Interim coach overcomes difficult season

Let’s make this clear: I want Joey James back as the head coach of the USD men’s basketball team.

James is nearing the end of his “prove-it” season as interim coach of the Coyotes, and athletic director David Herbster will be deciding his fate in the not-too-distant future.

Picking a head coach for a college basketball program is a bit of an inexact science and takes a little bit of luck.

Immediately after James was tagged for the interim role, Herbster said a search for the head-coaching role would take place after the season.

Well, Herbster, if you ask me, I don’t think that search needs to take place. You already have your guy, Joey James.

James, who played for the Coyotes from 1997-99 and has been an assistant for USD for the past 10 seasons, has seen his fair share of ups and downs as the interim head coach.

South Dakota looked about as bad as they have all year when the season began by losing 68-46 to St. Bonaventure. They also started the year off with a discouraging 3-9 record.

They did manage to win their first three games of conference play, but they proved to be too inconsistent for that run to last.

But they did have some notable accomplishments. The Coyotes finished the season with six wins in Summit League play. That’s a school high, beating the first two years’ five wins.

The regular season just ended this past Saturday, and James’ team finished 12-17 and 6-8 in the conference.

Two alarming things that will surely leave a bad taste in Herbster’s mouth is the 2-13 record away from the DakotaDome and the effort in the lack of execution in the final two games to close out the season. The two losses to North Dakota State and South Dakota State resulted in the Coyotes getting outscored 157-115.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Let’s remember it’s not hard to forget the difficult circumstances James’ former mentor, Dave Boots, left him with.

Taking over as a first-year head coach is always a strenuous process. I imagine being told you’re the head coach of a team just eight weeks prior to the season makes the process quite a bit tougher.

Coming into the season, James said he wanted to keep many of the same concepts Boots used to run his team, but he wanted to add a little flavor of his own.

One of those changes was that he wanted his team to play a more team-oriented style.

In his first year in Vermillion, sophomore point guard Trey Norris lead the Summit League in assists with 4.2 per game. That’s a notable improvement from Juevol Myles’ 3.0 last year.

James also wanted to make sure his defense was vastly improved. At times, he still used Boots’ notorious zone style, but he also acclimated man-to-man principles into this year’s team.

The Coyotes’ team defense improved by 2 points per game, while opponents shot only 43.6 percent from the field this year, a big improvement from the 46 percent they shot last year.

Seeing the Coyotes improve in two key areas that James harped on from day one is a very good sign.

In my eyes, the most impressive thing James can put on his resume after this season is what he’s been able to do with such an inexperienced roster.

Out of the 10 players used in the rotation, only two had more than two years of D-I experience, senior Trevor Gruis and junior Brandon Bos. Two players, Tavian Pomlee and Tyler Larson, are playing their first year of D-I basketball, while two others, Adam Thoseby and Norris are playing in the Summit League for the first time after getting limited minutes at their previous schools, Utah State and North Texas, respectively. That’s not even including sophomore Eric Robertson, who saw only seven minutes per game as a first-year.

Norris stepped into the starting lineup from the get-go, and Larson went on to join him. I think it’s safe to say all four of these players with limited playing time flashed a bright future and were put into situations that fit their skill levels.

What’s also encouraging is what James was able to do with this year’s roster – getting progression out of players who will be around here for a couple more years.

As a first-year last year, Tyler Flack started 19 games and averaged 5.1 points per game and 3.9 rebounds per game. This year, those numbers were raised to 8.3 and 4.8. It seems Flack has been getting better as the season has gone along.

The same can be said for Norris, Thoseby and sophomore Casey Kasperbauer. Seeing these four sophomores get more comfortable as the season progressed has me excited for what they could do with two more years learning under James.

One of the keys to being successful in college basketball is making sure your players are improving each and every year. That’s why you see teams like NDSU (six seniors) and SDSU (four seniors) atop the Summit League. Instead of complaining about his lack of seniors (two), James zeroed in on continued improvement of each individual.

Keeping James around long-term probably wouldn’t be the unanimous decision amongst USD fans and faculty. Why not? Herbster will ultimately make the decision.

The last, and possibly biggest, test for James is what lies ahead this weekend — the Summit League tournament. The results, positive or negative, will likely have a big say in James’ future at USD.

From what I’ve seen thus far, James is the man for the Coyotes.