Vanderbilt Basketball Coaching Search: Matt McCall

Matt McCall, head coach, Chattanooga Mocs

Career Record: 29-6 (1 year); 1 NCAA Tournament appearance; 0-1 NCAA Tournament record

Accomplishments: In his rookie year as a head coach, won the Southern Conference and was named SoCon Coach of the Year.

Before He Was A Head Coach: Was a student manager at Florida during the Walsh (who, of course, sucks) years, worked as Director of Basketball Operations there for a couple of years after graduation, then spent three years under Mike Jarvis at Florida Atlantic before returning to Florida for four years as an assistant under Billy Donovan.

Ties to Vanderbilt: Well, he's presumably been to Memorial Gym on numerous occasions and is aware of the location of the benches.

Stylistic Tendencies: Based on one year at Chattanooga?  Well, his team was pretty good at forcing turnovers and hitting the offensive glass, two things that make him Not Kevin Stallings.  His team also got to the foul line quite a bit and didn't commit many fouls themselves.  They also played at a relatively slow pace.  Of course, the problem here is that we can't tell too much based on one year with a team that he mostly didn't recruit -- who knows what kind of style he'd play once he has a few years to get his own players in the program?

Would he come here? McCall is reportedly making $220,000 a year at Chattanooga.  You don't ever want to say it's a lock that he'd take the job, but if Vanderbilt really wants McCall there isn't going to be a whole lot Chattanooga can do to stop them.

Thoughts: At some point, you have to ask: does Vanderbilt want a name, or does it want a coach?  If the former, there is almost no way that McCall is even under consideration.  But if the latter, I could see him as a fallback choice if Gregg Marshall says no, and he'd be a solid one at that.  While skeptics will point to the fact that he inherited this Chattanooga team from Will Wade, it's also true that independent of that, McCall did a good job with the team and many people in the coaching business insist that he's actually a better coach than Wade.

This would certainly be a high-risk, high-reward type of hire, but the potential payoff may be very high and if Vanderbilt wants him, Vanderbilt can probably get him.