Enfield excited about SMU opportunity, challenge

New SMU head basketball coach Andy Enfield has been here before and he’s ready to take on the challenge of bringing success to the program as it transitions to the ACC.

When Enfield took over at USC, the program was going through a different kind of change. But he was able to navigate through a tough first two years to make five NCAA tournaments over the next eight possible seasons.

That’s what he wants to do at SMU.

“This is a premier institution, university in the country academically, athletically,” Enfield said. “We have to get to that point in the men’s basketball program. So it’s a challenge to the coaching staff, a challenge to the players and everybody within our program. We all have to do this together. I don’t do anything by myself.

“I have great support staff as a head coach, I try to hire the best people possible to do that. Recruit players that want to be here, that want to work and want to elevate this program to the national level. And so, what that looks like is to be determined, but we’re excited to get started immediately.”

How his staff will look is yet to be determined since everything just became official on Monday. He could bring his staff from USC with him because there is a level of loyalty and familiarity that comes with it. Enfield could also bring in all new people or a mix of both.

One thing is for sure though, there shouldn’t be a shortage of options to go with. And building the staff is a top priority along with getting to know the players.

“I have about 700, 800 text messages now, and counting. Whenever in this business, that’s expected,” Enfield said. “I try to get back to every single person. I was an assistant coach once and aspiring to move up the ranks as an assistant coach and then become a head coach. So we have a lot of interest in this job as an assistant coach pool and I think we’ll try to find some great ones and also talk to some of my former coaches at USC if their contracts are up because they’re outstanding as well.”

One tool that will be at Enfield’s disposal that wasn’t during either of his first two head coaching stops, the transfer portal. What took Enfield two-plus seasons to get things going at USC was waiting for his high school recruiting classes to get to him and then have the success follow.

At SMU he won’t have to wait.

“Right now, with the transfer portal, there are people, there are really good players in there,” Enfield said. “We have to try to recruit, and similar to my other two stops as head coach at Florida Gulf Coast and at USC, it’s a vision for the future. It’s what’s in it for them as players and can they see themselves being the reason why SMU basketball becomes a national brand. We’re hopeful that they can.”

The other piece is NIL. That is something there is no shortage of at SMU. There are people ready and willing to support the program.

“NIL is very important for our players to be able to do some things that normal college students can do. It’s such a demanding job,” Enfield said. “When I call it a job, a full scholarship, they have their academics, they have weight training, they have conditioning, they have practice, they have games, they have travel. It’s very challenging to be a student athlete at this level.

“So to be able to support them through the Name, Image and Likeness I think is very beneficial. And it’s just made recruiting a little different now. But the NIL commitment here with the Boulevard Collective and some of the people I’ve spoken to is at a very high level and our players deserve it and we’re looking forward to recruiting at the highest level across the country.”

That’s just another tool Enfield and his staff will have in its arsenal when it comes to recruiting. There are a lot of selling points for SMU right now.

“I think you have to recruit locally first. Dallas and the state of Texas has tremendous talent and it’s nice to be able to get in your car and drive,” Enfield said. “It’s a lot easier to recruit locally first, build a program and then go out nationally. Now the transfer portal is a little different because in the NIL, it makes national recruiting a little different than it used to be. But we want the city of Dallas and players in this area to feel great about the opportunity to come here and be a Mustang, so that’s priority No. 1 on the recruiting trail.”

There will certainly be changes to SMU’s roster by the time the season begins. There will be players on the current roster who will find new homes and some that will stay. That’s part of the process Enfield is diving right into. Building a roster is key, but developing the roster is just as important.

Being able to do those things is how Enfield can make SMU a successful basketball program in the ACC.

“Well building anything is difficult, and we know the challenges,” Enfield said. “But we’re here as a coaching staff to develop the players that are here, fill in the roster with some transfers and then recruit high school players as well as transfers in the future. And I think if you do that over a course of time, you can build a successful program and what a great place to do it.”

When the time does come to start the 2024-25 season, it will be Enfield’s first game as the SMU head coach. But it won’t be his first time coaching in Moody Coliseum. He has first-hand knowledge of how difficult it can be for an opposing coach and team to come to Moody when the madness is at full tilt.

“We played twice in 2017, in the NCAA tournament, and came back here the following year. I can remember how the students were right behind the bench or to the side of the bench,” Enfield said. “They said a few, nice choice words to me as an opposing coach and I got a nice chuckle out of that. But the arena itself is incredible.

“We walked out of there, SMU beat us, and I can remember walking out and saying, ‘Wow, that is a tremendous home court advantage.’ The renovations they did to Moody are outstanding. It’s a perfect sized college basketball arena. It has everything you need. And so I think this could be just an outstanding home court advantage. It certainly was the day we came down here many years ago and played.”