It’s almost 800 miles from Chapel Hill, N.C., to Boca Raton, Fla., but Florida Atlantic coach Matt Doherty took two years to make the journey.

Doherty was fired from his alma mater of North Carolina after three seasons and has spent parts of the last two seasons as a college basketball analyst for ESPN and CSTV.

“It was like a vacation, I got to do whatever I wanted,” he said. “But I knew I wanted to coach again and I got this opportunity with FAU.”

Doherty didn’t seem to lose any of his passion while he was away, as he had a referee going for his whistle about to give him a technical foul just five minutes into Monday night’s 69-59 loss to Northwestern (3-1).

He took over at Florida Atlantic (0-2) this season and now is trying to build a program, rather than attempting to maintain one.

“It’s fun, it’s fun. If we would have gotten blown out, it wouldn’t be so fun,” Doherty said.

Though Doherty was forced into a two-year hiatus from coaching, his efforts still were seen around college basketball.

He watched former North Carolina stars Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants, all of whom he recruited, win a national championship last season.

“It was weird,” Doherty said. “I was proud of the fact that I helped put that team together, but it was also a little odd to see another coaching staff climb the ladder and cut down the nets.”

Leaving behind memories of the Atlantic Coast Conference and Carolina Blue, Doherty has moved his focus on turning Florida Atlantic into a mid-major power.

In his days as an assistant at Kansas and a head coach at Notre Dame and North Carolina, Doherty was known as one of the top recruiters in the country. He recruited Paul Pierce, Nick Collison and Raef LaFrentz at Kansas, along with the North Carolina trio.

“He has a good record, got a lot of players to the NBA and he’s a good teacher,” said junior guard DeAndre Rice, who transferred from Frank Phillips College last season. “He’s was one of the main reasons why I came here.”

Doherty is already beginning to recruit as he has in the past, as he has landed commitments from two players leaving major conference schools.

“We have four commitments and we’re real excited about them,” Doherty said. “We’re a direct flight from pretty much everybody in the country. We’re planning on making an impact.”

While Doherty couldn’t find a coaching job for two years, his pedigree as the head coach of Notre Dame and North Carolina gives him credentials major programs still seek.

Doherty was one-and-done at his previous coaching stop, as he coached Notre Dame for one season before accepting the North Carolina job, but that might not be the case at Florida Atlantic.

“I don’t think he’s going to leave,” Rice said. “We’ve got a good group of kids and a good coaching staff. I think they’re going to stick around.”

Florida Atlantic has fewer winning seasons in its history than North Carolina has national championships, but Doherty still has set lofty goals for the team – a conference championship and a Sweet 16 appearance this season.

His 75-60 career record not only has brought more attention and support to the program, it also has made the players buy into his system.

“We’re playing like a team, getting smarter on the basketball court and learning a lot,” sophomore guard Derrick Simmons said. “He just inspires us to play hard and work hard in practice and see what we can do.”

Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].