A recent article by Brendan Quinn at ML.com discusses the success Michigan State men’s basketball has had keeping its assistant coaching staff intact. Three of the Spartans’ key assistants will remain with the team for a sixth straight season, a remarkable and rare feat in today’s D1 basketball landscape. Only Cincinnati’s staff can compete in this category among high-major programs.
Determining how programs gain success and then maintain it over the course of an extended period of time keeps athletic departments awake at night. At Michigan State, the results speak for themselves. In the past six years, there have been two trips to the Sweet Sixteen and appearances in the Elite Eight and Final Four for Izzo and his staff. While the success is surely multi-faceted, discounting continuity in the coaching ranks would be a mistake.
However, the attrition rate for D1 coaches is fierce, and many schools looking to make a leap want to find the next big thing in coaching. For many, this means turning to the unproven assistants at certain top programs rather than hiring out-of-work former head coaches. The allure of one’s own program can be strong, regardless of the place an assistant is currently working. Not many coaches went into the business without dreams of running their own programs one day. So how can athletic departments make sure they’re keeping their coaching staffs as intact as possible? Here are a few suggestions.
1. Connect them with the school beyond their own sport. There is a reason many players return to their alma maters to become coaches. They know the town, they like the campus, and they have a unique connection because of their time there. Athletic departments can’t recreate the college bond for the assistant coaches who aren’t alums, but they can surely do things to help coaches feel invested in the school at large. Tickets to the games of other sports, involving coaches’ families on campus, and building involvement in the local community are all ways to help assistants grow roots at your school.
2. Show them the money. As Quinn discusses in his article about MSU, AD Hollis makes a concerted effort to keep his MBB assistants among the top paid in the Big Ten. This can sometimes lead to raises of 30% from year to year, vaulting salaries above those of some head coaching positions that might be appealing to veteran assistants. While money won’t forever keep assistants from following a dream to run a program, underpaying one’s staff is a surefire way to hasten their departure.
3. Allow them to be competitive. Nothing chagrins a staff faster than feeling handcuffed or unsupported by the administration and school at large. Whether it is a combative attitude regarding facilities, a closed-door policy to new ideas from programs, or a refusal to see the value in athletics, there are myriad ways administration can sabotage the morale of its athletic staff. Because they’re competitive by nature, if coaches don’t feel like they’re getting the maximum opportunity to win games and be competitive, they will leave.
Many schools take pride in cultivating head coaching trees that spread-out from their successful programs wherein assistants take the reins at other schools after tutelage under strong leaders. In truth, keeping assistants is the more effective way of building a national brand, because consistency and loyalty cannot be overstated as keys to long-term success.
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