Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Photo courtesy of SJSU Athletics
What many saw as an unmitigated, underfunded, never-ending disaster, second-year SJSU assistant coach Damany Hendrix saw as a “blank canvas” that was ripe for change.
The road taken to helping SJSU reach unimaginable heights began on a bus trip back to his hometown of Vallejo, Cali. in 2014 on a phone call with newly appointed Spartans’ head coach Dave Wojcik.
“One guy was dragging his feet so he [Wojcik] literally called me while I was hopping on the Megabus to come back up north,” said Hendrix who was coaching at CSU Northridge at the time. “He was like, ‘Do you have time to meet tomorrow?’ I’m like, ‘Perfect. I’ll be in the Bay, I’ll come up.’”
Hendrix’s aspirations to venture back to where his recruiting connections lied came to life and died all in one sitting.
“Maybe halfway on the ride home he called me back and said, ‘The guy called me and accepted the job,” recalled Hendrix.
The coaching carousel wasn’t a casual amusement ride in a Westfield Mall for Hendrix. It was a Six-Flags roller coaster filled with a hundred-foot rise and a soul-crushing drop.
Disappointed, but not deterred.
When Wojcik abruptly left the gig in 2017 due to personal reasons, Hendrix reached out to newly hired SJSU head coach Jean Prioleau, but Hendrix said that “nothing came to fruition.”
Life moved on nonetheless. He spent the next couple of seasons coaching overseas in Beijing, the G-League and followed Raptors 905 (Toronto Raptors affiliate) head coach Jerry Stackhouse to Vanderbilt, where Stackhouse fulfilled the same role, for two seasons beginning in 2019.
An assistant coaching job in the SEC was honorable, but frustrating and unfulfilling to his professional wants and goals needs.
“It was hard to get kids from the west coast to come and skip all those states to come to Nashville, Tennessee,” said Hendrix who wasn’t able to unlock his recruiting wheelhouse.
Only two players who joined Vanderbilt after 2019 were from California and both of them – Scotty Pippen Jr. and Braelee Albert – were from the greater Los Angeles area.
When assistant roles opened up again in 2021 after Prioleau was fired, Hendrix’s interest shot up immediately, but bottomed out after Miles got the job as the two had no prior relationship.
“I kind’ve given up on it,” said Hendrix.
Still desiring to get back home to his connections and his family, Hendrix reached out to Cal assistant coach Marty Wilson who just happened to be working alongside Chris Harriman at the time.
Luck was on his side this time.
Harriman was part of Miles’ staff at Nebraska for three years and was a member of the Cornhuskers first NCAA tournament run in 15 years in 2013-14. For every Megabus heartbreak that Hendrix has suffered, there’s an unplanned connection which leads to opportunity.
“That’s how we got on the phone because coach Wilson gave me a glowing review and then backed it up to coach [Miles],” said Hendrix. “So coach and I had a couple conversations and it was probably a two to three week process. Super stressful.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic in full effect, Hendrix didn’t have to relive a moment like the megabus mishap. If he wasn’t the fit, at least no gas would be wasted.
Ironically, what appealed to Miles were Hendrix’s plan B occupations.
“Not only pros in the G league and China, but youth kids and then college kids in the SEC,” said Miles. “When you look at that cross section of teaching it tells you that he’s going to be a successful guy.”
Better yet his desires matched Miles needs. His first two spots were filled by Ben Jones and David Miller, who had recruiting experience — Jones was pertinent to bringing Klay Thompson to Washington State — but neither had Bay Area connections.
Miles himself might’ve coached in the Mountain West from 2007-12 at Colorado State, but none of his players were from any place in California north of Los Angeles County. When he left for Nebraska in 2013 for seven seasons, he had more players from Iceland than California.
But still, from Miles perspective, it didn’t mean that he’d be the right fit. Particularly when the hiring process is all done over Zoom where showing up on time and presentable from the waist up were some of the only ways to judge character and integrity.
“You see all the jokes on Zoom where a guy is sitting in his boxer shorts,” said Miles. “That’s where you have to have a deep network of contacts that know people. Everybody vouched for Damany.”
Getting hired was the first and possibly easiest part of the job. The second and most difficult part is actually following up and completing what was discussed in the hiring process.
While Miles does see “recruiting” as Hendrix’s main area of improvement due to his lack of experience, Hendrix can take full credit for bringing in power forward Robert Vaihola who’s transcended SJSU through his paint presence and rebounding.
Vaihola was a San Mateo County native who made his AAU rounds all over the Bay Area, but signed to Fresno State out of San Fran Archbishop Riordan High School in 2021. However, after one season with the Bulldogs he entered his name into the transfer portal.
“When he hit the portal coach [Miles] was like, ‘Let’s get Rob done,” recalled Hendrix.
And Hendrix got it done. Capitalizing on his connections with some of Vaihola’s former AAU coaches like Toby Merchant.
Vaihola just went for an 18-point, 10 rebound double-double in a recent 30-point blowout over Air Force and is second in the conference with 2.6 offensive rebounds per game.
His 6.3 rebounds per game has helped SJSU go from finishing 330th in rebound margin a year ago to now being ranked eighth nationwide.
“I knew it would be tough because of the reputation of San Jose State for the local kids,” said Hendrix. “But I felt like I can give coaching in some living rooms and around enough AAU coaches where we can start building.”