ECU’s Stokes steps down; Mack McCarthy named Acting Head Coach

Pirates’ new boss has 16 years of head coaching experience

CUSA Fans.com ECU Correspondent Thomas "Bubba" Rosenbaum brings us a East Carolina basktball update.

Monday, August 6, 2007

After weeks of much speculation regarding the status of men’s basketball coach Ricky Stokes, you knew that sooner or later Director of Athletics Terry Holland would address the issue in some way.

Well, that news came sooner rather than later.

Holland , who has been and is still out of the country on vacation, is scheduled to return to Greenville on Wednesday evening. Thus, an official announcement was not expected until at least then. However, for whatever reason, the Pirates’ AD thought it could not wait and chose to address the situation from afar on Monday afternoon before hosting a press conference to discuss the move on Thursday afternoon.

Ricky Stokes, who is seen here drawing up a play during the 2005-2006 season, will be succeeded by his former associate head coach Mack McCarthy.

Stokes, who posted a 14-44 mark in two seasons at the helm, has apparently accepted an offer to become the program’s Associate Athletic Director of Basketball—which is a newly created position.

Stokes’ successor, at least for the 2007-2008 season, will be former associate head coach Mack McCarthy. Chris Ferguson, who has been an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, will fill McCarthy’s role of associate head coach.

McCarthy, 55, has a wealth of Division I coaching experience—including 16 very successful seasons as a head coach at Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth. He compiled an impressive 309-177 (.636) record while leading his teams to 14 winning campaigns and eight 20-win seasons. In 12 seasons at Chattanooga, he led the Mocs to a 243-122 mark and earned seven postseason trips—five NCAA Tournaments and two NIT bids. His teams won eight regular season Southern Conference titles and five tournament championships. McCarthy, who was the league’s all-time winningest coach when he left in 1997, was named SoCon Coach-of-the-Year in 1986, 1992 and 1993.

McCarthy’s top season as a head coach came in 1996-97 when his Chattanooga squad notched 24 wins—two of which came against Georgia and Illinois en route to the program’s only Sweet 16 appearance.

In four seasons at VCU, the McCarthy-led Rams improved every season and he concluded his stint there with a 21-11 season.

McCarthy is easily the most decorated head coach that will have ever led the East Carolina hoops program, but it remains to be seen as to whether he will receive the reins of the program past next season. Thus, this will likely be one of the many intriguing questions that Terry Holland will field from the media at Thursday’s press conference.

The inopportune timing of this changing of the guard has left Holland in a strikingly similar situation. Two summers ago, he named recently hired assistant coach Billy Godwin as the Acting head coach of the baseball program. However, upon further consideration, he made Godwin the permanent choice with the hope of limiting negative effects on recruiting while stabilizing the program’s direction.

Will the Pirates’ AD make such a decision this time around? Well, that remains to be seen, but a strong case can certainly be made that it would be the thing to do unless of course McCarthy has indicated that he has no interest in leading the program after this coming season.

After all, we’re talking about a proven commodity. McCarthy has proven time and again that he can win and win big.

Additionally, the East Carolina program has made strides the past two seasons. While these improvements are yet to translate to the court, it is clear that the program has improved itself academically while also stocking a roster that has the Pirates more equipped to compete. With one or two more solid recruiting classes, ECU could possibly be on the verge of turning the corner and seeing their win total increase significantly. The odds of McCarthy and staff making this happen are obviously greatly enhanced if they have the safety net of telling recruits they will be around for the 2008-2009 season.

While you certainly have to examine each situation individually, let’s take a minute to delve a little deeper. If the baseball program would have been hurt by the uncertainties that would have come with the lack of a permanent head coach, which they would have, what will be the effect on a basketball program that has a foundation that isn’t nearly as prepared to sustain such a blow?

Something else to consider is the name that Mack McCarthy possesses within the college basketball community. While his name isn’t as recognizable as “Holtz” is in college football, he is well connected and has relationships that could prove to be beneficial to the program’s future success. It never hurts to be able to tell recruits that you’ve coached a team to the Sweet Sixteen and that you’ve tutored former NBA stars such as Charles Barkley and Chuck Person (while an assistant at Auburn).

Will the Pirates’ seasoned AD view things in a similar fashion and remove the “Acting” title prior to the season or will he withhold judgment until the end of the 2007-2008 season?

Stay tuned Pirates!