Former Arkansas State assistant basketball coach Chad Dollar has joined Wichita State’s staff. Dollar, 37, also coached at LSU, Murray State and Western Carolina, among other stops. He replaces Earl Grant, who left WSU for Clemson late last month. Dollar is the older brother (by three years) of Cameron Dollar, coach at Seattle and a member of UCLA’s 1995 NCAA champions.
Q: Who is the biggest influence on your coaching career?
A: My dad (Don Dollar) was a very successful high school coach (in Atlanta). He had such a love for the kids and the game. He would take money out of his own pocket to take care of the kids, to take them to basketball camp, to buy them shoes. He would do anything for them. He was a father figure to kids who needed a father figure. He was a mother figure to those who needed a mother figure.
Q: Who won the one-on-one games between you and your brother?
A: I won most of the games. I’m going to say it like it was. I was able to pick on him a little bit.
Q:What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: It’s always good when you do things you love to do. Helping student-athletes, helping kids in the way that someone helped me to enjoy my college experience is what motivates me every time I get up.
Q: You played guard in college at South Florida and Milligan (Tenn.) Do you specialize coaching a position?
A: My priorities on each staff are different. I’m more of a well-rounded coach. I recruit. I coach guards and big men. Whatever it might be from a basketball perspective, I can do it. If there’s anything I like to rest my hat on, it’s that I can do a lot of things.
Q: When you enter a gym to recruit, what are the first things you look for?
A: I try to do my homework. I look at character. I feel it’s very important to get recruits who are good kids. That can get you through some things. There’s going to be ups and downs. I’m going to watch that, also, in my evaluation in the gym. How he reacts to his coaches and his team. Is he talking to people in the stands? Does he want everything centered around him? Then I’m going to look at talent. And how they would fit into the puzzle that we’re trying to put together.
Q: Who is the best player you coached?
A: Anthony Randolph (at LSU and now with Golden State). I’ve never seen a kid, when he comes in, as gifted talent-wise as he was. His development from when he first come to school in the summer to when he left in March was remarkable.