Andy Enfield announced as SMU's new men's basketball coach
SMU will have a new men’s basketball coach in its first ACC season.
The Mustangs announced Monday they've hired USC coach Andy Enfield after firing Rob Lanier at the end of the 2023-24 season. Lanier was at SMU for just two seasons and the Mustangs went 20-13 in their final season in the AAC.
Enfield’s move to Southern Methodist comes as the Trojans had a rough season in 2023-24. USC had high preseason expectations with a roster that featured Bronny James and No. 1 recruit Isaiah Collier. Things did not go as planned.
USC finished the season at 15-18 and was over .500 for just three days in 2024. The Trojans allowed opponents to shoot 36% from the 3-point line and average 74 points a game.
The porous defensive season snapped a three-year NCAA tournament streak, though the Trojans hadn’t made it out of the first round of the tournament since advancing to the Elite Eight in 2021. Had Enfield returned to the Trojans in 2024-25, he would have been under considerable pressure to have a great season in USC’s inaugural Big Ten campaign.
Enfield spent 10 seasons at USC after a two-year run at Florida Gulf Coast. He came to USC in 2013-14 after FGCU made a run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed during the 2013 NCAA tournament.
Overall, the Trojans made the tournament in five of his 10 seasons and were 220-147 in his tenure with seven 20-win seasons.
SMU is looking to have sustained basketball success for the first time in nearly a decade and is jumping from the American Athletic Conference to the tougher ACC. SMU hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since it was a No. 6 seed in 2017. The Mustangs have won just 20 games twice since that tournament appearance and both of those seasons ended with a coaching change. Lanier replaced Tim Jankovich after the 2022 season following Jankovich’s retirement.