Notre Dame On March 30, 1999, Doherty was named as the head coach of Notre Dame men's basketball, less than a month after
John MacLeod resigned. Doherty had several offers to become a head coach, but at the advice of Roy Williams and Dean Smith he waited until he found a great fit and he felt Notre Dame was a great fit for an Irish Catholic kid from New York. Doherty and his only Notre Dame team had hopes of reaching the
2000 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. But with a regular season record of 16–13 and a quarterfinal loss to
Miami in the
2000 Big East men's basketball tournament, Doherty's Notre Dame team did not receive a bid for the NCAA tournament. Instead, they accepted an invitation to the
2000 National Invitation Tournament. Doherty's Notre Dame team reached the NIT finals, falling to
Wake Forest. Doherty's Notre Dame team finished their season with a 22–15 record. Roy Williams was mistakenly named as head coach by the
Herald-Sun of
Durham, North Carolina, before he could decide on the North Carolina coaching job. Williams decided to stay at Kansas. Dick Baddour, then the athletic director of UNC-Chapel Hill, was set on hiring Doherty. Doherty decided to take the job after a phone call with Jordan earlier that day. Jordan told Doherty the North Carolina coaching job might go to someone who didn't play or coach at North Carolina. Doherty brought his assistant coaches--
Doug Wojcik, Fred Quartlebaum, and
Bob MacKinnon—and his coordinator of basketball operations, David Cason, with him from Notre Dame. Doherty felt he was rewarding the loyalty of the people that worked with him at Notre Dame, and felt Smith would have done the same thing. Instead, Smith Two of Doherty's four administrative staff left only to work with Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge. Doherty ended up releasing another administrative staff member due to lack of loyalty. These moves created dissension with the program. Doherty's first public appearance as North Carolina's head coach was at North Carolina's annual
Midnight Madness event, then called "Midnight with Matt and the Tar Heels." Doherty received a standing ovation when he walked into
Carmichael Auditorium in the team's warm-up clothing and shoes. He participated in some of the event's activities, including a
three-point shooting contest and a 3 on 3 contest between the coaching staff and champions from UNC-Chapel Hill's
intramural basketball teams.
Doherty's first season began with a game against
Winthrop. Doherty also received a
technical foul by marching on the court and stomping his feet, in an attempt to get his team's attention. Fans in attendance applauded Doherty's technical foul. During this streak, the Tar Heels won the 2000
Hardee's Tournament of Champions, held in the
Charlotte Coliseum. Doherty, not pleased with the first half of the game against
UMass, threw a chair in the Tar Heels' locker room at halftime. Curry Kirkpatrick, covering Doherty for his February 12, 2001 column in
ESPN The Magazine, included a quote Doherty made in a team
huddle during the February 1, 2001 game against Duke in Durham, in which he mused that Duke had "the ugliest cheerleaders in the ACC." Doherty's comment did not spark outrage on
Duke University's campus, but Doherty still issued an apology after the article came out. Doherty received a technical foul during the March 4, 2001 game against Duke in Chapel Hill. Doherty motioned for crowd noise after receiving the technical foul. Doherty was the first men's basketball coach to win a regular season championship title in the ACC in his first season. He was also the first coach to play for, and then coach, teams ranked number one in the AP Poll. Later, the Tar Heels won an
at-large bid to the
2001 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, but were eliminated in the second round by
Penn State. They finished their season with a 26–7 record. Michael Brooker, who was a
fifth-year senior during Doherty's first year as North Carolina's head coach, blamed a collective feeling of hubris among the players as well as the players not listening to Doherty and his coaching staff for their losses toward the end of the season. It was North Carolina's first losing season since 1961–62, Smith's first year. They also suffered only their second losing record in ACC play at 4–12; the 12 losses were six more than they had previously suffered in conference play. They finished in a tie for seventh in conference play after never previously finishing worse than fourth (and 36 consecutive years of finishing no worse than third). They also missed postseason play altogether for the first time since 1967, including a then-record 27 straight appearances in the NCAA tournament. The
ACC Area Sports Journal published an article about Doherty after Boone's transfer. Sources close to the North Carolina basketball program, including then-current and former students, talked to the writer of the article, David Glenn, under anonymity. These sources felt Doherty could be a good coach, but Doherty's approach to his relationships between the players and himself needed to change. One source thought Doherty's coaching style wasn't constructive and his anger at various situations spilled over into his criticisms of players.
Third season Doherty's third season started with the Tar Heels winning the 2002
Preseason NIT, defeating Roy Williams' Kansas in the process. Their five win run was the best start to a season since the 1998–99 season. After a game against
Iona,
Sean May broke his foot. Several losses, including a five-game losing streak, followed May's injury. The regular season ended with North Carolina's first win over Duke since 2001. During the game, held in Chapel Hill, Doherty was involved in an altercation with
Chris Collins, then an assistant coach for Duke. Shortly after the regular season ended, the
ACC Sports Journal published another piece by Glenn centered on continuing problems between Doherty and his players. A parent of a player cited in the piece did not trust Doherty and believed other players did not trust Doherty as well. The mother of
David Noel told the
Star-News Noel did not have problems with Doherty, but she heard other players were having problems with Doherty. The Tar Heels accepted an invitation to the
2003 NIT. They lost in the quarterfinal to
Georgetown. The Tar Heels finished their season with 19 wins and a then-second-most program high of 16 losses. (This record has been surpassed by the 17 losses from the
2009–10 season, and the 19 losses from the
2019–20 season.) The meetings lasted five days. Reporters were stationed near the Smith Center for news about Doherty's future. Baddour concluded he had no choice but to remove Doherty from his post. Doherty did not attend the press conference. His contract was bought out for $337,500. The day after the resignation,
Inside Carolina's Thad Williamson reported that UNC officials were very concerned about the lack of a respectful environment in the program. In part because of this, three scholarship players had transferred—an unusually high number for any college basketball program, especially for one of UNC's stature. Several more were threatening to leave if Doherty had been allowed to stay on. Doherty had reportedly been given a year to make things more harmonious if he wanted to keep his job. Two days after his resignation, Doherty conducted an interview with
Jay Bilas for ESPN. In the interview, Doherty stated his resignation was mishandled. Doherty claimed Baddour and his assistants failed to attend any of Doherty's practices. A spokesperson for UNC-Chapel Hill, speaking on behalf of Baddour, denied the claims. Jawad Williams defended Doherty after his resignation; he believed any collegiate basketball coach would have issues. Doherty considered going back to Davidson to become an assistant coach again. Instead, he took the following year off, talking to Brown,
Rick Carlisle,
Don Nelson,
Gregg Popovich,
Tom Izzo, and
Tommy Amaker about their coaching methods. He went to the
Wharton School of Business and wrote a thesis about his professional and personal life. He also took classes at the
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and the Bell Leadership Institute in Chapel Hill. While attending business school, Doherty also wrote a column for
Sporting News and did color commentary for ESPN,
College Sports Television, and
Carolinas Sports Entertainment Television. He also worked part-time as a scout for the
New York Knicks.
Accusations by Rashad McCants In an interview with ESPN,
Rashad McCants claimed Doherty knew about fake classes that kept McCants eligible to play at North Carolina. Doherty denied the accusations on his
Twitter account.
Florida Atlantic Doherty was named head basketball coach of the
Florida Atlantic Owls on April 18, 2005, taking over from
Sidney Green, who was fired over a month earlier. Doherty was the fifth coach in FAU's history and the last coach to coach while FAU was in the
Atlantic Sun Conference.
Hurricane Wilma damaged
FAU Arena and forced Doherty's Owls team to practice at
Bishop Moore High School and the
Champions Sport Complex in
Orlando, Florida. However, the Owls' season began on time, with a 74–78 loss to
Colgate. A one-hour reality show on Doherty's season with FAU,
The Season: Florida Atlantic University, first aired on ESPN2 on January 30, 2006. In Doherty's one year at FAU, the Owls achieved their best-ever conference record (14–6) and its third season winning record in school history. While at FAU, Doherty appeared on the
ESPNU show
The U as a March Madness analyst.
SMU After
Jimmy Tubbs was fired for NCAA violations, the athletics department at
Southern Methodist University began a search for Tubbs' replacement. The committee chose Doherty because of his recruiting abilities and his concern for his student athletes. Doherty was named
head men's basketball coach at SMU on April 24, 2006. While at SMU, Doherty held a lecture on his time as North Carolina's coach at the
Cox School of Business, as a case study in business failure. He also assisted in fundraising and planning for Crum Basketball Center, a practice facility for the men's and women's basketball teams. Before Crum Basketball Center opened, Doherty held his practices in a church gym. To generate interest in the basketball program, Doherty went to various
fraternities and events on SMU's campus and hosted his weekly radio show at Ten Sports Grill in
Downtown Dallas, off SMU's campus. He also started a
blog, MustangHoopsBlog.com, which was hosted on SMU's athletics site. The idea to start the blog came from
Mark Cuban. Doherty's first year at SMU had some setbacks. He lost his best player, Bryan Hopkins, to eligibility. He had enough time to sign only one of his prospects, Cameron Spencer. However, later that season, Doherty achieved his one hundredth career victory as a coach with a win against
Texas-Pan American. Doherty ended his first season at SMU with a 14–17 overall record and 11–3 non-conference record. Doherty's fifth season with the Mustangs, in 2010–11, was his most successful season on the court. The Mustangs' 20–15 overall record was the first 20-win season the Mustangs had since 1999–2000. The Mustangs also accepted their first post-season bid in over a decade; they advanced to the semifinals of the
2011 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. They were defeated in the semifinals by eventual tournament champions
Santa Clara. After a 13–19 record set during the 2011–12 season, Doherty was fired from SMU on March 13, 2012. His overall record at SMU was 80–109. None of his SMU teams made it past the first rounds of the
Conference USA men's basketball tournament. According to
The Dallas Morning News, Doherty received $500,000 for the remaining year left on his contract. Doherty released a statement to the press, acknowledging he was let go because of his overall record at SMU. ==After coaching==