An eventful off-season so far in the SoCon

The season hasn’t been over a month and already there is plenty to talk about and the season hasn’t been over a month yet. The biggest story of the off-season thus far is the fact that for the second season in a row, ETSU will be making a change at head coach, as Jason Shay is out as head coach after one season on the job.  In fact, Shay was on the job just under 11 months. 

Shay, who was Steve Forbes’ right-hand man during his stint at ETSU, helped lead the Bucs to a 13-12 season and an 8-7 mark in the SoCon. He helped coach LeDarrius Brewer to All-SoCon honors, while redshirt freshman Damari Monsanto was selected as the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year.

Speculation has centered around the stance the ETSU players took regarding the national anthem, deciding to kneel during the anthem this past season, and that didn’t sit well with the republican state legislature. The alleged pressure of having funding cut due to Shay allowing his player’s to express their views and exercise their freedom of speech had consequences, and it ended up costing Shay his job.

ETSU knelt in road games in Florida to begin the season, as well as games at Alabama and did so in the early road Southern Conference clash at Furman. When Furman returned a week later for a conference game at Freedom Hall, no anthem was played prior to tip-off. The Bucs also knelt in a conference game at Chattanooga. By that time, the story surrounding the anthem--as well as the player's stance on the whole issue--started to become the hot topic of conversation among ETSU supporters.

The fallout continues, as Marcus Niblack, Damari Monsanto, Sadaidriene Hall and Truth Harris have already announced their intent to transfer out of the program. The Bucs have already had 6-9 center Ishmael Valdez de-commit from his national letter of intent. It will be interesting to see what the Bucs do in terms of a coaching hire. 

Shay’s resignation at ETSU wasn’t the only coaching transition that will have to be made during the off-season. It was announced earlier today by multiple sources that Mark Prosser will be taking the new job opening at Winthrop. 

During his three seasons as the Catamounts head coach, Prosser compiled a 37-53 record, including leading Western to an 11-win improvement last season as opposed to his first season in charge. The 19-win Catamounts were headed to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) before the 2019-20 college basketball season was shut down due to COVID-19. It will be interesting to see if there are any Catamounts follow Prosser to Rock Hill, or enter the transfer portal in general. The Eagles have already had some vacancies open up, with Charles Falden and Adonis Arms jumping into the transfer portal. 

Whoever takes over, the Catamounts will have to replace nearly the entire backcourt, as Mason has moved on, as well as Matt Halvorsen, who is set to continue his career at Florida Gulf-Coast as a grad transfer next year. Halvorsen leaves Cullowhee as the school's all-time three-point king. 

With Roy Williams having retired from coaching at North Carolina, serving 33 years total during his time as a head coach at both Kansas and North Carolina, it leaves the job open for someone fresh to take the reins. Since North Carolina likes to look within its family for coaching hires,  the natural progression would be to current UNC Greensboro head coach Wes Miller.

Miller has been on the job at UNCG ever since Dec. of 2011, when he took over as an interim head coach. After leading the Spartans to a nine-game winning streak and a North Division title, Miller was named SoCon Coach of the Year in the 2010-11 campaign. He was hired as the full-time head coach during the summer of 2012. As head coach at UNCG, Miller has posted a record of 184-134 at the helm of UNCG. 

Miller, of course, served as an outstanding shooter for Roy Williams for three seasons at North Carolina, which included shooting 44.1% from three as a senior, including connecting on 64 triples in a season, which saw the Tar Heels win a national title in 2005. Miller is one of the favorites to be named the next North Carolina head basketball coach. 

Possible Candidates at ETSU and Western Carolina?

Despite the turmoil currently going on at ETSU, the job is still among the best in mid-major basketball, although dealing with the fallout created by this rift between the school, player’s and state legislature will be a bit of a mess to navigate right off the bat. 

With the roster expected to be decimated with players fleeing to the transfer portal, the new coach is going to have to hit the recruiting trail sprinting. Fortunately, inroads have been made by the two previous coaches via the JUCO avenue of recruiting, however, it’s unclear how much, if any, those routes have been damaged by the situation with ETSU and how it handled Shay, and him siding with the player’s decision to kneel during the national anthem.

That said, there are several coaches within the SoCon footprint worthy of mention. One of those is UNC Asheville head coach Mike Morrell. Like Prosser did last season, Morrell led the Bulldogs to an 11-win improvement, as Asheville finished the campaign with a 15-16 record, and were picked to finish second behind Winthrop heading into the 2020-21 season. Morrell has posted a 29-53 record during his career at Asheville.

Other candidates that could be considered for the job opening at East Tennessee State are current Kentucky assistant Joel Justus, who was a candidate the first time around, as well as Kellen Sampson, who is currently an assistant on the staff at Final Four bound Houston.  That natural progression for ETSU might be to look to Steve Forbes’ current staff at Wake Forest, which includes former Bucs assistants B.J. McKie and Brooks Savage.  

Another in-state option that could be appealing to the Bucs is Tennessee State's Penny Collins.

Meanwhile, Western Carolina could look to some outstanding candidates within its own conference. While Morrell could be in play, given Director of Athletics Alex Gary’s connections to VCU, where Morrell was an assistant under Shaka Smart and Mike Rhoads. A current SoCon assistant that would seem a natural progression for Gary given the VCU tie might be current Wofford assistant Dwight Perry. 

Like Morrell, Perry served as an assistant at VCU for three seasons, first as a grad assistant, then as the video coordinator, as he was part of what was Shaka Smart’s staff for two seasons, and Mike Rhoads’ staff for a season before eventually moving on to Furman as an assistant coach from 2014-19. 

Other candidates that could be in play within the SoCon include Mercer assistant Bobby Kummer, as well as Furman assistants Tim Johnson or Jimmie Williams. Gary perhaps UNC Wilmington assistant Monty Sanders, who helped develop former WCU big man Carlos Dotson into an all-league player prior to taking a job as an assistant at UNC Wilmington last year. 

Others that could be considered could come from within the WCU family, including former assistant and current head coach at Freedom Christian Academy, Anquell McCollum, as well as current assistant coach Brigham Waginger.  I’ll even throw in an excellent candidate who I think should have been considered previously, in Jason Shay. It will be interesting to see if that name gains any traction in Cullowhee. 

Transfer Portal

Some quality player’s have already made their way into the transfer portal out of the Southern Conference, with the three most notable player’s being VMI’s Greg Parham, Wofford’s Storm Murphy and Furman’s Noah Gurley highlight those player’s that have made an early decision to depart from their respective SoCon school’s.  Wofford’s Tray Hollowell has also entered the portal, however, he has not announced his destination as of yet.

Samford has already seen another mass exodus to the portal, which includes talented guard Myron Gordon, as well as forwards Christian Guess and Jalen Dupree.  Forward Jermaine Marshall has announced he will be transferring from Samford to Akron. 

Both Murphy and Parham have made their decisions on where they will end up, as Murphy is set to join former head coach Mike Young at Virginia Tech, while Parham has decided to make his new home in Mobile, AL, as a member of the South Alabama basketball program.

Gurley, on the other hand, was a somewhat unexpected addition to the portal, and has power five aspirations. After announcing on Sunday evening, Gurley has already heard from Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Tulsa, UAB, Marquette, Auburn and Arkansas just to name a few. Gurley finished the season averaging 15.4 PPG and 5.8 RPG. Gurley was a SoCon First Team All-Tournament selection, and was also a third-team All-SoCon pick. 

He scored 1,118 points in his Paladin career, and shot 40.7% from three-point land as a junior. While he could still return to Furman, it’s more likely he will end up utilizing what so many others have—the transfer portal. Gurley likely would have been the SoCon’s top NBA prospect heading into the 2021-22 season. 

After seeing only limited playing time at Chattanooga this past season, former West Virginia guard Trey Doomes has opted to enter the transfer portal for a second time in his career. 

The latest additions to the portal was Mercer shooting guard Leon Ayers III, as well as forward Andrew Thomas. One of the few player’s that has announced his intention to transfer into a Southern Conference program is shooting guard John Newman III, who is set to transfer into the UNC Greensboro basketball program from Clemson.