BeaverBlitz.com - Stewart making a name for himself

August 24, 2009

Chad Groth
BeaverBlitz.com Staff Writer

July is a busy month for college basketball coaches. Phones are ringing from one staff member to another and back to the office in Corvallis to check for messages.

I remember running into Doug Stewart in Las Vegas on one of his recruiting trips and I thought I could catch him to do a story. Wrong. Bouncing from gym to gym and wearing a nice Oregon State University shirt, he was a coach on a mission.

He stood out as he was on the baseline with Oregon State Head Coach Craig Robinson and assistant David Grace at Rancho High School watching the Compton Magic play Eric Gordon's team out of Indianapolis. Stewart was on a tour he is familiar with and travel is something he has always done well. He was on an assignment to evaluate and find that next top prospect for Oregon State.

Stewart was a standout athlete at Haddonfield High School in Haddonfield, NJ and was recently inducted into his alma mater's athletic Hall of Fame. After high school he attended Lawrenceville Prep before attending Brown University where he was a four-year letter winner in basketball.

Stewart toured with the Harlem Globetrotters for some time as a player/coach with the NY Nationals (as most of you know as the Washington Generals). During my tenure in the front office with the Globetrotters, he was the Nationals best player and he dominated the Globetrotters. I do recall bringing his name up a few times as a player who should be moved over to the Globetrotters, and to this day I'm not sure why he was never moved.

Things happen for a reason though and after five years with the Globetrotters touring team, he decided to take the leap into coaching. After stints as an assistant coach at Washington and Lee, Columbia, and Brown as well as two-years in Casper, Wyo. as the head coach at Casper College, Stewart now calls Corvallis home.

Stewart's duties with the Beavers include being the program's recruiting coordinator and preparing all of the scouting reports. He has also helped turn around the Beavers program during his first year, taking a team that went 0-18 in the PAC 10 (and the first program in conference history to go winless) to an 18-18 record and the College Basketball Invitational title. The Beavers had a plus-12 turnaround margin that ranks as the 3rd biggest in the country last season and the 5th biggest turnaround in PAC 10 history.

While many in basketball know Stewart is a great teacher of the game, it is his leadership that has always been his strength. He leads by example and gets along with everybody. Many in coaching circles believe it is only a matter of time before Stewart receives the call to head up his own program.

This year, he helped lead Oregon State's recruiting efforts which were recognized by Rivals.com as the 22nd best class in the country.

"The biggest thing about Doug is he is a tremendous person who really cares about the people around him," fellow coach David Grace said. "His attention to detail and foresight automatically puts him in the category to be one of the top assistant coaches in the country."

July was a busy month for Stewart, who took full advantage of the NCAA's allowed 20 evaluation days, which are broken into two ten day periods. During the first period Stewart found himself evaluating on a national scale, taking in camps in Louisiana, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Philadelphia and wrapping up in Augusta, SC at the NIKE Peach Jam Invitational.

The days are long, beginning at 6 in the morning and going until 10 at night. After a late night snack, the staff meets to go over notes from each of the prospects they watched. Each coach trusts the others evaluation.

After a brief return home to Corvallis, Stewart was back on the road for the second evaluation period in July. This second period starts in Las Vegas and lends to more of a regional effort for the Beavers, as they watch prospects from around the West Coast.

While he wasn't on an airplane flying to different cities, the travel regimen is no less grueling. Las Vegas is a large, spread out city and Stewart tacked on the miles, driving no less than 100 miles per day between the gyms in Vegas.

"You really must be organized to plan out the logistics to follow the players," Stewart said. "We are very aware of all of our top prospects and who and where they are playing. In Vegas I covered five total tournaments at one time."

As the second evaluation period wound down, Stewart travelled to Los Angeles to take in the Best of Summer and GBOA tournaments, which gives the staff a chance to really focus on players from California, Oregon and Washington. By the end of the month, the Oregon State coaches have been able to whittle their lists and have their top prospects nationally, regionally and locally narrowed down.

"In the recruiting game you can work hard, but if you don't have a game plan or blue print you can miss your opportunity by not being smart," Stewart said.

Look for big things to take place this season in Corvallis as the Oregon State basketball team prepares for another exciting season. Coach Stewart, the players and staff look to bring the winning tradition back to the Pacific Northwest in one of the most competitive conferences in the country, the PAC 10.

FEATURED PRODUCT