Nashville–Anyone that took a walk around the athletics buildings on Lipscomb’s campus on Tuesday afternoon likely would’ve seen a guy in a button up shirt a few times.
That formally dressed man was Lipscomb head coach Kevin Carroll, who met with Lipscomb Athletic Director Philip Hutcheson at the start of the day and was up past midnight tending to his newfound duties. Then he took a walk through the Allen Arena tunnels to the Lipscomb locker room to meet the Bisons’ players for a meeting at 11:00.
After that he got straight into recruiting. Carroll may have made a few calls outside the building, but on Tuesday he was more worried about what he had inside the building.
As of the time Carroll walked into the Allen Arena locker room, he had six scholarship players on his roster as well as former Lipscomb forward and Trevecca commit Grant Asman–who stood out on the Allen Arena floor awaiting the result of the meeting. By the time Carroll met the media around 1:15, he was already at least an exit meeting deep.
Some exit meetings–namely the one with Lipscomb forward Dylan Faulkner, who is out of his walking boot and will likely have lucrative options in the transfer portal if he chooses to enter–likely consisted of Carroll making his pitch as to why the player should stay. Some will just be focused on aligning perspectives, though.
“I think the important thing is that there is an alignment of expectations,” Carroll told Mainstreet Nashville. “I think at this point, there’s guys on the team that we really need to get back that brought a lot, that played a lot and had a lot of impact on the floor. But at the same time, we’ll get a great roster, we’ll get good kids because good players are gonna be attracted to Lipscomb.”
In some cases Carroll’s expectations may be aligned. He recruited a small portion of Lipscomb’s remaining players and now has the power of making an evaluation independent of the one Lennie Acuff and his staff made during the initial recruiting process.
Carroll isn’t abandoning anyone throughout the re-recruitment process, though.
“I think it’s just about ‘hey, what’s the expectations? Let’s make sure they’re aligned,” Carroll said. “If they do, you’re gonna have a great experience here. If they don’t then ‘how can we help you?’ I think that’s my message to the end of the day ‘I just want to help you.’ I want everyone that comes back here and everyone is part of the program to be able to say when it’s all over with ‘I have an over regrets.’”
For Carroll to avoid as many regrets as he can, he’ll look to build out his staff with pieces that can complement him and can enhance his recruiting efforts.
The Lipscomb head coach has yet to name any assistant coaches, but has been in contact with potential staff members. Between the open Trevecca job and Acuff potentially taking some of his assistants with him to Samford, he hasn’t been able to sign one officially yet.
He’s got a few people in mind, though.
“We’ve got some things to figure out with all that,” Carroll said. “All that stuff, there’s some dominoes to fall with all of that. I’ve already been talks with several people about a staff, I think we’ll get to that pretty quickly.”
“I think Nate Moran is somebody that did an unbelievable job for me at Trevecca that played [at Lipscomb] and was a fan legend. [He’s] somebody I’d be very interested in bringing. But, at the same time I’m in full support, he needs to be the next head coach at Trevecca in my mind.”
Whether Moran is on it or not, Carroll will have to blend together a staff as well as a roster quickly to make up for him taking the Lipscomb job late in the hiring cycle. If he can do it, his group could pick right up where Acuff’s left off.
There will be no honeymoon stage for Carroll. It’s straight to work. It’s straight to meetings. It’s straight to putting this thing in motion.