Big Shoes to Fill: Time Will Tell For Successors at St. Joseph's and Belmont

Time will tell if it was worth the wait for hand-picked Belmont successor Casey Alexander after serving as an aide to Rick Byrd for 16 seasons (prior to six campaigns as bench boss of Lipscomb) plus previous coach-in-waiting Aaron McKie replacing Phil Martelli at St. Joseph's. Much is made of the struggles for an individual when succeeding a coaching legend such as active mentors as Purdue's Matt Painter (Gene Keady), Maryland's Mark Turgeon (Gary Williams) and Florida's Michael White (Billy Donovan). But only nine of the successors on the following list posted losing marks during their tenures compared to twice as many of the predecessors.

Syracuse, where Mike Hopkins previously was coach-in-waiting to replace Jim Boeheim, was likely the next example showing how celebrated coaches lay a solid foundation that can't possibly be messed up. But Hopkins got antsy waiting for Boeheim to finally hang 'em up and chose to become Washington's bench boss. Rick Pitino joined Gene Bartow, John Brady, Mike Davis, Bill Guthridge, Joe B. Hall, Dick Harp, Jack Kraft, Pete Newell, John Oldham and Lou Rossini as coaches who took teams from the same institution to the Final Four after replacing an icon.

While Alexander hopes some of Byrd's magic rubs off on him at Belmont, it's not all peaches and cream inheriting a stable program. Before guiding South Florida to the NCAA playoffs in 2012, Stan Heath compiled a modest 82-71 record with Arkansas in five seasons from 2002-03 through 2006-07 after succeeding Nolan Richardson. Richardson (389-169 mark with the Hogs from 1986-2002), John Beilein (278-150 with Michigan from 2008-19) and Steve Fisher (386-209 with San Diego State from 2002-17) and their successors didn't quite make the following list regarding the level of success for successors of legends who won more than 400 games at DI level for a single school:

*CCNY de-emphasized its program after the 1952-53 season.

NOTE: Olson formally announced his retirement less than a month before the 2008-09 season when the Wildcats compiled a 21-14 record under Russ Pennell.