If he's leaving, it's not for the job at Marshall as they hired a new coach named Tom Herrion.
http://www.marshallparthenon.com/mobile/sports/a-fast-fresh-start-1.2245694
A fast, fresh start
New basketball coach already rolling
By KYLE HOBSTETTER
Published: Thursday, April 29, 2010
Updated: Thursday, April 29, 2010
SHOLTEN SINGER
With not even a full month under his belt as Marshall men’s basketball coach, Tom Herrion has hit the ground running, trying to get the Herd back on track.
Herrion has added two members to his staff and has got on track with meeting his returning players.
But for the former University of Pittsburgh assistant, the Marshall community has welcomed him with open arms.
“You hit the ground running,” Herrion said. “The one thing that’s been cemented or solidified for me is that the people here on our campus and our community are tremendously genuine. They truly care about Marshall and Marshall athletics.”
As Herrion is still growing accustomed to the Huntington area, he has added two new coaches to the staff.
Joining him are former Duquense associate head coach Bill Barton and former St. Bonaventure assistant Dino Presley.
While both are known for their recruiting abilities, Presley was the 73rd-ranked assistant coach by Hoop Scoop magazine. Herrion wants his coaches to be well rounded in their coaching styles.
“They offer a great deal of experience with great coaching careers,” Herrion said. “These guys will be great role models for our players. They’ll be very good recruiters. I want our staff to be a little bit of everything. I don’t want our staff to just be recruiters, or just to be scouts. I want them to be well rounded so that when they get their opportunities to be a head coach one day that they’re as prepared as possible.”
With his staff at full tilt, recruiting has become a top priority for the new Herd coaching staff.
In fact, Marshall football’s Green-White game was used as an opportunity to show recruits, both football and basketball, the appeal of Marshall.
And for Herrion, he’s ready to show recruits the same thing that attracted him to the Huntington area.
“I try to express to them a lot of the reasons I came to Huntington,” he said. “It wasn’t a situation where I had to come, or I share with them a lot of the positives I felt through the process that brought me here to be the new basketball coach.”
And a lot of people are taking notice, including recruits. The most well known recruit is Cleveland Melvin.
Ranked three-stars by Rivals.com, the former Connecticut commitment was in attendance on the Joan C. Edwards Stadium sidelines Saturday.
While he left unsigned, and Herrion’s first recruiting class remains vacant, the new head coach said that it just takes time.
“We’re excited about the way things are going recruiting wise,” Herrion said. “But one thing everyone has to be is patient. You don’t want to just start signing guys to say we’re signing guys. I’m not going to settle cause scholarships are very valuable, I feel confident we’ll add the right pieces through the spring and summer.”
As Herrion is focused on recruiting, he is still getting to know the players that are returning next season.
After meeting with players, he said that it’s taking some time, but they are getting on the same page.
“The best thing for me is to get to know the players, the guys we have returning,” Herrion said. “That’s been a great project, But I think three weeks into this thing we’re getting to know each other better and their gaining a little bit of understanding of what my expectations for our basketball program.”
And with him his style will match the coach as the coach want the players to play a more physical pace that hasn’t been seen at Marshall
“We’re going to play disciplined,” Herrion said. “It’s not going to be chuck and duck and let it fly, but I want our kids to be physical, I want them to be tough. I think that’s going to be a reflection on me.”
Herrion has an entire spring and summer to build up before his first season on the Marshall court.
While many think that the first season will be a rebuilding year, Herrion said that with a good group of core guys, and it a little hard work, Marshall will be there to compete each and every year.
“It’s rolling up your sleeves and trying to out work people. It’s on the recruiting trail, but also in our player development program,” he said. “We want get guys in our program, and we have a good core of guys on our roster now, we want them to get better, they got to get better physically and they have to improve their skill levels.
“We got to add some players and elevate the program and we want to be a team to compete at a high level year in and year out in Conference USA and I don’t thing there is anything that can stop us from that.”
Herrion still has some time before his first real practice, but he knows what he has to do, build teams.
But it’s not about building teams, but looking toward the future of Marshall basketball.
“We want build a great program,” Herrion said. “We don’t want to just have great teams, we want to build a great program and that’s going to take time.”