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Dougherty
announces two assistants on radio TCU men’s basketball head coach Neil Dougherty is already making some news in his short stint at TCU. Dougherty surprisingly announced two of his new assistant coaches Wednesday in his first ever radio call-in show at the Fox & Hound English Pub and Grille in front of large crowd of Horned Frog basketball fans and supporters.
Dougherty named Jai Steadman and Jeff Luster as his new assistant coaches. Steadman comes to TCU after serving as an assistant coach at Trinity Junior College. Luster comes from Colorado where he served as the director of men’s basketball operations. “I am very excited to have these two guys on the staff,” Dougherty said. “They are two very young and energetic guys that will bring a lot to this team. Their young age will be a huge advantage because they can relate better to the players.” Dougherty said he will hire two more assistants to complete his staff. There was no timetable for the hiring of the new assistants. “Right now I am not willing to talk about the names of the people that I am talking to and considering,” Dougherty said. “But it won’t take very long for me to announce who they will be.” Dougherty, who arrived in Fort Worth Wednesday afternoon, said he and his new assistants are already working hard to recruit players. National signing day for basketball is on April 15. “We have been on the phones all day long,” Dougherty said. “We have been trying to get players that will help us out immediately. We need to get some guys with size. It is no surprise that that’s where we need help in, so we will concentrate on getting players with size, but also players that are good.” Steadman said that he wants to focus not on just getting a big man, but he wants to get an athlete that can fill many roles. “Personally, I would take an athlete over a big man anytime,” Steadman said. “There can be a guy who is 6 (feet) 10 (inches) and has long arms, but he can’t chew gum and walk straight at the same time. We want guys that are strong, tough and athletic. Not ones that are just big.” The new coaching staff wants to instill a defensive mentality for the Horned Frogs, Steadman said. “We want to run up and down on offense, but we want to get back on defense as well,” Steadman said. “We don’t want to give up any easy baskets. We want to take hard fouls and make the opposing team think twice when trying to score on us.” After spending the past seasons as an assistant at Kansas, Dougherty said he wants to emphasize getting players from Texas to come to TCU. He said he will meet with local high school basketball coach Robert Hughes today. Hughes coached Dunbar High School to the State 4A semifinals this year. “I want to get players in Texas to stay closer to home by coming to TCU,” Dougherty said. “We need to take full advantage of the talent in this area by talking to all the area high school coaches and the AAU coaches around the state.” Dougherty succeeds Billy Tubbs as the head coach for the Frogs. He said he will stay in a hotel in the upcoming weeks, but will look into buying a house once his family moves to Fort Worth from Lawrence, Kan. Ram
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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
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