This story originally ran on Oct. 19 following Atlantic 10 media day
WASHINGTON — New Dayton coach Anthony Grant had a feeling about UMass coach Matt McCall’s potential from way back. For 10 minutes it looked like he was about to hire him.
After serving as then-Florida coach Billy Donovan’s top assistant during the Gators’ first of two national championship teams in 2005-2006, Grant was hired to be the head coach at VCU.
He offered McCall, who’d gone from student manager to graduate assistant coach, his director of basketball operations job. That position, while technically administrative in nature, is often the last step before landing a full-time assistant coaching position.
McCall planned to take the job until the phone rang.
“I thought Coach Donovan was calling to congratulate me,” McCall said. “He was offering me the same job at Florida.”
Instead of moving to Virginia, he stayed in Florida for another two seasons. He was on Donovan’s staff that won another championship in 2007 and coincidentally lost in the NIT semifinals to UMass in 2008. After that season he was hired as a full-time assistant coach at Florida Atlantic.
“I thought he had a chance to be an outstanding coach,” Grant said. “Matt started as a student. He had a tremendous passion and a desire to engulf himself in everything we were doing at the University of Florida over the years,” Grant said. “We were able to give him multiple duties and responsibilities. He embraced it and excelled at it. He had unbelievable relationships with the players and trust with the coaches.”
Grant said Donovan’s management style was conducive to producing future head coaches.
“Billy wanted everyone to share an opinion no matter what your title was. Matt had an opportunity to give input and learn and get better,” he said. “Coach Donovan’s style and willingness to hear different opinions and involve everyone has helped everyone.”
Even though McCall didn’t work for him, he still looked at Grant as both a mentor and a resource.
“He was tremendous. I was extremely close with Anthony and had a front-row seat to watch him operate as an assistant coach. He was one of the best assistant coaches in the country at that point,” said McCall, who called him often during his two seasons (2015-17) as head coach at Chattanooga. “I took so many tools from him and stayed in touch with him over the years. I relied on him on him during my time at Chattanooga. He’s been terrific for me throughout my career.”
After three years at VCU and six at Alabama, Grant, 51, spent the last two years as an assistant under Donovan with the Oklahoma City Thunder before being hired at Dayton, his alma mater. He wasn’t surprised at McCall’s rapid ascent in coaching.
“Watching his progress over the years, I’m really proud of him. I’m not surprised he’s had the trajectory he’s had in coaching,” Grant said. He’s a great guy, an extremely hard worker, extremely focused in terms of understanding what he needs to do to be successful. Matt will put his stamp on the UMass program and give the best version of himself.”
UMass and Dayton play in Ohio on Jan. 6.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage