Woodward named Black Bears coach Longtime assistant is 20th in school history

ORONO – When University of Maine athletic director Patrick Nero started his search for someone to replace departed men’s basketball coach John Giannini, he had a gut instinct who the best candidate was.

Just 10 days later, Nero introduced that same candidate to the public at a Tuesday afternoon press conference at Alfond Arena. Longtime assistant and chief recruiter Ted Woodward becomes the 20th coach in program history.

“I started with that gut instinct, but in this day and age, with the profile and importance of this position, you want to make sure you’ve done your homework,” Nero said. “I don’t know that we’ve ever had a coach hired in 10 days here, but it just reconfirmed the quality of the man we have here.

“We hired an outside firm to come in and help me do a background search and everything we found out showed he was the perfect fit for us and we were lucky to have him… So I wasn’t going to drag out the process. Ten days was plenty of time.”

Woodward signed a four-year contract with an initial salary of $85,000 per year. Nero also confirmed that UMaine received a $110,000 buyout payment from La Salle to let Giannini out of his contract. Giannini’s salary was $105,000 a year before he took the La Salle job.

“Every one of our coaches has a buyout in their contracts if they leave before they run out. For us, it’s somewhat new,” Nero explained. “At this time, it hasn’t been earmarked yet because the budget year has already begun and we’ll treat that as we have any other revenue and it will stay within the athletic department.”

Nero actually killed two coaching vacancies with one move and earned high praise from all of the team’s current players in the process by promoting both Woodward and assistant coach Calvin Oldham, who is now replacing Woodward as associate head coach.

“Calvin is absolutely awesome,” Woodward said. “He has experiences in Europe and working as a scout for the Toronto Raptors that others don’t and I’m thrilled he’s staying. I couldn’t be happier.”

“I’m really glad to be here. I truly believe this is one for the good guys,” Oldham said. “It’s funny. Coach Giannini called me last week and told me I’d be better off this afternoon than I was when I woke up this morning. I found me a basketball family here.”

This is the first head coaching job for the 40-year-old Woodward, who had been Giannini’s top recruiter the last eight seasons. Before coming to Maine, he was the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at Central Connecticut State University for five years and helped CCSU set a Division I-era school record for wins. From 1989 to 1991, he was an assistant/recruiter at Harvard University. He began his coaching career as an assistant under Jim Calhoun at the University of Connecticut (1986-89).

The Suffern, N.Y., native was recently recognized by his peers in two surveys by TheInsidersHoops.com and rivals100hoops.com as one of the top assistants in the country.

“I’ve been a Division I assistant for 18 years in some great programs and that’s a great opportunity, but at the same time, I’ve always been about being in the right situations,” Woodward said. “I’ve never just chased the dream to become a head coach, but I’m very happy that opportunity came here.”

Woodward said his decision to turn down an offer from Giannini to work at La Salle came down to three things: family (wife Linda, daughter Jillian, and son Tommy), the UMaine athletic department hierarchy, and the players.

“My family loves it here and living in Maine and we love the university,” he explained. “Another big factor is we really are very confident in the direction of the athletic department under Patrick Nero over the last year and I think it’s a great place to come to work every day. He’s made it a special place. The other factor is our student-athletes, who I’ve had a long association with.”

Those players were certainly in Woodward’s corner.

“These last two weeks, a lot of questions were going around, but I’m excited. I mean, coach Woodward is the perfect man for this job and it’s going to be a smooth transition,” said senior forward Mark Flavin. “Basically, he’s the reason I’m up here. He knows my family in and out, and he knows me on a personal and academic level.”

The players – who found out about Woodward’s hiring 15 minutes before the press conference – were overjoyed.

“It’s definitely the most comfortable thing for our team. He knows the players, he knows the teachers, and he knows the community,” said senior guard-forward Joe Campbell of Bangor. “And you want someone who’s gonna want to be here and not just use this job to get a better one somewhere else in another year or two.”

“We’re obviously all very excited. I think coach Wood is the perfect fit, not just for us older players but for the younger guys who have already committed to come here,” said senior guard Chris Markwood. “It’s great to have this stability.”

“That’s the one thing I was most worried about was someone coming in and changing our whole system,” Flavin added. “The chemistry this team has right now is just amazing.”

The Black Bears are coming off their second 20-win season and second appearance in the America East title game in the last three seasons. In the last six seasons, Maine has advanced at least as far as the AE semifinals five times.