Rob Benchley, Athletic Director
Rashon Richardson, our 3rd assistant coach, had just one year left on his contract. We tried to negotiate with him to get an extension, but he wanted to move up to a higher level. We had no intention of cutting either Bryan King or Justin Traore, our first and second assistant coaches, loose. We realized that even if Rashon were to stay with us for remaining year on his contract, he would be leaving after that since there’s no expectation that our 1st or 2nd assistant jobs will be available next year either. Rashon said he wanted to test the waters to try to get a 1st or 2nd assistant coaching job at another school. But had we held his job for him and he had gotten a new job, that would have left us with an opening after many of the better coaches had been hired this year. That was unacceptable, so we told Rashon if he wanted to talk with other programs, he needed to do by being totally free from us. Rashon decided to leave and take his chances. So we had to find and hire a new 3rd assistant.
We considered a few assistant coaches who were good scouts and then made an early offer to Jody Hedde, who had been the 3rd assistant at Virginia Tech. We thought he likely was looking for a 1st or 2nd assistant position and might possibly turn us down flat. He considered our offer though, and to our surprise, he accepted. After spending the past 4 years at a losing program, I think he’s excited to be coming to a winning program that has been on the upswing. Jody is 50 years old and we signed him to a 4-year contract. We’re excited to be getting him. Whereas Rashon’s skills in areas other than scouting were a bit stronger, Jody’s scouting skills are very good, so we feel he will be an upgrade for us in that role. He’s already begun studying our Big West opponents and is encouraging me to set our pre-conference schedule in stone so he can focus on those teams as well.
Oh, and Rashon Richardson? He got hired by Columbia as their 1st Assistant, so things have worked out well for him.
Fred’s assistants now populate many programs in Division 1 basketball:
Chris Evans is the 1st Asst at Western Carolina
Kevin Abney is head coach at Boston University (the Terriers were 12-18 last season)
Robert Wilson is the 3rd Asst for Dayton
Darrell Montgomery is the head coach at Tulsa (the Golden Hurricanes were 6-24 last season)
Jeremy Anderson is the 2nd Asst at Dayton
Landon Friel is head coach at Florida International (after being as asst. at Boston College for 5 years, he was hired by the Panthers a week ago)
Rashon Richardson is 1st Asst at Columbia
C.J. Costa is the 1st Asst for Southern Illinois
Bob Rowland, David Woodruff, and Eugene Wallace have retired from coaching