Walters quickly promoted--The Post-Tribune
By Mike Hutton / Post-Tribune staff writer
A little more than a year ago, Rex Walters was making a mad dash from Valparaiso University to Boca Raton, Fla., where he snared a job as an assistant for Matt Doherty at Florida Atlantic University.
The two had forged a relationship when Walters was playing for Kansas and Doherty was an assistant for Roy Williams. Walters, with just two years of experience, was happy to help.
A week ago, Walters was interviewing for the vacant FAU job in the office of president Frank Brogan.
On Friday, in what constitutes a meteoric rise even by college basketball standards, Walters was hired as the head coach of FAU after Doherty left to take the job at SMU.
Walters, who has a four-year contract, said he’s ready for the challenge.
He spent seven years in the NBA. One of the first calls he got after his press conference came from Homer Drew congratulating him.
“I’ve only coached for three years but I’ve been around Chuck Daly, Pat Riley, Larry Brown and Homer Drew for two years,” he said. “I feel like I’m ready for this.”
Walters will have his hands full. Though FAU finished 15-13 in Doherty’s first season, they are about to jump to the Sun Belt Conference from the Atlantic Sun Conference. That league figures to be stiffer competition for him.
Walters said it’s doubtful that he’d schedule a game with VU in the near future because of that — and because of his relationship with Drew.
“It won’t happen soon because you don’t like to play (against) people you care about,” he said.
Walters was just as surprised as everyone else when the opportunity to leave for SMU cropped up for Doherty.
Doherty insisted that he didn’t really want to leave but that Steve Orsini, a Notre Dame graduate, recruited him so tenaciously that he couldn’t say no.
“I didn’t see it coming,” he said. “I was out recruiting, getting ready for next year, when this all popped up.”
Contact Mike Hutton at 648-3139 or mhutton@post-trib.com
Ladies Basketball Adds Pair to Play in 2006-07--GoCentenary.Com
IUPUI BASKETBALL TEAM ADDS JUCO CENTER FOR 2006-07--IUPUI JAGUAR ATHLETICS
No comments:
Post a Comment