Evansville hires Celtics assistant Walter McCarty as head coach
Evansville has gone to the NBA ranks for their men’s basketball coach, with Celtics assistant Walter McCarty coming in to replace Marty Simmons.
After 11 seasons with him as head coach, Evansville parted ways with Marty Simmons after the season. The school’s new men’s basketball coach will come from the NBA ranks, with Boston Celtics assistant coach Walter McCarty set to be introduced at a press conference Friday evening.
McCarty has been assistant under Brad Stevens since 2013, and he coaches the Celtics’ summer league team last summer. Prior to that he was an assistant under Jim O’Brien with the Indiana Pacers from 2010-2011, and under Rick Pitino at Louisville from 2007-2010.
McCarty is a native of Evansville, playng high school basketball there before moving on the University of Kentucky. He played under Pitino there, before being drafted 19th overall by the New York Knicks in the 1996 NBA Draft. His 10 NBA seasons were spent with the Knicks, Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers, mostly with the Celtics (eight seasons).
Former Saint Louis assistant Calbert Cheaney and Valparaiso assistant Dave Ragland, who are also natives of Evansville, were on a short list of finalists to replace Simmons. Ragland apparently did very well in his interview, and may get an offer to be McCarty’s lead assistant.
The Aces never made the NCAA Tournament under Simmons, with one close call on a buzzer beater by Northern Iowa in the MVC tournament final a couple years ago, and they haven’t done so at all since 1999.
McCarty may lose a bunch of players to transfer after Simmons’ departure, led by Ryan Taylor (last year’s leading scorer) and promising guard Dru Smith. That’s not uncommon when a coaching change is made and kids want to leave when the coach that recruited them is gone, but perhaps McCarty can keep the exodus to a minimum.
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In any case, McCarty comes with coaching experience in the NBA to appeal to recruits. For whatever it’s worth, having a native son in place might give the Evansville program a long-awaited boost on a national scale.