Bill Herrion got fired after 18 seasons at New Hampshire.
Herrion's career would be interesting even if he never coached at ECU. Currently, he sits 3rd all-time in losses in NCAA history, only 3 behind Leonard Hamilton who he was ahead of until this year, and probably would have overtaken again.
At 464-472 overall, there is no record I am aware of any coach that has coached nearly 1000 games and has an under .500 record. It's pretty much unprecedented in coaching. He's 46th all-time in games coached and pretty much everyone else around him are hall of fame or at least has a winning record.
New Hampshire is a hard job with little funding in the larger picture, but is it really that fundamentally different than Vermont? Should it be? Vermont spends 500k more. New Hampshire is one of the only schools in the nation a coach could have a record like that and keep coaching.
What's crazy is his last 4 seasons were one of his most solid stretches there. No losing seasons and New Hampshire finished 3rd in the American East in each of the last 3 seasons. Third place is the highest finish he ever had and he only did it 2 other times in the other 15 seasons.
Why fire him now, what really changed now than at other points in the last 18 years. At one point, 9 seasons in he still hadn't had a winning season and was 6-24 and survived that. That was the midway point of his career there and you could argue the last 9 seasons were actually reasonable. Why now.
I'm wouldn't argue with the firing he's had nearly decades at this point and it would have been justified after 3 years much less 18. I get wanting to move on it's just interesting that now is the time after going 15-15 and 5-24 in 2019 wasn't.
I think when he was at Drexel he had access to a hotbed of talent and was at a large school with a lot more resources, relative to most of the conference they were in. That was the biggest reason for the early success and finding Malik Rose down the street. It was something of a perfect storm. He still did a good job completing the task there. 3 NCAA's and an NIT including beating Memphis in the NCAA tournament 161-71 (.70.2%).
When ECU hired him he was in the top 10 in winning percentage among active coaches in the NCAA. In retrospect, it's still a crazy hire that ECU pulled a 40-year-old coach with the resume he had at the time. On paper, it was an incredible hire that in retrospect and a terrible fit. His recruiting ties were in Philly and the northeast and getting those players to ECU was always going to be a harder task than getting the guys from Farmville or eastern NC. The plan was flawed but it's a hire you make all day, every day.
Herrion had options so it was weird even then he came here. Some said he thought he was going to the CAA at ECU (Drexel would be in the CAA within 2 years) but I think he knew CUSA was in the works all along or would be. He probably also thought he could win anywhere back then. Dooley had also underachieved and had some injuries that contributed and left a talented team to him. That had to be another attractive aspect that brought him here.
To take over that underachieving team and win quick. That was the consensus nationally that he would win from day one Sports Illustrated picked ECU 1st and to go to the NCAA out of the CAA with that talent and Herrion leading it. I can see why they would be attractive and to do something at a place that hadn't been done and was on the move to a big-time conference.
I don't think ECU killed his career. He would have been exposed eventually at other stops but I do wonder how differently his career would have been though had he stayed at Drexel or in Philly. They were in the CAA within 2 seasons which was a better conference. He probably has a similar run to Bruiser Flit if he stays. Some good seasons and some bad and coaches a long time there.
An A10 job especially Temple would have been a much better fit IMO and given him a better chance to max his abilities. In the end, he had chances and one of the longest careers ever in coaching so he still won from that perspective.
