Welcome back, Sean Woods
It’s time to welcome an Unforgettable home.
Today, Sean Woods was formally introduced as the new head coach at Morehead State after four years as Mississippi Valley State, filling the vacancy left by Donnie Tyndall, who accepted the head coaching job at Southern Mississippi last month. In this past season at Mississippi Valley State, Woods led the Delta Devils to a 21-13 record and the school’s fifth-ever NCAA tournament appearance before losing to Western Kentucky in the first round.
As you would expect, Woods was very candid about his return to the Bluegrass, saying “Murray State better be worried about Morehead State” and that he wants both Kentucky and Louisville on his schedule. “You still have to play big boys if you want big-boy notoriety,” Woods said, quoting Gonzaga Coach Mark Few. Woods took Few’s philosophy even further, promising to make Morehead State the “Gonzaga of the South.”
Woods is clearly ecstatic about the move, calling Morehead State the “Taj Mahal” compared to Mississippi Valley State (ouch). In fact, he found out he got the job while he was at the Huntington airport on Friday: “I had no one to hug, no one to high five … I didn’t want to look like a crazy guy hugging people I didn’t know.” (How awesome is that visual, by the way?) By the time Woods got off his next flight in Charlotte, North Carolina, he had 96 text messages congratulating him.
His enthusiasm will surely help on the recruiting trail, as will his history at Kentucky: “I earned every bit of it … There’s probably still some of my blood in Memorial Coliseum and Rupp Arena from the exorcist that I played for.” However, Woods was careful to point out that he is “Sean Woods the Morehead State coach,” not “Sean Woods the Kentucky basketball player.” When asked the pressure that comes with following Tyndall, who led Morehead State to three of the last four NCAA Tournaments, Woods said that he doesn’t believe in the word pressure: “I work too hard … no other way but to be successful.” Woods is wasting no time preparing for the upcoming season, promising a style similar to Tyndall’s, but “faster, more exciting and entertaining.” He said that if his players buy into his system, “we’ll go places we never dreamed before,” bringing “national notoriety” to Morehead State basketball.
During possibly the best time to be a basketball fan in the state of Kentucky, things just got even more exciting. Welcome back, Sean.
20 Comments for Welcome back, Sean Woods
Congrats to Cat Sean! But Racers aren’t worried about Morehaed. In fact, they like Morehead.
So would I! Slam
Another great move by Morehead State Athletic Director Brian Hutchinson. Doing an excellent job for that school and program in multiple sports.
Morehead went to two of the last four NCAA tournaments, not 3 of 4. They have been alternating with Murray.
National notoriety? Doesn’t everyone already like More Head?
Julius Mays looks like Darryl McDaniels from Run-DMC.
http://www.cafepress.com/dbeeztees
Met Sean at the Final 4 and got autograph. He was a real gentleman with a good looking family. Congrats and good luck.
Love Sean (all former Cats), but I hope he doesn’t F up all the good will that he has with the BBN by talk’n stuff trying to get Cal / UK on the schedule. I wouldn’t mind playing Sean / Morehead, but until we can make it work, I don’t wanna hear all the typical little brother garbage ya gotta hear.
I personally think UK should play Murray State before Morehead, we’ve played Morhead way more recently than Murray.
your jokes are so juvenile. grow up
Big CONGRATS to Sean Woods. Where else but in Kentucky can you visit Big Bone Lick and Morehead?
Sean woods didn’t have a single humble, gracious thing to say in hos press conference. His arrogance turned me off and he needs to be careful: pride comes before a fall.
His*
I’ve gotta agree with MKG. I didn’t see the press conf, so maybe the quotes are out of context (I hope so), but there is a difference between confidence/enthusiasm and hubris. It sounded like he was venturing into the latter, but I’ll give him a pass and assume it won’t continue.
Looking forward to his and Morehead’s success.
Can we find out what airline Sean took? I’d like to find out what kind of drinks they were serving. Otherwise, I wish Sean the very best of fortune at Mo’head!
Sean said all kinds of gracious things, handled himself very well showed confidence and enthusiam. Right man for the job, I don’t what #12 watched!
‘…being a player at UK will help in recruitment…’. Sure. Just like Kyle Macy.
His team blew the biggest lead I’ve ever seen in an end game situation. He looked like a deer in headlights and his kids played the same way. They couldn’t get the ball down the court the last 5 minutes of the game and were completely out of control.
Very classy man.Definatly earned his stripes as a coach and player. Good luck to him.
Sean may want to ask the last coach who threw jabs at Murray State how it turned out for him. That would be the unemployed Jimmy Tillette, former Samford head coach. As one of my Racer bretheren said, “Be careful when poking a horse … from behind.”