After spending Final Four weekend in Houston, former
St. Benedict's Prep (Newark, N.J.) head boys basketball coach Roshown McLeod said he wanted to resume coaching college basketball and that prompted his resignation Wednesday, he told MaxPreps in an exclusive interview.
Roshown McLeod will not return tocoach at St. Benedict's Prep after aone-year stint produced a 13-12 record.
Photo courtesy of St. Benedict
"It gave me a chance to soul search," said McLeod, 35, by phone Thursday evening. "Having been on the college level and knowing what the NBA is like, it gave me a chance to (see) whether it's in my cards to help kids on the high school level. I just had to find out and see if that was it for me, if that was my calling for what I was supposed to do.
"I gave it a chance and realized how much I missed coaching in college."
St. Benedict's athletic director Jim Wandling declined comment when reached Thursday, referring questions to headmaster Father Edwin Leahy. Leahy did not immediately return a phone message left by MaxPreps.
According to a source, the three top candidates to succeed McLeod at St. Benedict's are current Gray Bees assistant coach Joe Sokolowicz, current Wagner College and former St. Benedict's assistant Bashir Mason and Wagner Director of Basketball Operations and former St. Benedict's assistant Scott Smith.
McLeod is the second coach of a prominent Garden State boys basketball program to resign in as many days. As reported by MaxPreps Boys Basketball Editor Jason Hickman,
Kevin Boyle is leaving St. Patrick for Montverde Academy.
Before the one-year stint at St. Benedict's, McLeod served as an assistant coach and worked with the post players at Indiana University from 2007-09. He came to New Jersey last spring to take over when Dan Hurley left to become the head coach at Wagner College.
McLeod inherited only one returning player from the 2009-10 squad and, despite having Division I signees in 6-9 forward
Tyler Harris (North Carolina State) and
Vaughn Gray (George Mason), the Gray Bees finished a disappointing 13-12 and lost nine games by six points or less.
"This was a decision I made," McLeod said of his resignation. "I talked it over with my wife (Tiffani) and Father Edwin and this is what we decided."
A former standout at St. Anthony under legendary coach Bob Hurley, Sr., before starring at Duke University and emerging as a 1999 NBA first-round selection of the Atlanta Hawks, McLeod said he has already talked to Hurley and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski about potential places to land. Among his options are assistant coaching positions at Tennessee, Georgia State and Monmouth.
McLeod has two children, son Anthony and daughter Anisa, who resided in Atlanta, where Georgia State is located.
"I've got a few things I'm working on," McLeod said.
