Orsini meets with Matt Doherty

Well, well. SMU met with Matt Doherty.

If you are choosing between guys that screwed up in the past, you can do no better than Doherty. Doherty went from highly regarded Kansas assistant to wonderkid head coach at Notre Dame to Head Coach of North Carolina in the blink of an eye. He spent three years at North Carolina and was run out of town. Why was he run out of Chapel Hill? Basically because he was a jerk, from what I recall. There was much brew-ha-ha over firing a secretary in the basketball office that everybody loved. There were tirades. There were player revolts. There were anger management classes.

Has he changed? Who knows. Doherty publicly stated that he was "embarrassed" and "humiliated" by the manner in which his dream job had ended. Doherty chalked it up to pressure. After North Carolina, he worked for ESPN for two years before getting back into coaching at Florida Atlantic, in the Atlantic Sun Conference, arguably the worst basketball conference in the league.

Florida Atlantic was picked to finish 8th in the Atlantic Sun; they finished third. By some reports, basketball attendance doubled, others, tripled. Florida Atlantic was upset in the opening round of the Atlantic Sun Tournament.

I've read about 10 articles on the post-UNC Doherty and am now braindead. Rather than summarize, here are a few links:

From Tobacco Road to Boca; Matt Doherty has made most of second chance at FAU

Ed Batista: Matt Doherty: Live and Learn?

Doherty having fun coaching

Dick Vitale

First Impressions: Matt Doherty

Ex-UNC coach no longer feeling blue

Five years ago, Doherty wasn't "a name," he was "THE NAME." Doherty knows his x's and o's; he knows how to recruit. The only question is whether you think he has learned from his past mistakes as he says he has. If you think he has, you probably won't find a better candidate. If you don't, then you should avoid him like the plague. Of course, only Doherty actually knows. Of course, the only person whose opinion actually matters is Orsini.