Schools enlist green leaders more commonly than you might think, even in a prestigious league where benches bristle with veteran coaches. Quite often the first-time coaches are alums. Just this season Louisville hired former Cardinals player Kenny Payne, whose coaching experience is as an assistant in college and the pros.
Such choices have been made since the ACC’s early days. Many turned out quite well.
Think Vic Bubas, retired in 1969 after 10 highly successful years at Duke, the only head coaching job he ever held. Bubas came to Duke during the spring of 1959 after a stint as an assistant under Hall of Famer Everett Case at N.C. State. Case had built the dominant program in the region, winning 9 of 10 league tournament titles — and thus secured the single available NCAA Tournament bid — in the Southern and Atlantic Coast conferences from 1947 through 1956.
Case, by the way, was hired at N.C. State lacking collegiate experience, coming directly from a high school coaching turn in Indiana. That result was far more successful than the Maryland tenure of Baltimore prep coach Bob Wade. He lasted three seasons and earned a crushing probation for the school.
To compete with Case, North Carolina hired future Hall of Famer Frank McGuire, fresh from directing St. John’s to the 1952 Final Four. Half a decade later McGuire’s Tar Heels went undefeated, running off 32 straight wins to capture the 1957 NCAA championship behind Player of the Year Lennie Rosenbluth.
Uncomfortably left behind, Duke hired the innovative Bubas, a masterful program salesman and a notably wide-ranging, well-organized recruiter. Bubas had played guard under Case, then worked beside him, rising to be Case’s chief assistant. His first season at Durham was also his first as a head coach.
Setting a precedent to be followed successfully by two University of North Carolina coaches, and hopefully by Scheyer, Bubas immediately led the Blue Devils to a surprising ACC Tournament title in 1960 and an advance to the NCAA regional finals.
Following the 1961 season McGuire was invited to leave Chapel Hill, his recruiting shenanigans earning NCAA probation. He was replaced by unknown assistant Dean Smith. Bubas and Smith, both arguably risky hires, were each 30 years old upon becoming head coaches at Duke and UNC, respectively.
Smith, like Scheyer, played guard on an NCAA championship team, although he rode the bench for Kansas, coached by Hall of Famer…
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