Cornelius Aaron "Neil" Dougherty (April 14, 1961 – July 5, 2011) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach, most recently the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. Dougherty played basketball at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

for two years under coach

Mike Krzyzewski Michael William Krzyzewski ( ; born February 13, 1947), nicknamed "Coach K", is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at Duke University from 1980 to 2022, during which he led the Blue Devils to five natio ...

before transferring to

Cameron University Cameron University is a public university in Lawton, Oklahoma. It offers more than 50 degrees through both undergraduate and graduate programs. The degree programs emphasize the liberal arts, science and technology, and graduate and professional ...

, where he played his final two years and earned his degree in 1984.

Assistant coaching career

Dougherty began his coaching career in 1984 at Cameron, where he served as an assistant until 1988. He then moved on to take similar positions at

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

, Vanderbilt and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. He was an assistant of Roy Williams at

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

for many years. He also served under Head Coach Eddie Fogler at Vanderbilt and

. In 1990 under Fogler and Dougherty, Vanderbilt won the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

(NIT).

TCU

On March 25, 2002, Dougherty was hired as the 18th head coach at TCU, replacing

Billy Tubbs Billy Duane Tubbs (March 5, 1935 – November 1, 2020) was an American men's college basketball coach. The Tulsa, Oklahoma native was the head coach of his alma mater Lamar University (1976–1980, 2003–2006), the University of Oklahoma (1980– ...

. Because Dougherty's defensive-minded approach clashed with Tubbs' up-tempo, high scoring approach, the team struggled to adjust in his first year, winning just nine games. The next year they improved by three wins, with the season's highlight coming with a nationally-televised 25-point victory over 10th-ranked

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

, coached by

Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (born September 18, 1952) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach for Iona College. He was also the head coach of Greece's senior national team. He has been the head coach of several teams in NCAA D ...

. In 2004–05, the Horned Frogs finished 21–14, advancing to the quarterfinals of the

National Invitational Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

. However, after losing star guards

Corey Santee Corey Donya Santee (born September 13, 1983) is an American professional basketball guard. High school Santee was a three-year starter at Flint Southwestern Academy. As a senior in 2001, he averaged 20 points and 7 assists per game, leading hi ...

and Marcus Shropshire to graduation, the

Frogs A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

failed to build on the NIT momentum and stumbled to a 6–25 record in 2005–06. This caused many TCU boosters and local media figures to question whether or not Dougherty was the right person for the job. His 2006–27 team made strides, finishing 13–17, but the season also included an eleven-game losing streak, which did little to quiet Dougherty's critics. Dougherty was fired by TCU on March 16, 2008 after six seasons, only one of which had a winning record.

Death

Dougherty was in Indianapolis working for IHoops, a joint venture between the NBA and NCAA that promotes youth basketball. On July 5, 2011, Dougherty went jogging and never returned. His body was identified on July 8, 2011.Neil Dougherty dies during run ESPN.com July 8, 2011
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Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dougherty, Neil 1961 births 2011 deaths American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Army Black Knights men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Kansas Basketball players from Kansas Cameron Aggies men's basketball coaches Cameron Aggies men's basketball players College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Drake Bulldogs men's basketball coaches Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Leavenworth, Kansas Point guards South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball coaches TCU Horned Frogs men's basketball coaches Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball coaches