Photo by: Jacob Rokeach
When you finish a season 4-25 and are ranked second to last of the 335 division-one basketball programs, change is imminent and change is what happened to the DU men’s basketball program over spring break.
Just two days after the season ended, March, 2 Head Coach Terry Carroll was officially fired as coach of the men’s program after being on the hardwood for the Pioneers for the past six seasons. Carroll led DU to a 79-99 record (.444) although he was just 20-40 in the past two years. Carroll left the team abruptly and officially on January 2 after needing to leave for what was deemed as a “personal matter” and previous assistant coach Kevin Reynolds was named interim-head coach.
“We are committed to being the premiere basketball program in the Rocky Mountain region. Let me say that again: we are committed to being the premiere basketball program in the Rocky Mountain region. This university deserves that, our student-athletes deserve that,” said Athletic Director Peg Bradley-Doppes at the March 21 press conference.
The first step of that process was hiring former Air Force and most recently Princeton Head Coach Joe Scott to lead the program.
“Joe represents everything that we are looking for in a leader. He’s a strong recruiter, a winner, a tireless worker who is committed to bringing out the best in his student-athletes on the floor, in the classroom, and in the game of life,” said Doppes.
Scott began his coaching career as an assistant at Monmouth during the 1991-92 season and then moved on to become assistant at Princeton from 1992-2000. After nine seasons as an assistant the phone finally rang and he was given the head coaching duties at Air Force. The Princeton and Notre Dame graduate led the Falcons to an 8-21 record in his first campaign which was the most for the program in 11 years. In his fourth season at the academy, Scott led the Falcons to a 22-7 record and their first NCAA appearance in 42 years. His hard work was rewarded when current Georgetown coach John Thompson III stepped down at Princeton and Scott got the job. Scott led Princeton to a 15-13 record his first season and the nation’s best scoring defense last season.
In his seven seasons as a head coach, the 41 year-old has an 89-108 overall record, with just two of the seasons being over .500 and they happened to be in back-to-back seasons. Also in four of those seven seasons his team led the country in scoring defense, which could mean some low scoring games at Magness Arena.
“When I looked at Denver, when this opportunity presented itself, when I spoke with the leadership, when I heard what I heard, I was just an unbelievable opportunity, the commitment, the words that were being said, they rang true,” said Scott at the press conference.
An opportunity that will hopefully lead to DU’s first ever NCAA tournament appearance and a consistent over .500 record year in and year out. Scott will officially meet and sit down with the team tomorrow and start discussions of how the program will turn around.
“Getting with the players, speaking with the players, getting them to understand what Denver basketball is going to be and what it is going to represent. Ultimately, the program we are going to buil is, a winning program, a program that sustains itself, that perpetuates itself, that is an all the time thing, its not a sometimes thing, its an all the time thing. You act, you behave, and you play in a certain way all the time,” said Scott.
The Pioneers will lose at least three players this off-season to graduation, DaShawn Walker, Antonio Porch and Alex Cox. But junior Steve Wetrich, red-shirt junior David Kummer, transfer Myke Lattimore and transfer Cedric Hill were all injured for most of last season and should be ready for the start of the 2007-08 campaign.
“I feel good about being here, I’m extremely confident, and I really can’t wait to get to work, in that process, to build this, because ultimately that’s what we’ve got to start to do here. We’ve got to start to get to work to build this thing in the manner we are going to do it,” said Coach.
It will be a manner that will include a lot of defense, a Princeton type offense and hopefully a return to winning ways for the DU men’s basketball program.
