Stoudamire sure to be hot head coaching candidate
PORTLAND, Ore. –
Eleven of Lute Olson’s Arizona assistant coaches became head coaches at such far-off places as UTSA, Louisiana-Lafayette, San Jose State and Rice.
It was odd that after his 13-year NBA career, Damon Stoudamire found himself at Rice, too. He was part of Ben Braun’s 2008-09 staff and it wasn’t at all like Arizona. Rice went 10-22 that year and Braun ultimately resigned after going 63-128.
Stoudamire already had a name and a reputation in the NBA. He could’ve made a career in that league — he spent two years on the Memphis Grizzlies staff — but his taste for college basketball persisted. He asked then-Rice athletic director Chris Del Conte, a former Arizona associate athletic director, for advice.
“Chris was the first one to tell me I’d be a good fit in college basketball,” Stoudamire said during last week’s NCAA tournament in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. “I’m all the way in now.”
I believe Stoudamire is going to be a head coach someday, and sooner rather than later. He was probably the No. 2 pick at Oregon State behind Wayne Tinkle a year ago, and it only whetted his appetite.
Much like Olson assistants Jessie Evans, Kevin O’Neill and Ricky Byrdsong, Stoudamire, 41, is now on the coaching radar in capital letters.
Sean Miller has lost assistants James Whitford to Ball State and Archie Miller to Dayton. It would be a surprise if Stoudamire isn’t next.
Is he ready? He coached two years with former Olson assistant Josh Pastner at Memphis and now two under Miller at Arizona.
“I want my shot,” he said. “I fully believe I’ll get that shot.”
Stoudamire is articulate and insightful. He’s not a hey-look-at-me personality, but when an athletic director at Santa Clara or Long Beach State or some other place interviews him, it won’t be a difficult decision.
“As a player, your upside comes and goes so fast, but as a coach you never stop learning,” Stoudamire said. “You keep getting better if you do it the right way. You take something from everybody. I’m always asking questions. I soak it in.”
Recruiting? An NBA coach doesn’t have to recruit. He just watches and evaluates. Recruiting is a lifetime commitment. Stoudamire likes it.
“I’ve seen it change,” he said. “When Coach Olson recruited Sean Rooks, he told him he’d have to redshirt. If you tried that today, they’d say ‘are you crazy?’ I won’t lie to a kid. If I’m not sure, I’ll say ‘I like you and I’ll keep watching you. But right now I’m not sure.’ ”
Some of Arizona’s former assistants jumped at dead-end jobs, like Loyola Marymount and San Jose State. You get the feeling Stoudamire will keep watching and wait for the right place at the right time.
“You can’t turn off your phone when you’re a college coach, this is 24/7,” he said. “It’s not like the NBA where, if a player has a problem, he calls the general manager or someone with a title to handle those things. At Arizona, they call me. I’ve been the father, the mother, the big brother. This is what I want to do.”
