DALLAS — Andy Enfield went from Florida Gulf Coast’s “Dunk Metropolis” and the Candy 16 to Los Angeles and now to Dallas to take over the SMU program that’s headed to the Atlantic Coast Convention with a 36-year drought since successful an NCAA event recreation.
Enfield mentioned he would not be in Large D if the Mustangs weren’t about to maneuver into that basketball-rich league.
“Uh, no,” Enfield mentioned when requested simply that. “We have been extraordinarily completely satisfied at USC, and I had an unbelievable workers, gamers, nice assist from the administration, and we lived on the seaside. So not dangerous in any respect.”
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Enfield was formally launched on the SMU campus on Tuesday, a day after being formally employed and about 10 days after faculty officers went to California to satisfy with the then-Trojans coach who was on the prime of their checklist to steer them into main convention play. The transfer to the ACC turns into official July 1.
“He shared the excessive expectations we’ve got for our program, and he embraces that,” SMU athletic director Rick Hart mentioned. “He is carried out it at a college like ours, in a metropolis like ours, and in a convention just like the one we’re headed to.”
After taking No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast to the Candy 16 in 2013, in solely the second season that faculty was eligible for the NCAA event, Enfield spent the previous 11 years at USC, the place he went 220-147 with 5 NCAA event bids, together with an Elite Eight look in 2021. The Trojans have been 15-18 this season with Bronny James as a freshman, ending a run of 4 consecutive campaigns successful greater than 20 video games.
SMU hasn’t been to the NCAA event since 2017. The Mustangs final made the nationwide quarterfinals in 1957, after they needed to win solely as soon as to get that far in a 23-team discipline. They have been 20-13 this season, and coach Rob Lanier was fired a day after a loss to Indiana State within the first spherical of the Nationwide Invitation Match.
“Constructing something is tough, and we all know the challenges,” Enfield mentioned. “We’re right here as a training workers to develop the gamers which can be right here, fill within the roster with some transfers after which recruit highschool gamers in addition to transfers sooner or later. And, I feel, in case you do this over a course of time, you may construct a profitable program. And what an incredible place to do it.”
SMU is shifting this summer time with Pac-12 groups Cal and Stanford to the ACC, giving that league 18 basketball groups. USC is leaving the Pac-12 for the Large Ten.
Three ACC groups made this 12 months’s Elite Eight. That included NC State beating Duke within the South Area remaining on Sunday on the American Airways Middle in Dallas, which is simply over 5 miles from SMU’s campus.
The final time the Mustangs gained within the NCAA tourney was a first-round recreation in opposition to Notre Dame in March 1988, proper in the course of SMU’s soccer program being shut down due to recruiting violations. SMU did not discipline a soccer group in 1987 or 1988 after being the one faculty ever given the so-called dying penalty by the NCAA.
That was within the outdated Southwest Convention, the league SMU was a member of since 1918 earlier than being neglected when 4 SWC groups from Texas joined the Large Eight Convention to start play because the Large 12 in 1996. SMU then went to the Western Athletic Convention for 9 seasons and Convention USA for eight campaigns earlier than becoming a member of the American Athletic Convention in 2013.
SMU’s acceptance into the ACC was introduced in September, and college officers mentioned that $100 million was raised inside only a week after that to assist the transition into the brand new league. The passion continues to be at a fever pitch, with boosters filling the room for Enfield’s introduction together with the pep band and cheerleaders.
“Cannot return 40 years, however definitely cannot think about it has been higher than it’s proper now, in at the least a era,” mentioned Hart, who has been at SMU since 2012. “Large momentum.
“Acquired to reap the benefits of that.”
