March 21, 2003
Texas-Arlington assistant men's basketball coach Matt Daniel is making waves in college hoops fashion circles, and now he is among those who have been invited to participate in CollegeInsider.com's "Runway to the Fashionable Four." Daniel is among 64 assistant coaches vying for the national fashion championship. Two 64-coach tournament fields exist, one for head coaches and the other for assistants.
Daniel just completed his fourth year as an assistant coach with the Mavericks, having helped lead the team to a third-place finish in the Southland Conference and a school record 13 SLC victories. But now that the season is over for the team, Daniel finds himself in a new kind of competition.
The Harding University graduate who played two years at the school after transferring from Colorado, goes into the competition with the 10th seed in the Midwest Region. Nationally, Daniel is ranked 39th in CollegeInsider.com's assistant coach Fashion Power Index (FPI). His first opponent will not easy to handle, as Daniel faces No. 7 seed Lynn Mitchem of Illinois-Chicago. Mitchem is no pushover, as he appeared in the FPI top 10 earlier in the season. But with Mitchem falling out of the top-10 and Daniel picking up momentum at the right time of the season, Maverick fans could witness an upset. Mitchem is now ranked 28th in the assistant coach FPI.
If Daniel does indeed pull off the upset of UIC's Mitchem, his reward is likely to be a matchup against one of the elite dressers in the assistant coach field, Tony Jones of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Last year, Jones was the national runner up in the assistant coach division, and he brings the Midwest Region's No. 2 seed into this year's national tournament. Jones is currently ranked fifth among assistant coaches in the FPI.
The four number one seeds include Ronny Thompson of Georgetown (ranked first in FPI, No. 1 seed in South), Albany's Frank Ross in the East Region, UCLA's Gary Stewart in the West Region and Texas' Rodney Terry in the Midwest Region.
Daniel is one of just two Southland Conference assistant coaches to get an invitation to the Runway to the Fashionable Four, joining Steve Prohm of Southeastern Louisiana. Prohm owns the No. 16 seed in the Midwest.
To follow along with the Runway to the Fashionable Four, check out the College Insider website at this link:Runway To The Fashionable Four .
