Acuff Formally Introduced as Samford’s New Head Basketball Coach
The new era for Samford basketball has officially gotten underway as new Samford head basketball coach Lennie Acuff was formally introduced. Acuff was introduced in front of friends, family and students alike right in the middle of Harry’s Coffeehouse on Samford’s campus.
Acuff turn to speak followed remarks from Samford Board of Trustees member Bill Stevens, Samford President Dr. Beck Taylor, and Samford Athletic Director Martin Newton.
Newton mentioned his three things he specifically wanted in his new basketball coach. “We talked about three criteria for this job,” said Newton. “Number one, we wanted somebody who embraced and understood the Christian mission of this university. The second criteria is that we wanted somebody that can do the job, a proven winner. Someone who has shown a long time of success. The third thing is we wanted somebody that wanted this job.”
Newton continued, “Coach it took us about a minute into our conversation to realize that he wanted this job. In fact, I think he said the words, “his dream job”.”
Then it was Coach Acuff’s turn to take the podium after he was given a new home white Samford basketball jersey with Acuff and the number 30 on the back. The number 30 signifies Acuff as the 30th Samford men’s basketball head coach in school history.
Acuff then discussed the story of how he was reached out to by Samford AD Martin Newton about this job and before that text message, he was fully convinced that he was going to retire at Lipscomb.
“When I went to bed Saturday night in San Antonio (at the Final Four), if they said what’s a percentage you’re going to finish your career at Lipscomb, I would’ve said 99.9%,” said Acuff. “Then on Sunday morning at 6:00, I got a text from Martin Newton. He said, “can we have a conversation?” “I said yes we can and about 36 hours later, I wasn’t going to retire at Lipscomb.”
Acuff then went on to thank his family and discuss his first experience with Samford which was 35 years ago at Belhaven College. Acuff was the coach at Belhaven when John Brady was the coach at Samford. He remembers specifically what happened in that game with the game going down to the wire losing by two to Samford.
To continue the Samford connection, former Samford coach Jimmy Tillette’s son Tristan, played for Acuff at Berry College. Acuff mentioned the impact that Jimmy Tillette had on him.
One more Samford connection is that he recruited former Samford women’s basketball coach Mike Morris to play for him.
Acuff also discussed the impact that former Samford head coach Bucky McMillan had on this university.
“What he (Bucky) has done here, what he did for the university is incredible. The recognition and branding that came to this university because of what Bucky’s done, I have so much respect for that. I am just so happy for him and it’s an honor to try and continue what he’s done.”
He did have a message for those in and around Samford about what this new era of Samford basketball is about. “I will not try to be Bucky, that’s not my job. That’s not it at all. My job is to try to keep Samford basketball at the top of the Southern Conference. That’s my job. Bucky what he did is unbelievable.”
Acuff also then made sure to specifically mention the players and people at Lipscomb and how thankful he is for them.
So what comes next? Acuff, who just finished his 35th year of coaching, knows the challenge of the next 30-45 days that lie ahead. He has to fill his staff and reportedly his first addition is his son, Will, who was recently on staff at the University of Montevallo.
We asked Coach Acuff about in this day and age of college basketball, how he will recruit players to come play for him and develop his culture.
“Well I think honesty is really important up front”, said Acuff. “I think clarity is kindness and you tell them what the expectations are. We will be right up front and I don’t think it’s recruiting, it’s presenting an opportunity. The problem right now is that a lot of it is microwave recruiting. You have to do a good job of getting the right kind of guys. The next 30 days if you don’t do a good job with those it is going to be a miserable winter. There’s a lot of opportunity and this is a great place to go to school and play basketball.”
As of now, Samford has only two players returning from last season and one new commitment. No word yet on whether two recruits that signed with Samford under the previous staff are coming or not. The next step is filling the rest of Acuff’s staff and then start recruiting the portal.
Acuff told us that he is “really close to finishing our staff and we’re going to get that done.” He knows that there is a lot of work to be done to filling the staff and finding new players.
The Bucky McMillan era is officially over as it is time for a new era to begin. The Lennie Acuff era begins now.
