Note: This story was originally published on ClutchPoints.
New Vanderbilt basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse wasn’t going to take just any job.
The former North Carolina star played in the NBA for many years and then transitioned into the world of coaching. It was a seamless transition, as he led Raptors 905 to an NBA D-League (now G-League) title during the 2016-17 season. He would land with the Memphis Grizzlies as an assistant for the 2018-19 campaign, and everyone figured the next move for Stackhouse would be the big one – becoming an NBA head coach.
Instead, he became the SEC’s most surprising hire this offseason. Not because he didn’t have the pedigree to get the job, but because everyone assumed that staying in the NBA was his goal.
However, when new Vanderbilt athletic director Malcolm Turner made the offer, Stackhouse couldn’t say no.
“I don’t think there were a lot of situations I would’ve come back to college for,” Stackhouse said at SEC Media Day in Birmingham on Wednesday. “This was the perfect situation. It’s always about relationships and the fact that I had a great relationship with the new AD. He watched me work, I watched him work. I watched how he grew the business of basketball for the G-League and the impact he had with the NBA and helping the NBA become a global game.”
“And again, it’s him seeing me work first-hand – being able to take a team from scratch and being able to win a championship and find a way with a different cast of characters to get to the Finals again. When he came calling, it hard was hard to turn down.”
The head coaching role is where Stackhouse is most comfortable. It allows him the opportunity to teach the game and get back to what he loves doing. He’s in charge of the ideas, and he welcomes the challenge of figuring out which ones will work and which ones won’t.
To do that, he draws on the plethora of knowledge that he’s acquired both as a player and a coach. The late Dean Smith certainly played a big role in molding Stackhouse’s philosophy, and he continues to use his learning experience with the Tar Heels as a foundation for his approach as a coach.
“Most of my influence came from playing years,” he said. “It’s just being able to have an understanding of what works and what wins. I’ve been on bad teams, and I’ve been on good teams. I’ve been able to kind of decipher the qualities of each and wrap that up into a formula of how I want to approach it and how I want to teach.”
Stackhouse’s system will feature some of the same qualities that made North Carolina successful during the Smith era in Chapel Hill. But there’s one word in particular that will carry the most weight: defense.
“We’re a defensive team,” Stackhouse says. “That’s who we’ll be. The teams that I’ve been on that I’ve had the most success with as a player and as a coach were teams that made it tough on other teams defensively.”
On offense, the Commodores won’t run up and down the floor just to run up and down the floor. There will be a disciplined approach to what they do on that side of the court, and again, it goes back to the proven elements that has made Stackhouse a winner throughout his career.
“If we get stops and rebounds, we want to try to get out in transition and get easy opportunities,” he said. “We want to try to win the free-throw game. We want to try to win the offensive rebounding game. Those are the things that I learned from Coach Smith – try to have more possessions, low turnovers, try to turn the other team over, get to the free-throw line, pound them on the boards the best we can. I think that’s our identity.”
Stackhouse’s biggest challenge won’t be figuring out the best offensive set. His biggest challenge will be changing the mindset for a team that’s coming off of one of the worst seasons in SEC history.
Vanderbilt lost all 19 of its conference games last season, and ultimately, it led to Turner making a coaching change and calling on a new regime to try to fix what was broken.
The fix won’t be easy, and that type of season isn’t one that’s easily forgotten. But you won’t find that being a topic of discussion among the current staff, even if it’s something the players undoubtedly still think about.
“We’re not thinking about last year,” Stackhouse said. “We’re focusing on what we need to do. Of course, it’s still there for them. It’s a sting of what happened to them. As the season comes closer, that noise is gonna get a little bit louder with what happened last year. But we just take motivation from a lot of different things – last year and kind of how people are perceiving us this year without really taking a look at who they are and how they’re working.”
This season’s roster lacks experience, but it does feature some quality talent for Stackhouse and company to work with. Saben Lee and Aaron Nesmith both averaged double figures a season ago, and they’ll be relied upon to provide consistent scoring. Players like Max Evans, Clevon Brown, and Matthew Moyer should expand their roles even further.
And then there’s the group of newcomers, who have really impressed Stackhouse thus far.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised with our young group,” he said. “These guys are gonna be a pleasant surprise to a lot of people.”
With only one senior on the roster, making significant strides this season could prove to be a challenge. However, after enduring a winless conference season, there is nowhere to go but up.
To move the program forward, Stackhouse understands the need to recruit well in one of the most competitive conferences in the country. The SEC coaching roster has never been better, and that has resulted in the league having a ton of success on the recruiting trail. With 12 of the 14 teams (including Vanderbilt) posting top 50 classes for 2019, that success is obvious.
But Stackhouse also understands the challenges of recruiting to Vanderbilt. It’s a unique job with a unique set of circumstances.
Of course, that’s not going to stop someone like him who thrives on competing at the highest level no matter the situation.
“When you look at the SEC, everyone has different criteria for players they bring in,” he said. “I have to go find the kids that are academically sound and really good at basketball. Maybe the pool isn’t as big for us as it is for some of our competitors, but we appreciate that. We sell that as a plus of our program.”
“How we approach it on the court and how we approach it from a classroom standpoint, it’s not for everybody. It’s a special place, and it’s tough. It’s difficult at Vanderbilt. At the same time, there are people who want that and have been competitive in the classroom and they secure that same competitiveness on the court. And that’s how we approach it.”
There are going to be bumps along the way. Completely overhauling the program in one season isn’t realistic, and the new staff understands that. It’s a process, and Stackhouse is already hard at work building his vision for the program.
Simply put, he wants the Commodores to compete for championships. Many used to laugh at that the thought of that possibility, but as Tim Corbin and the Vanderbilt baseball team has proven in recent years by winning two national titles, it can be done.
And Corbin will undoubtedly be a valuable resource for Stackhouse as he tries to achieve the same type of success with the basketball program.
“Coach Corbin is like the Godfather,” Stackhouse said. “When you walk in his office, you just want to kiss the ring. He kind of has that presence with everybody there. He’s so easy to talk to. He just has a bunch of nuggets to give because he knows how to navigate the waters around Vanderbilt.”
All in all, Stackhouse is where he wants to be.
Personally, he’s a self-proclaimed foodie who loves checking out all the restaurant goodness that Nashville has to offer. Professionally, he’s had no shortage of opportunities to stay at the pro level.
Instead, he chose Vanderbilt. And he’s excited to start the journey towards creating something special.
“We should be sold out every game because everyone I meet says they’re season ticket holders,” he said with a laugh. “So I’m looking forward to them keeping their promise.”
“It’s all been really good. I’m looking forward to us doing some good things. There have been some down years with the program, but we’re looking forward to creating that Memorial Magic again.”
For more SEC and college basketball coverage, follow me on Twitter @theblakelovell.