While Nagy was off in negotiations with Southern Illinois and rumors swirled about his departure, Sargent became the de facto head coach to help the players through the turmoil.
“I had the conviction right away,” he said, meaning he believed he’d get the job. “It wasn’t told to me right away. That was 24 or maybe 36 hours later. But my instinct was that I needed to act like a head coach regardless of what happens.
“I just needed to step into it. That would protect everybody here. And if it didn’t happen, so be it.”
It happened Wednesday evening, and it was a whirlwind transition — so much so that he had to quickly shop for a suit when he realized he didn’t have anything appropriate in his closet for his introductory press conference Friday.
“The biggest obstacle I’ve had is trying to figure out what to wear to this thing. I was in — I don’t even remember the department store — but that was the biggest obstacle because our leadership took decisive action,” he said.
“They empowered me, and I in turn empowered our staff, and we empowered each other. It can be that simple when it’s a healthy product behind the scenes, and this is healthy.”
The 35-year-old Sioux City, Iowa, native — who starred for Nagy at South Dakota State and coached with him the last 10 years — thanked numerous people for his first head coaching job, beginning with his family.
He and wife Jill — she’s also a former Jackrabbit basketball player — have four kids ages 9 and younger.
“In order to step into this position, the question is, ‘Can you lead?’ And, ‘How will you lead?’ I would say these are my three things: I’m going to love the Lord, I’m going to love my wife and — even when my son is crying (yes, one of the toddlers was fussing a bit) — I’m going love my children,” he said.
“I know if I do that, my cup will overflow, and I’ll love our players.”
Administrators were sold on Sargent even before interviews, so confident in his future that they didn’t interview other candidates.
“We didn’t think it was necessary to do a national search because we watched Clint grow as a coach and person over the last eight seasons. He’s impressed us along the way. He’s been loyal. He has the student-athletes in mind first, which is our mission,” interim athletics director Joylynn Brown said.
“This was obviously a little bit accelerated. But all of us talked, and we knew he was the guy.”
The 10th coach in program history was especially pleased with the show of support from the team, which sat together just a few feet from the podium.
Star players Alex Huibregtse and Brandon Noel both committed to returning next year, and Sargent said most of the assistants will be back.
“These last 48 hours have been so special to me because I know you guys have my back,” he said to the players. “And you guys have uplifted me into this position.
“I will do everything in terms of putting the right people around you first, because I know that’s most important. And we are going to attack this with some joy and fun.”
He also expressed gratitude to Nagy.
“The ultimate measure of a man, a coach and a leader is, ‘Did you leave it better than you found it?’ I think it’s pretty clear he did,” he said.
The Raiders, who joined the Horizon League in 1994, went 167-94 in Nagy’s eight years with three regular-season crowns and two tourney titles.
In the program’s first 22 years in the league, they won one of each in 2006-07.
“He was up front as soon as he heard. I can’t get into the specifics of all of it, but it happened fast, and his communication was great and honest,” Sargent said.
“I just felt like the timing for coach (Nagy), for myself, for our players and for our program was complete divine intervention, and I just had to step into it.”
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