Doherty leaving his mark on program in just one season
By BRIAN KESSLER
Assistant Sports Editor
Two weeks ago, first-year head coach Matt Doherty was forced to put a little detour in this year's game plan.
Winning an NIT championship wasn't in his original list of five goals that he set forth at the beginning of the season. Nevertheless, Doherty and the Irish (21-14) are cherishing the possibility of bringing home a title.
"Wouldn't it be nice to hang an NIT banner in the Joyce Center," Doherty said. "Darn right."
Notre Dame will have that opportunity starting tonight at 9 p.m. when it faces Penn State in the semifinals. The Irish will also have a chance to address two of Doherty's goals – getting better every day and winning the next game. The Doherty's other three goals – winning the Big East regular season, the Big East Championship and the NCAA Tournament – passed the Irish by this season, but there is always next year. Those goals may have been lofty expectations for a team that hadn't been in the postseason in two years and had never won a Big East Tournament game. But Doherty doesn't know any other standard.
He played with Michael Jordan at North Carolina and helped the Tar Heels to the 1982 NCAA Championship. As an assistant coach at Kansas, Doherty teamed up with Roy Williams to lead the Jayhawks to the 1993 Final Four. And now he has brought that same winning philosophy to South Bend. Most importantly, his players have bought into it.
"At first you might have thought his goals were a little outrageous," sophomore All-American Troy Murphy said. "But he's a pretty amazing guy. We've got 21 wins and a lot of teams would like to be in the semifinals of the NIT. And he's never been a head coach before."
Not a bad resume for a first-year head coach that took over a 14-16 Irish basketball team. He also led Notre Dame to an 8-8 conference mark, a seven seed in the Big East Tournament – both school records. His team's victory over Rutgers in the Big East tourney was the program's first in its five year history in the conference.
Yet Doherty realizes his accomplishments and knows that claiming the NIT title isn't a "win or bust" situation for the program. And he knows in the back of his mind that one great opportunity may have passed his team by this season.
"That's been part of our mission — to prove to the NCAA committee that they made a mistake," Doherty told the Associated Press Monday during a luncheon to introduce the coaches of the NIT semifinals. "I tell the team to look at Wisconsin [in the NCAA tournament]. They have 13 losses. That could have been us.
"These four [NIT] teams could be in that other tournament, but I, uh, forget the name of it," Doherty joked.
But being slighted by the NCAA committee has served as motivation for Doherty and his troops and won't soften his approach for this Final Four.
" We've talked about proving them wrong since the beginning of this tournament. We were disappointed at not making the NCAAs, and that's no slight to the NIT. I'm grateful to the NIT because I think we should be playing for some kind of championship," Doherty told the AP at the luncheon.
Doherty, a New York native, will return home and look to give Notre Dame its first-ever NIT title.
"There is a fine line between the competition in college basketball today," Doherty told the AP at the luncheon "It's all about execution, making shots, biorhythms and the stars and the moon being in the right place that day."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 28, 2000
