Doc Sadler was named UTEP's 16th men's basketball coach on Sunday, director of athletics
Bob Stull announced.
He succeeds Billy Gillispie, who resigned last week to accept the head coaching position at Texas A&M University.
"I'm very fortunate and pleased to be the head basketball coach at the University of Texas at El Paso," said Sadler. "As an assistant coach, it is always a dream to have the opportunity to run your own program. Never did I dream that opportunity would come at the only school in the state of Texas to have won a national championship. This is a great honor, but also a responsibility I look forward to.
"The great thing for us is that even though we lost Billy, we had three outstanding assistants who were all capable of taking over as head coach," Stull said. "We felt it was important to maintain continuity within the coaching staff so we could build on last year's success. Doc has extensive college coaching experience. He has a background similar to Don Haskins, being a disciple of the Iba school of coaching."
Sadler served as an assistant coach for the Miners during the 2003-04 season. He helped UTEP to a 24-8 record, including the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1992. UTEP tied for first place in the Western Athletic Conference, the Miners' first league title in 12 years.
"I can only promise you one thing," Sadler said at his introductory press conference on Sunday. "Every waking minute and every sleeping minute I'm going to do everything I can to continue this ride.
"Basically there are three things that we're going to do," Sadler said. "We're going to play defense, we're going to get a good shot every time and we're going to play hard. The best thing about success is that these guys have had a taste of it and they want more."
In 12 years as a Division I assistant coach, he has been associated with teams that made nine postseason tournament appearances (seven NCAA, two NIT), while coaching 19 future NBA players -- Greg Anderson, Michael Batiste, Tony Battie, Mario Bennett, Randy Brown, Isaac Burton, Cory Carr, Mark Davis, Darvin Ham, Eddie House, Byron Irvin, Maurice Jeffers, Joe Klein, Andrew Lang, Ron Riley, Alvin Robertson, Jason Sasser, Darrell Walker and Rickie Winslow. Sadler recruited eight of those players (Batiste, Battie, Carr, Davis, Ham, House, Jeffers, Sasser).
Sadler was athletic director and head men's basketball coach at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith from 1998-03. He posted a 120-39 record while leading the Lions to four consecutive Bi-State conference championships, two NJCAA Region II championships, and two trips to the NJCAA National Tournament (2001, 2002). He was named Coach of the Year for NJCAA Region II in 2001 and 2002. His 2000-01 squad was 30-5 (fifth in the nation), and the 2001-02 club was 30-6 (seventh in the nation). The Lion basketball program had a 95 percent graduation rate during his tenure as head coach.
Every sophomore who played for Sadler over his last two years at UA-Fort Smith was awarded a scholarship to a four-year university, with eight receiving Division I scholarships.
UA-Fort Smith's four athletic teams posted a combined record of 567-216 during his stint as athletic director, a sparkling .724 winning percentage. Sadler also spearheaded efforts to bring a new basketball arena -- Stubblefield Center -- to the university.
Sadler previously was an assistant at Arkansas (1982-85), Lamar (1985-86), Houston (1986), Chicago State (1987-88), Arkansas-Fort Smith (1988-91, 1997-98), Texas Tech (1991-94) and Arizona State (1994-97). As a member of Bill Frieder's staff at ASU, Sadler helped the Sun Devils reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
As an assistant to James Dickey at Texas Tech, Sadler aided the Red Raiders to the 1993 Southwest Conference championship and NCAA Tournament.
He was also the head coach at County Line High School, compiling a 38-7 record.
Sadler received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Arkansas in 1982, and added a masters of science degree in education from Northeastern State University in 1991. He and his wife, Tonya, have two children, Landon (11 years old) and Matthew (seven years old).
Sadler comes from a coaching family. His late father Charles was a high school football coach in Arkansas for over 30 years, and his brother Pedro is the head golf coach and assistant basketball coach at Fort Smith Southside High School.
|
|
