Herrold’s Hearings: Coaches Corner

By Seth Herrold (@HerroldTimes) R-T Sports Editor
I have a lot of good friends who are coaches. That comes with covering programs led by coaches for a living.
Now, there are good coaches and bad coaches, but at the level I cover sports at, success comes more as a result of the athletes a coach has to work with rather than how good the coach actually is. That doesn’t mean a coach isn’t a good coach if they are winning with a very good, athletic team.
A perfect example of this is Trenton High School Head girls basketball Coach Brian Upton. Talk about being blessed. Coach Upton has had more athletes between Southwest and Trenton than a lot of coaches will ever have in their careers. But Upton is a great coach and I am going to point to two instances that back that up.
In 2014, Trenton lost McKinley Hurley to a knee injury at Holiday Hoops. Hurley was the team’s leading scorer and, no offense to the girls on that team, but they weren’t quite the collection of players Trenton has had over the past two seasons. Whitley Richman really came into her own after Hurely went down and ended up having a stellar year. But, Upton didn’t give up when he lost his leading scorer in what was already going to be a rebuilding year. Trenton finished just two games under .500 that year at 12-14 and knocked off a 20-win Richmond team in the opening round of districts – on the Spartans home floor no less. That coaching job earned Upton the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters All-Northwest District Coach of the Year award.
In 2017 at the state quarterfinals, Trenton defeated a Southeast High School team that was probably more athletically gifted than the Bulldogs and definitely held a size advantage. It’s my opinion – but hey this is an opinion piece – if you switch coaches for that season, Southeast probably wins that game and goes to state. The Knights didn’t have much in the way of an offense and didn’t really adjust at any time to try and stop what was working for Trenton. Upton, for his work in that game and really all season, again won the MSSA All-Northwest District Coach of the Year honor.
With that, let’s dive into a ‘coaches edition’ of Herrold’s Hearings. We have two questions this week, both on coaching. One question is even from the reigning HDC Conference girls basketball Coach of the Year Aaron Long, whose Lady Shamrocks won the league title this season. You can give me a follow on Twitter at @HerroldTimes and ask questions for this column each week. As always, thanks for reading.

The best thing a coach can put on his resume is taking a mid-major far in the NCAA Tournament. Tom Crean’s run with Marquette got him a job at Indiana. Shaka Smart’s run with Virginia Commonwealth got him a job at Texas. Brad Stevens’ two runs with Butler landed him a job with the Boston Celtics in the NBA.
The easy answer to this would be Ryan Odom from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Being the first coach to beat a one seed with a 16 seed puts him on the map and UMBC doesn’t seem like they will be able to afford him should a Power 5 school come calling. UMBC Athletic Director Tim Hall – who, fun fact was the AD and UMKC from 2007-2013 – has stated the school would like to give Odom a raise and a long-term deal, but even he admitted limitations the school would face in doing so.
I think Odom bolts when the right offer comes along. Loyola-Chicago coach Porter Moser and Nevada’s Eric Musselman should also be in high demand. I would have to say Odom gets a job before the other two at a Power 5 school, though, if anything because his school probably has the least to offer in terms of turning away bigger deals that most certainly will come.
If it were my school hiring, however, I would be all in on Moser from Loyola.

Here is an answer that will anger Kansas State fans either way. On one hand, picking Martin would be a slight at their school. On the other, K-State fans – the bigger half, anyway – seem to be against Bruce.
I don’t know why. I remember last year when K-State won a ‘First Four’ game before losing in the traditional first round of the NCAA Tournament there was a lot of talk that Weber should be fired. As a Missouri fan I remember thinking I would take Weber and a first round exit in a heartbeat for the Tigers.
As it turns out, K-State kept Weber, but I got my first-round exit for Missouri anyway.
I really like Martin and I think he is a great fit for Missouri. He is a good recruiter, probably better than Weber, and I love the defensive intensity his teams play with.
But a better coach? That’s Weber all the way. He has taken three different schools to the Sweet 16 in his career and put K-State fourth in the Big 12 – ‘the toughest conference in the nation.’ I often mock that saying, but with four teams in the Sweet 16 this year, the Big 12 actually backed it up – for once.
So for now, my pick is Bruce Weber for the better coach, but let Martin get things established at Mizzou and keep bringing in those recruits. He did a remarkable job with the Tigers this year considering everything he was dealt. Give him a few years and he may be a Sweet 16 coach as well.