Who Can Follow Josh Schertz at Indiana State?

Matthew Graves and who else?

(St. Louis, MO) – After a 32-win season, who can follow Josh Schertz at Indiana State? The Sycamores were the Missouri Valley Conference regular season champions and were the National Invitation Tournament runners up. Following all that success, Schertz was hired by Saint Louis University and ISU administration must re-fill that position.

It is our opinion that ‘interim head coach’ Matthew Graves should be the lock down person, but if ISU wants to go a different direction, who would those people be?

Matthew Graves – The Favorite

Graves provides ISU with the best chance to continue recent successes. He was the top assistant during all three of Schertz’s seasons in Terre Haute. They shared responsibility for the wins, recruiting and foundation building.

Graves is married to the region, was raised on ‘Indiana Basketball’ and understands the ‘mid-major’ landscape. During his history as a Butler basketball player and coach coupled with his time with Indiana State he has experienced outstanding ‘mid-major’ success.

Butler played postseason basketball during twelve of Graves’ 14 seasons as a Bulldog assistant. He helped the Bulldogs to nine NCAA Tournaments including four visits to the Sweet Sixteen and two Final Fours. Indiana State played postseason basketball in each of the last two seasons.

Graves has been a head coach. The 49-year-old Graves went 65-96 in five seasons (2013-14 through 2017-18 seasons) at South Alabama and has been rumored to be in the running for other recent head-coaching openings. We’ve been told Graves officially interviewed for the job this week.

During our Monday conversation with Schertz, he endorsed Graves.

Who Could Follow Josh Schertz?

If not Graves, who seems to be the logical and right choice, then who could follow Josh Schertz? Indiana State administration is in a state of flux. Angie Lansing is ISU’s ‘interim’ athletic director. Not only do we believe Graves is the right move, but with an interim AD, it would seem to be the safe move.

With that backdrop, can the Indiana State leadership team do something more dramatic and hire someone like North Carolina State assistant coach Kareem Richardson. He was an assistant coach under Greg Lansing and has head coaching experience (UMKC).

Do Lansing and President Deborah Curtis look at someone like Purdue assistant Terry Johnson or Missouri’s Kyle Smithpeters. Would they do something like pursuing a current Missouri Valley assistant coach like Northern Iowa’s Seth Tuttle or Bradley’s Mike Bargen. Is there a possibility of ISU looking at former Valparaiso assistant (now at Princeton), Luke Gore.

Vincennes University (junior college) head coach Todd Franklin finished this past season with a record of 689-175. His Trailblazer teams are a consistent junior college power.

Behind the scenes, those involved in the hiring process, are optimistic about their next head coach.

The rumor mill in Terre Haute has been very silent, so we’re grasping for ‘logical names’ that could come under consideration, but we believe Graves should be the choice and likely will be the man who follows Josh Schertz.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo courtesy of gosycamores.com.