New Faces: We got ‘em, so let’s start there.
On March 13, 2012, Jimmy Tillette was dismissed as head men’s basketball coach of the Samford Bulldogs. Gone with Tillette were the assistants and staff members who led Samford basketball, for the most part, since 1997. The program had decent success under Tillette (NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000, 2006 OVC Tournament Finals, 229 wins) for a mid-major with little winning history (Samford has played basketball since 1901, but is 223 games below .500 when not coached by John Brady or Tillette). The program’s sad recent years never reached that previous success (the tragic death of Jim Griffin two weeks before the 2009-‘10 season, three conference moves and six losing records in ten years, 19+ losses for the last three seasons). Even so, you knew what to expect with Samford basketball: good student/citizen players, Princeton offense, matchup zone defense. No longer; Samford has even run out of Merritts—Jeffrey, the third of three brothers to play at Samford, finished his eligibility with a loss to Furman in the first round of the 2012 SoCon Tournament. The Merritt brothers started 301 combined games, scored more than 3300 total points, accounted for the University’s first All-American award, and had at least one brother on the roster every season since 2002
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