The State of Samford Basketball

Early success was not enough for Tillette

Samford's recently fired coach, Jimmy Tillette after 15 seasons at the university. While at the helm, Coach T led the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament in 1999 and 2000, recoreded 229 wins, and by all accounts he ran a squeaky clean program.

Tillette experienced no problems with the NCAA in his recruiting or a pay-for-play scheme. He handled the death of one of his grittiest players--and the campus' favorite --three-year letterman Jim Griffin, with grace and class. His students graduated and served in the community. However, in the ever-competitive world of mid-major basketball, Coach T's good could not outweigh the program's decline on the court.

Along with his 229 wins, the school's winningest coach lost 219 games, a win percentage of 51 percent--the number 229 is not as impressive now. Those losses began to stack up towards the end of Tillette's tenure at Samford. This season included a 11-19 mark, the team's sixth straight year with a sub-.500 record. Mediocrity should not be tolerated in any profession. Ask former Illionois coach Bruce Weber who took his school to the national championship game in 2005 and, like Tillette was fired this year.

Luckily, the Samford athletic program has recently handed over management to the former head of basketball operations at the University of Kentucky, Martin Newton.  It is by no accident that Samford President Andrew Westmoreland hired the Samford alum, who has basketball knowledge and tremendous connections. Newton held most of the interviews for the new coach AT THE FINAL FOUR, for goodness sake!

Newton and Westmoreland are well aware that Samford possesses some of the finest facilities around for a small school. The basketball program will attempt to emulate the Gonzagas, Belmonts, and Davidsons of the world to get Samford back to the dance in March. The duo also knows that with a concentrated effort to raise the basketball standards will take a formidable effort, but it could return huge dividends for the school as a whole, not just the athletic department.

Martin (right) made history by hiring Seltzer, the
first black coach in any sport at Samford.

There is no doubt this will be a tough task. As any diehard Bulldog fan will tell you, academics are much more of a priority than athletics (though I have heard from current students this attitude is starting to change). There is a winning tradition, but alums my age were around to experience it. And finally... JanTerm: the bane of a rowdy basketball crowd, or any crowd to speak of, during the month of January.

Sure, as any school in the South dreams, it would be fun to have football as the staple of the athletic program, but the Bulldogs could become the fourth best football team in the state at best. The past three BCS National Championship teams have come not even two hours from Birmingham. Not to mention a UAB program which has seen its better days, but is a Division I school in all sports in Conference USA, nonetheless.

Lets be honest Bulldog fans, the football program is on the up-and-up with a former Heisman trophy winner leading the way. Now it is time focus our attention towards basketball.

Newton hired Bennie Seltzer who has served as the top assistant on Tom Crean's staff at the University of Indiana and Marquette University. Seltzer has learned from Crean how to build a program. Crean inherited a depleted Hoosier team coming off of NCAA sanctions in 2008, and led his team to the Sweet 16 before being bumped out in the most entertaining game of the tournament by eventual champion Kentucky.

I still dream of a packed Pete Hanna. Except in my dreams my
 favorite player makes the shot that would have sent the game to overtime.

Do any of you remember that magical Saturday afternoon when 5,116 of us joined in record fashion to watch our beloved Bulldogs take on Stephen Curry and Davison? The original White-Out game? What if that was real life and every basketball game was like that dream in 2010? Hopefully, thanks to foresight from Westmoreland and Newton, that day is soon.




NOTE: This is my 100th post. Thanks to all of you for reading my posts (or at least looking at the pictures) and providing feedback. Here's to 100 more. Cheers