, who was TCU’s coach when Woods was an assistant there.
“I learned patience from him, always sticking to your guns and believing in the system you run,” Woods said of Dougherty.
It’s no secret Woods loves to have his teams get up and down the court and what he coins as “organized chaos.”
He’s had a busy first few months on the job. On top of having his family move to the Morehead area – Woods is married with two kids – he’s done interviews, spoke at alumni gatherings and interacted with many fans.
Through it all, Woods has remained the same.
“It’s been a great journey,” Woods said. “I would not trade my journey for the world.”
Prior to his coaching career, Woods worked at a television station but he also ran a camp that included now former NBA players Tony Delk and Walter McCarty.
Basketball never left his blood; so he turned to coaching full-time.
“I started from the bottom on up,” Woods said. “Basketball is who I am; I feel I’m just as good as anybody else at it.”
Leave a Reply