Scott Padgett (Mississippi State Athletics Photo)
Morehead State knew to appreciate what coach Preston Spradlin did in his tenure as the Eagles’ head basketball coach by going 140-109 in his tenure but in the last four years he was 94-40 overall and 58-16 in Ohio Valley Conference the past four seasons with two NCAA Tournament berths and one NIT trip.
Spradlin led Morehead to back to back conference titles after Morehead had not won an OVC regular-season title in 20 years.
That’s why James Madison, which went 32-4 last season with a win over Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament, named Spradlin its head coach Friday.
So what does Morehead do now?
Obviously the next coach will inherit a much stronger program than Spradlin did but that doesn’t mean the job is the right fit for everyone. The next coach needs in-state connections and a way to connect to fans like Spradlin did.
Perhaps a good choice could be former UK player Scott Padgett, who is currently an assistant coach at Mississippi State. Padgett played on UK’s 1998 national championship team as well as the 1997 team that lost in the national title game and the 1999 team that got beat in the NCAA regional final.
He was the 28th choice by the Utah Jazz in the 1999 NBA draft and played seven seasons with four different teams. He scored 1,874 points in 448 NBA games.
Spradlin spent time on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky in off-court roles. Padgett spent the 2009-10 season at UK on Calipari’s staff along with former teammate Tony Delk. Padgett was an assistant at Manhattan College for the 2010-11 season under former teammate Steve Masiello before joining the Samford coaching staff in 2012. Two years later he was promoted to head coach and had the job for six years going 84-115.
Padgett became an assistant at New Mexico after leaving Samford before coming back to the SEC to work at Mississippi State.
One big plus for Padgett is that he has recruited 10 players from Kentucky to play in New York, Alabama and Mississippi. Obviously he knows the high school talent base in the Bluegrass and already has established recruiting connections. Padgett was a high school standout in Louisville and his Kentucky roots are a source of pride with him so there’s no doubt he would make recruiting the state an even bigger priority if he was coaching in Kentucky.
Padgett has always been a people person. He can relate to fans/boosters and my guess would be a great fundraiser because he would understand the importance of doing so to help the program.
I reached out to Padgett to see if he would be interested in being a head coach again and it was a definite yes. And yes, he’s aware that the Morehead job is open.
Spradlin has shown Morehead can win and be a NCAA tourney team. He did such a good job that my guess is he had a choice of jobs before opting for James Madison.
Following Spradlin will not be easy but Padgett has immediate name recognition in the Bluegrass and plenty of coaching experience. He always wants a chance to be a head coach again, so maybe Morehead is right for him and he’s right for Morehead.
3 Responses
Scott Padgett as the HC with Jeff Sheppard, Jamal Mashburn & other genuine UK players who have their all to make UK the best it could be would be 100 times better than the fraud and his yes men who don’t contribute squat.
Imagine –
• no more rambling LIES in 1/3 sentences that trail off into oblivion
• no more snubbing talented players by not offering a scholarship because they are KY born
• no more CHEATING the few players on the roster from KY out of playing time
Morehead state was on its way to being the second best school in the state trailing only western Kentucky. Yes James Madison had a great year but most of them players will be gone after this year. I would never leave a mid major for another mid major. Establish some roots and continue building on your program. Yes they lose there best 2 players but morehead should return 4 or 5 guys that contributed this year. If spaldin would have hit the portal on 2 or 3 players and went all in on 2 great recruits they could have made even more noise next year than this year. If they wouldn’t have lost 4 of the last 6 games at the end of the year they would have had a even better record. I just don’t understand this move. Maybe his salary is twice as much I’m I wouldn’t leave something that’s going great to the great unknown.
MSU should take a hard look at Padgett. He has shown he can recruit Kentucky kids. Maybe he would pick up where Spradlin left off and have a nice run before he moves on to his next job…down I-64.