Andy Enfield Puns

Now, I'm not advocating against calling Nate Oats or Eric Musselman's agents, but there are a number of things that I like about Enfield, and I think he should be interested in the job. He's managed to build USC up from a horrible position (the two years before him, it was 6-26 and 7-10 before Kevin O'Neill was fired mid-season), recruiting amazingly well to a football-first school, with the 7th ranked class in 2019, which included current Atlanta Hawk (#6 pick) Onyeka Okongwu, and 5 star Isaiah Mobley, and in 2020 he got Isaiah's brother, Evan, who's now with the Cleveland Cavaliers (#3 pick). His team this year (without either of his NBA bigs) is currently 9-0, ranked 15th or 16th, depending on the poll. He built the Trojans into an NCAA team after two years (which were still better than the years that came before him), and they've only missed the postseason once since then. Last year, his team made the Elite Eight. Next year, he has a 5 star and a 4 star signed for USC. The man can recruit.

While a player at Johns Hopkins, Enfield set the NCAA record for free throw shooting. He worked as a "Shot Doctor" coach for NBA teams for years before taking on the Florida Gulf Coast University job and had a run in his second year, with the famous "Dunk City" team. He also got his MBA at Maryland, and is from Pennsylvania, so has ample ties to the area. He's positive, highly intelligent, energetic, not too old (52 years), and it doesn't hurt that his wife is an absolute knockout (even if it isn't entirely relevant for the coaching aspect, it'd be great for fundraising).

USC can certainly match our price if they want to, but they can't match the fact that we have a basketball school in what is arguably the most challenging conference in the country - not to mention the mid-Atlantic is his home. I think we can hire him away if we want to.

Again, if we can manage an absolute home run hire like Oats or Musselman, we go that route, but to me, Enfield would be a solid double, at least.

Amazing stat of the day: By getting to the Sweet 16 by beating Kansas, Andy Enfield is now the all-time leader among all USC head coaches for the most NCAA tournament victories ... with four!

Enfield has quietly steadily improved the program, as this recent post shows. It's not the expected outcome of such a flashy hire after taking Dunk City to the Sweet 16, eight years ago (!): Either gigantic immediate improvement, or a spectacular flameout.

For a sense of just how difficult Enfield's job was, read this amazing Men's Journal article from after he joined USC:

>Right now, Enfield, 44, doesn’t have the luxury to deal with such macro issues. He’s trying to teach his team basic defense. He whistles a stop to a drill.

[...]

>But now it’s October, and Enfield is confronted with a death-march season. Because he was hired after the end of recruiting, he enters the year with not a single player of his own design. The future already looks brighter with the signing of Jordan McLaughlin, a top 40 guard who will arrive in 2014. But right now Enfield sits at the PAC-12 poker table holding a foot more than a hand. His predecessor was a profane screamer whom few kids wanted to play for, so those who committed to USC were just desperate to play PAC-12 ball. Some are way out of their league.

Eight seasons at USC later, to quote /u/our-guardian-angel, "Lads, he's done it again."