Jack’s Blog

In other Halls of Fame, in order for a coach to be inducted, I believe a coach needs to have been retired for a period of time.  Yet in college hoops, not only is there no mandatory waiting period, they seem to find it necessary to induct active coaches.  I’ve never understood why there is such a hurry to anoint coaches with such a distinction so early.  Each of the leaders who are being selected will be certainly be chosen when their careers have come to a close.  Unless the electors worry a coach is going to die “on the bench” as so many coaches claim they’re going to do because of their love of the profession or, in some instances, because (admittedly) coaching is all they know how to do.

With all the scandals we’ve been made privy to, a wiser choice would seem to be to wait so as not to remove someone who does something illegal, unethical or worse while he or she is still an active coaching member.  By no means is this blog aimed at Rick Pitino who, coincidentally, was inducted in the 2013 class.  Both Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun were inducted while they were active coaches (Boeheim still is - and nearly tacked on another national championship to his lengthy resume).

My point is, why take away a spot on the ballot from an “old-timer” (for lack of a better term) or detract from the retired coach who’s entering?  For the older coach it’s a chance to reminisce some and thank others who also may be later on in years.  Right now, Pitino has to try not to forget his past teams while, naturally, the guys who just gave Louisville another banner are those who are freshest on his mind.  Besides, of his recent honors, wouldn’t it stand to reason that winning a national championship (or even a Final Four appearance had the Cards not won it), having a horse qualify to run in the Kentucky Derby and getting selected in the Hall of Fame have to rank 1,2,3 - in that order?  For someone to say no, they must really love horses.

Obviously, Rick Pitino (and Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun) would have been voted into the Hall following their retirement.  Maybe even at a time they’d appreciate it more or at a time the spotlight had gone away for a while, so having it return would have made it a sweeter tribute.  If there was anything any coach could do in between retirement and getting selected that would preclude him or her from induction, it would have to be some heinous crime.  The way things are run now, the title would have to be vacated, bringing additional shame on the coach and the sport.

There should be a mandatory 3-5 year waiting period for coaches to get elected in the Hall of Fame (of course with exceptions for catastrophies, e.g. Jim Valvano).  The Hall needs to show some of what coaches continually preach:

“Patience!”

The following blog is one I posted a couple years ago, right after UConn won its third national championship.  This one has a couple updates, but other than that, it’s identical to the first one mainly because the subject is the same.  There are reports that soon head coach Jim Calhoun will make an announcement as to whether or not he’ll retire.  

Jim Calhoun’s won three national championships, putting himself in rarefied company, is already in the Hall-of-Fame and has a history of health problems, the most recent a broken hip in a bicycling accident.  All indications are now is the perfect time to retire.  Yet, I’m not so sure he will.  By the time you read this, however, he might have held a press conference and called it quits.  Nobody would blame him.

Here are my reasons he won’t.  At 70 years of age, Calhoun began coaching in the 1960s.  It’s basically all he’s ever done, all he knows.  If he gives it up now, what will get him out of bed each morning?  Some people say they want to spend more time with their family but in most of the cases I’ve seen in my years in the field, coaches, because they spend so much time away from home, enjoy more quality time with their families.  The guys who work 9-5 have no sense of urgency to do “family stuff” because they can always do it . . . tomorrow.

Calhoun’s friend and assistant, George Blaney, made a statement to the effect that Jim gets up in the morning wondering who he’s gonna fight that day.  Take away coaching and it’s not only who is he going to fight, but why?  There has to be a reason to get up in the morning.  As a veteran, Calhoun certainly isn’t going to work as hard as he did, say, when he first began at Northeastern, but he doesn’t have to.  He has assistants to do a great deal of the legwork and a school with a championship legacy.

What about those who say he doesn’t need the money?  No argument with that except consider that, at his age, he’s one of those guys who got into coaching for the love of, pick one - competition, players, the game and its strategy . . .  Guys back then were making chump change - and loving it!  So while he might not need the money, he (and anyone of his generation) just can’t see giving up such a great job - now that they’re making obscene dough.  If he were to retire, he’d be spending every day thinking that he’s “enjoying life.”  But truly enjoying life is doing what he has always loved - coaching - and making all that money. 

Although he’s unlike many “lifers” in that he has a myriad of other interests, I still don’t think he’ll retire because to many old-timers, coaching is their contribution to society and as Eleanor Roosevelt once said:

“When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.”

Jim Calhoun’s won three national championships, putting himself in rarefied company, is already in the Hall-of-Fame and has a history of health problems.  All indications are now is the perfect time to retire.  Yet, I doubt he will.  By the time you read this, he might have held a press conference and called it quits.  Nobody would blame him.

Here are my reasons he won’t.  At 68 years of age, Calhoun began coaching in the 1960s.  It’s basically all he’s ever done, all he knows.  If he gives it up now, what will get him out of bed?  Some say they want to spend more time with their family but in most of the cases I’ve seen in my years in the field, coaches, because they spend so much time away from home, have more quality time with their families.  The guys who work 9-5 have no sense of urgency to do “family stuff” because they can always do it tomorrow.

Calhoun’s friend and assistant, George Blaney, made a statement to the effect that Jim gets up in the morning wondering who he’s gonna fight that day.  Take away coaching and it’s not only who is he going to fight, but why?  There has to be a reason to get up in the morning.  As a veteran, Calhoun certainly isn’t going to work as hard as he did, say, when he first began at Northeastern, but he doesn’t have to.  He has assistants to do a great deal of the legwork and selling UConn just got easier after their last 11 games.

What about those who say, he doesn’t need the money.  No argument with that except consider that, at his age, he’s one of those guys who got into coaching for the love of, pick one - competition, players, the game and its strategy . . .  Guys back then were making chump change - and loving it!  So while he might not need the money, he (and anyone of his generation) just can’t see giving up such a great job - now that they’re making obscene bank.  If he were to retire, he’d be spending every day thinking that he’s “enjoying life” when he could be doing what he has always loved and making all that dough.

The main reason I don’t think he’ll retire is, as a former boss of mine used to say:

“Coaches are a different breed of cat.” 

It wasn’t but a couple of days after the national championship game before the talk of which teams would make up next year’s Final Four.  Talk radio is a great invention.  It allows fans to feel like they’re really a part of the college basketball scene.  There have always been bar stools, but this means of pontification is actually like being interviewed!

If you’ve ever listened to talk radio, you quickly realize there is no IQ test for either the hosts or callers - especially the callers.  Sports is so fascinating and it’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement that if shows were recorded and played back months later, people would hear what was said and swear the tapes were doctored.  Nobody could be that foolish.

A couple of examples: one guy said he was putting together his Final Four for next year and the first, and only, name he mentioned was . . . Butler.  Now, I read where Brad Stevens was quoted as saying that on their flight from Houston to Indianapolis, he was formulating all that he needed to do to prepare for next year.  He followed that by saying that he hadn’t been contacted by any other school.  In other words, the statement was more about his desire to remain at Butler than it was how he planned on getting his squad to New Orleans.

Another one said that Butler had a better chance to get back to the Final Four next season than did UConn.  The thinking was that UConn would lose more players to the NBA draft than the Bulldogs would.  Consider that Matt Howard, Shawn Vanzant and Zach Hahn graduate and there’s probably a better than 50-50 chance that Shelvin Mack enters the draft.  Do the remaining players on their roster spell Final Four?  Since most of the really good players signed last November and, while the Bulldogs bring in a solid class of four (two posts, a wing and a point), to pick them to be among the last four standing is a real stretch.

The reason they made it back this year was because of the experienced guys who were returning, not their 2010 recruiting class.  Ronald Nored and Andrew Smith are a nice nucleus but to even dream about Butler being in next year’s Final Four, ask yourself this question: Exactly how many teams have gone to three consecutive Final Fours?  Face it, the optimism behind the prediction is mainly due to the coaching prowess of Stevens and while he would like to think a third straight trip is within reach (after all, the first two have already been accomplished), he knows full well it’s a pipe dream - no matter how stellar a coach he is.  The days of winning two games - in your geographic region, a la the UCLA teams of John Wooden - are long gone.

As for UConn, true, they will undoubtedly lose Kemba Walker - and maybe even Jeremy Lamb - but Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith and Tyler Olander are a nice frontcourt to build around and Shabazz Napier, defensively, and Ryan Boatwright, an incoming freshman scoring machine (in the image of Kemba himself, sans the strength) make for a formidable pair of guards.  Plus, you can be sure there are superior players sitting out, or who served as reserves on this year’s club, who are more likely to make an impact in D-I than their counterparts at Butler.

In addition, no one expected Jim Calhoun’s squad to accomplish what it did this year.  Much was made of the Huskies winning it all after being picked tenth in the pre-season Big East polls.  Then again, they finished the regular season ninth!  Since Calhoun spun that miracle once (giving the Huskies their third national championship, all under Calhoun), don’t think for a minute that the people of Connecticut, heck, all of New England, don’t believe he won’t (shouldn’t) do it again.

If you have any doubts, listen to the callers already second guessing Bruce Bochy after the Giants started off slowly.

Does it even need to be said?  Coaching is all about:

“What have you done for me lately?”         

Tonight UConn tries to capture the Big East Tournament Championship.  If they accomplish this feat, they will have won five games in five days.  And not just five normal games, but five intense contests that would make normal people, pick the word - ill, crumble, gasp, cry, surrender.  After relatively easy victories in the first two rounds, the Huskies needed a buzzer-beating jumper from their main man, Kemba Walker, to knock off #1 seed Pitt.  Anyone who knows anything about college hoops will tell you how physical any battle against the Panthers is and how the effects of the game are not really felt until the next day.

Of course, for UConn, the next day was last night’s game against rival Syracuse.  As if competing four times in four days wasn’t enough, the Huskies and the ‘Cuse went overtime!  Their opponent tonight, Louisville, will have had to play three games in three days but so as not to take too much of an advantage over its fellow Big East counterpart, they also went OT against Notre Dame last night before pulling the game out.

For Kemba Walker, whom Huskies’ coach Jim Calhoun calls the most important player on any team in the country (either he is really biased - understandable - or he has yet to see BYU’s Jimmer Fredette), that would mean he’d be back on the MSG floor one day after never leaving it.  Maybe to prove his MIP point, or maybe because he simply wanted to win, Calhoun kept his star in the game for every second of the 45-minute tilt.  This could be why Calhoun’s a Hall-of-Fame coach because had he subbed - even once - for Walker, the Huskies might not have won.  So, it would seem Walker actually is that important.

Mentally, experiencing all Walker and his teammates did during the past four days has to be exhausting, but how about physically?  The condition Walker must be in has to push the limits of the human body.  When you think about how it’s possible, the quote by the Muhammad Ali comes to mind.

The G.O.A.T. said:

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit.  Suffer now and live the rest of your life as champion.’ “

I’ve been hosting The Jerry Tarkanian Show for something like six years now and, although I’ve known Jerry since we met in 1974 when he brought his two sons to our basketball camp at Washington State - and worked for him during his entire seven-year tenure at Fresno State, the guy still continues to amaze me.  Don’t think I don’t know he has his detractors - many loud, public and vehement regarding his coaching career.

They number many, fans and media alike, but there’s usually one thing most of them have in common.  They don’t know him.  A great majority have never even met him.  It’s just that their “sense of moral outrage” skyrockets whenever his name is brought up.

For those who do know him, whether quite well or just casually, the percentage who genuinely like him is overwhelming.  He has absolutely sensational people skills.  But not only that (which anyone could say about a friend of theirs), he has the respect of the coaching fraternity.  He is truly a coach’s coach, in that he has a firm grasp on the trials and tribulations coaches go through.  He has thorough knowledge of how difficult a profession coaching is - and how hard it is to win (what you’re ultimately judged by, independent of what some talk show hosts pontificate) - and keep winning.  At an extremely high level.  Year after year.  in his case, decade after decade.

Possibly, that’s why he has the most extensive Rolodex of any coach I know.  At close to 80 years of age, Jerry Tarkanian can’t do much for a college coach.  Unless you’re talking about sound advice regarding game planning, recruiting or avoiding/bouncing back from the pitfalls that coaches inevitably face.  Yet they all welcome his call.

The show is divided into four segments, the second of which is a pre-recorded interview between Jerry and someone prominent in the coaching or basketball industry.  This year, we’ve switched the local ESPN station (1430AM) after having been with Fox Sports.  The show runs throughout the college basketball season.  So far this year, Tark has interviewed Gavin Maloof (the Kings are also a major sponsor), Bob Knight and John Calipari (how many guys can turn that double play?), Roy Williams, Bill Self and last night, to show he has a sense for “who’s hot news now,” Kevin O’Neill.

When Jerry thanked Knight at the end of the interview for being on the show because, “I know you don’t really like doing these, Bobby” (Knight has been on the show each of the years Tark’s done it), Bob said (as only he can), “Tark, there aren’t that many people I like.”  The “younger” coaches (Self, O’Neill, Howland, Izzo, Williams, et al) gush with genuine admiration regarding how they wish they could get their teams to play as hard as Jerry continually got his teams to play.  Self, an annual guest as well, never fails to tell about the season his Tulsa team lost only four regular season games - and three of them were to Fresno State!  Sincere compliments from your peers is a sign of success in your chosen profession.

Last year, near the end of the season, I remarked to Jerry that I had done some research and we had every coach who was in the top 10 in the country at one time or another as a guest on the show - with one exception.  That was Jim Calhoun.  Jerry said to me:

“Oh, I had Jim a couple weeks ago.  After we finished the interview, the guy in the studio told me he forgot to push the (record) button.”      �

The number one sports question of all time, in any sport, that is argued the most (by far) is the universal, “Who is the greatest ever?”  Team, player, player at a certain position, coach, sportscaster/writer, play-by-play man, color guy, what or whoever? 

Invariably, someone tries to enter statistics into the discussion.  This is always touchy because statistics in different eras tell different stories.  Whether it’s field, court or track surfaces, equipment, training and coaching methods, diet, outside influences, the list seems to be endless and it’s mainly due to something Tony Sparano, coach of the Miami Dolphins, said in an article in Sports Illustrated (9/15/08).

“It’s the competition,” Sparano said, but his response was toward the question regarding “the motivation that drives NFL players to squeeze every snap out of their bodies, and why teams are eager to open their doors to anyone who can help them win.”  He was referring to Brett Favre and why he was having such a hard time retiring, to guys getting multiple chances after various social blunders (many of them resulting in arrests, e.g. Adam “Don’t Call Me PacMan Anymore” Jones).

That same quote, though, could also apply to 1 - steroid use (talk about squeezing every last …) 2 - one of the ultimate second chance stories (should it ever materialize) in Michael Vick and 3 - more benign, yet still considered radical (at least by the “old timers”) moves made by teams (in all sports) such as bringing in the latest gadgets (underwater treadmills and the University of Oregon’s Bod Pod, which measures fat-to-muscle ratio), improving facilites and equipment (include golf, tennis and swimming into this discussion), hiring nuitritionists, chefs, flexibility and player development coaches, and “feel good” guys (motivational, inspirational, team builders, psychologists, yoga instructors, even hypnotists). 

Some will argue technology has inflated statistics, while the N-Geners claim specializtion and strategies have improved to a level that they have had an adverse effect on today’s stats.  Changes such as the relief pitcher (back in the day, players were batting against the tired arm of a starter who had nothing left late in the game, thereby padding their stats) or, the short reliever (even moreso,  teams carrying a lefty, whose sole job is to get out - possibly - one left-handed batter per game).  Or, the defensive specialist in basketball or the nickel defense in football (not to mention that going both ways has gone the way of the buffalo).

Rule changes have rendered comparison of statistics virtually useless.  How many more points would great shooters, e.g. Pete Maravich, have scored if the three-point line had been in place when he played at LSU?  How about the goal posts being ten yards closer!  Changing yards to meters in races?  The new configuration of baseball stadiums - or, simply playing in Denver?

In an unrelated article in the 8/4/08 edition of SI, Phil Taylor wrote a column about Tim Forneris, the Busch Stadium groundskeeper who retrieved Mark McGwuire’s 70th home run ball and, rather than trying to sell it for the fortune it would have commanded back then, he gave it to McGwire.  Fast forward to the present day and, as Taylor wrote, “who would have thought that 10 years (later), the hero of the story would be Tim Forneris?”

When it comes to arguing the “who’s the greatest” question, let’s hope that, at the very least, for the integrity of each sport and athlete, each individual involved would, as Phil Taylor describes the action of Forneris:

“Do right when so much around them is wrong.”

When it’s comes down to filling out brackets, it’s been said that it doesn’t matter whom you ask - winning the office pool is basically a matter of luck anyway.  There’s much to be said for that kind of logic - to a point.  And that point is, the farther the tournament moves along, the more experience and knowledge of the college game become a factor.

When 32 pairs of games are in the original mix, especially when every year, at least one #12 seed beats a #5, as well as all the other “upsets from out of nowhere” happen, flipping a coin is probably as good - in the first round.  As the tournament progresses, I can see someone with knowledge of only mascots or team colors, who had picked Siena, a #9, over Ohio State a #8, using the same logic, but really fighting the odds, by picking Siena over #1 Louisville.  They might look like a genius in the first round and a fool in the second.  Same with #11 Dayton over #6 West Virginia (a team that, pardon the “impossible” term, overachieved all season, under the guidance of unrelenting taskmaster, but fabulous coach, Bob Huggins) - looking like a wizard, as opposed to picking the Flyers in the next round vs. #3 Kansas, a team with another great coach, Bill Self, but a team with better players.

When this year’s tournament got to the Sweet Sixteen, the “chalk” was on the money in 14 out of the 16 games.  Those people who had picked #3 Syracuse over #2 Oklahoma and/or #12 Arizona over #1 Louisville probably got burned by other upsets they predicted (a strategy that might have worked in tournaments past, but not this year). 

You get the idea.  So, … when it gets down to UConn (Tark had Memphis in the bracket he filled out prior to the tourney) vs. Michigan State (a team he did have) and Villanova (he picked either Duke or Pitt, I can’t recall) vs. North Carolina (a team he, as pretty much everyone else also had), it was time to put him on the spot (during his radio show) and ask him which way he was going - and why.

His pick in the first game was Michigan State, and not because of the site (Detroit - although he didn’t discount that, by any means), but because he felt that when the Spartans had the ball, Tom Izzo liked to run a play every time down the floor (unless they were breaking).  Even though this brand of coaching flew in the face of the Tarkanian style, Jerry said he felt MSU executed (how many coaches use that word?) their man-to-man offense better than anyone in the country and he thought, although UConn played solid, half court man-to-man defense, that Michigan State ran their offense better than UConn defended.  Naturally, being so close to Detroit would energize Izzo’s guys, especially at the defensive end. 

Tark is also a great admirer of Hasheem Thabeet, but felt whether UConn played man or zone, that Goran Suton could face up from 15′ and beyond and cause Jim Calhoun’s guys problems.  This is what I’m referring to when I talk about hoops savvy.  Guys who’ve coached, especially those who’ve been there, i.e. the Final Four, have experienced something the rest of us haven’t.  And when you take into account the guys who have been there multiple times, e.g. not only Tark, but Bob Knight, you can’t tell me that the familiarity doesn’t give them an advantage in understanding the feelings players and coaches have.  Doesn’t common sense tell us that the next time Jay Wright leads a team to the Final Four (and, rest assured, that will happen), he will have a whole different perspective on how to prepare and what it’s generally all about?

Tark was one of those who annointed UNC as number one right from the start of the season and, if not the first, was among the first to claim they’d go undefeated.  He’d say, over and over, “How can a team that won 36 games last year and got to the Final Four, have everybody back, and have the number one recruiting class in the nation, not be picked to win it all?  Plus Roy Williams is a great, great coach.  They shouldn’t lose!”  

I’d keep reminding him how difficult it was to go undefeated.  His 1991 team was coming off the National Championship and went undefeated, reaching the Final Four, only to be beaten by Duke (79-77), a team they had destroyed by thirty in the Championship Game the year before.  He said he understood, but just had never seen a team with such a collection of talent, coached by a Hall-of-Famer, play as well as they had played (into December).

When I asked him to pick a winner between Michigan State and Carolina, he thought for a while, but said he couldn’t see how the Spartans could overcome that much talent.  He really wanted to go with his heart (he’s very close to both coaches - in fact, we had all of the Final Four coaches on the show this past year, and MSU winning it would have been such a great story), but in the end, he picked the Heels.  Why?  It really didn’t matter, there was nothing riding on his pick, the show was on a radio station in Fresno - it wasn’t like a national audience was going to think Tark missed it.  It’s just that, coaches are so competitive, they want to win - even if it means nothing.

For the record (and mainly because I thought UConn might win), I asked him, “What if UConn beats Michigan State, who wins it all then?”  His answer was, “North Carolina.”  I didn’t think there needed to be much discussion about that selection, but then I asked, just to cover all bases, what if Villanova upsets UNC, who wins ‘Nova or UConn - and I think he said Villanova.  The reason my recollection is hazy is because he stunned me on the next, and last, combination.

How about a Michigan State-Villanova final?  Who do you have?  He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head.  I could almost see him thinking of his four trips to the Final Four and how he could feel his stomach churning and the gears grinding, before he looked up and said, “Villanova.” 

Never did I expect that answer!  As much as he had hoped for a storybook ending, he gave what his experiences had told him.  Call me a sap (I’ve been called much worse), but I really believe that had any of those combinations happened, Tark would have nailed each of them.

Why do I believe this?  My late friend and mentor, John Savage, used to say that some people were a mile wide and an inch deep and that others were an inch wide and a mile deep - and he had never met Jerry Tarkanian - the poster boy for the “inch wide, mile deep” club.  He knows basketball - everything about it, and not too much about anything else.  Nor does he want to.  But there’s an old Yiddish saying that also describes people - and in this case, it’s the reason I think so much of Jerry’s insight into basketball:

“All of us are crazy good in one way or another.” 

 �

It’s not too often a job the magnitude of a Kentucky opens up - the only others in the same category, according to an informal coaches’ poll I took (and a very un-scientific poll, at that), are UCLA, North Carolina,  Indiana and, possibly Duke and Kansas.  There are other great jobs, e.g. Texas, Ohio State, Michigan and, possibly, Maryland.  Some may cry out for recognition like Syracuse, UConn, Michigan State, Florida and Arizona, but we’re not so sure the latter group are great jobs as much as they are schools that have had the same great coach for an extended period of time and maybe those jobs are more like Boeheim University, UCalhoun, Jud & Tom State U (kind of like William & Mary - sorry, Jud, but we can’t, in good conscience, refer to Izzo as Mary, so…), U. of Donovan and the U of Lute.

Those jobs have been made great by the long-time coaches who shaped them in their own image.  As far as ‘Zona goes, their selection of Tim Floyd seems to have created as many questions as it has answers and it’s mainly because the success of the Wildcats program has been solely connected to Lute Olson.  When Fred “The Fox” Snowden was prowling the sidelines, the ‘Cats enjoyed some success in the (really) old WAC, but when the Fox left (or was asked to leave - it was much too long ago for most anyone to remember), a guy named Ben Lindsay, who had won an NAIA national championship or two at Grand Canyon, took control. 

Or should it be described as “lost control.”  I was an assistant at Tennessee when we signed a home-and-home contract to play the Wildcats, the first game of the series to be played in Knoxville.  I distinctly remember our quick, little guard, Tyrone Beaman, making a steal (I can’t quite recall that there was any controversy on the play, e.g. a block/charge difference of opinion) and leading a fast break.  However, when he approached the free throw line, the guy guarding him was some dude wearing a leather vest.  Sure enough, Coach Lindsay hadn’t appreciated the call (or no call) and this was his manner of protesting.

I turned to our assistant on the bench who had scouted Arizona and said, “Can you believe their coach just walked out on the floor while the game was going on?”

He just said to me, “Oh yeah, I guess that’s his style.  He pulled the same stunt during the game I scouted them.”  Now, this was at a time when people were striving for their own identity (I believe we’re still going through that stage).  At the end of the season, Coach Lindsay was relieved of his duty - actually, ‘Zona decided this approach wasn’t going to work (something I think they knew after about the second game) and went in search of the complete opposite type of coach (certainly in court demeanor).  They hit the jack pot in Iowa’s Lute Olson.

And Lute did not disappoint.  Because Tucson is a college town (everything there revolves around the Wildcat program), Lute’s classy, understated manner of wardrobe (usually a blue blazer, shirt with some kind of red tie, khaki slacks and loafers) matched his philosophy in many areas of basketball - wear the same thing to every game/play the same kind of basketball every game).  Soon, seeing Lute’s ‘Cats in the NCAA Tournament, was an annual event. They got better and better, and wouldn’t you know it, they won a National Championship.

In Lexington, KY, they’re lauding the coup they pulled by luring John Calipari from Memphis to UK.  First, allow me to state, on the record, that Kentucky couldn’t have made a more perfect selection to bring the program back to prominence.  Cal(ipari) is old enough to understand how to treat the guys (boosters) who are at the top of their profession, even with the economy tanking the way it’s been.  He certainly can recruit (although it will be awfully interesting to see if the recruits whom he recruited - on Memphis’ dime - will attempt to join him in Lexington - and if he’ll take them).

While I feel Cal is a perfect fit for Kentucky, i.e. he fully realizes that basketball at UK is far more important than anyone could imagine, that you’re allowed maybe one loss - every five years, AND it can’t be to Louisville,Tennessee, or, pretty much to anyone else in the SEC (or, obviously, any NCAA Tournament opponent).  Should you slip up in any of these games (even if your guys are hurt), get ready - for second guessing, a ton of unsolicited advice, getting slaughtered on talk radio and possibly seeing a moving van outside your house.

The perfect choice (going back to my informal poll) for someone who could deliver the type of players to Memphis, everyone there has become accustomed to watching, would be Tim Floyd.  A friend of mine called Floyd “a poor man’s John Calipari” and I had to agree.

But, as will happen to the plans of even the best, Arizona, of all people, has swept up Floyd.  What’s so fascinating to me is as perfect for Memphis as Tim Floyd is, I don’t think he fits in nearly as well in Tucson.  I do think he’ll win big, but it’s an odd choice due to what the people in Arizona have become accustomed to witnessing.  The best way I could put it, is to steal a line I heard a couple days ago from the former football coach from the University of Georgia, Jim Donnan.  To paraphrase, the people in Tucson are in for a shock because (and this is not a knock on either coach):

“Going from Lute Olson to Tim Floyd is like going from culture to agriculture.”  ¼/p>

While tradition is something to be proud of, it’s also something that often clouds reality.  When Tubby Smith finally felt uncomfortable enough at the University of Kentucky - after averaging 27 wins a year and making the NCAA Tournament field every year he was head coach - he left for, of all places, that basketball hotbed, the University of Minnesota, meaning Tubby thought it would be more fun and rewarding (although not from a financial standpoint) coaching at a school, and in a community, known more for hockey and fishing than for hoops.

Kentucky, because they currently own the record for more college basketball wins than any other school in the country, thinks that fact means they’re #1!  A great deal of those victories came a long, long time ago, when, even the most ardent supporter was probably being potty trained.  Since the good ol’ days, hundreds of basketball programs in the country have been trying to match Kentucky’s prowess in the sport.  Don’t look now, UK fans, but North Carolina is about to swoop in and overtake your beloved Wildcats.  No one wants to be the coach at Kentucky when North Carolina passes them for most wins ever.   Can anyone even fathom the amount of pressure on UK’s coach if UNC is one behind and both teams play on the same night?

A couple major factors in becoming a power are: 1) one player (of course, he must be the right one), can raise the level of play - and the win totals - all by himself and 2) it’s not a sport where there is a tremendous amount of money involved - in terms of facilities and equipment.  So, since the Baron, Adolph Rupp, roamed the sidelines, many up and comers and even, some “Johnny-come-lately’s” are creating quite the stir.  Subsequent to the “man in the brown suit” retiring from coaching, teams such as Gonzaga, UNLV and even UConn, have hit the national stage and become powerhouses, the latter two having won National Championships.

Yet, tradition is something we cling to, like the mini-basketball given to every male baby born in the Bluegrass State - a practice no longer legal (and if you don’t believe me, check out the 508 page NCAA manual Jim Calhoun referred to yesterday’s game).  UK basketball got so good it had to move out of their campus facility Memorial Coliseum and  that was so long ago that, the new home, cavernous Rupp Arena is now outdated.

So when it comes to coaching at a place like this, everything is bigger.  Salaries, expectations, media scrutiny, fan involvement in the program (there are a few chapters in the 508 page NCAA Manual strictly devoted to fan invovlement).  When a coach gets the Kentucky job, he’d better be incredibly ready to be overwhelmed with requests for everything and anything, all of which take up valuable time.

Each coach since Rupp - from Joe B. Hall on, seems to have had a presence, all of them incredibly confident and passionate.  When I was an assistant at Tennessee from 1980-87, Joe B. was finishing his tenure as Lexington’s number one most admired/despised man (and some fans were members of both clubs).  I don’t think Joe B. had thought about retiring as coach.  It’s just that he wasn’t the old man, so any loss that wasn’t acceptable (which was every loss) was blamed on him.

At this time, Kentucky had done whatever was necessary to set themselves apart from the rest of the basketball world by constantly one up’ing their competition with ideas the rest of the nation didn’t think of, or do, or couldn’t afford, e.g. Wildcat Lodge (which the NCAA deemed was illegal and subsequently, cancelled all athletics dorms).  Many in the coaching profession used to kid that Kentucky had the best team money could buy.  There were so many stories, undoubtedly most are apocryphal, but even if 95% are fabrications or exaggerations, the other 5% put UK in another world.

I think Kentucky got the reputation that if there was a problem, the answer was throw money at it.  This philosophy carried over to coaches too.  If one wasn’t producing, get rid of him - independent of how much the school (or community members) had to come up with to relieve him of a job they deemed over his head. 

Essentially, Joe B. Hall was forced out (even though he had won a National Championship) and, wouldn’t you know, the year it happened, the Final Four was in Lexington.  Rumors were rampant as to who was coming in to replace Joe B.  Since the annual Coaches’ Convention is held in conjunction with the Final Four, every coach in the country would be there.  It seemed as though cameras were everywhere, especially in the lobby of the coaches’ hotel headquarters.  Sportscasters were interviewing every coach who walked by.  The late Abe Lemons, who coached at Oklahoma City, Texas and Pan American was the all-time funniest coach, as well as most irreverent, who ever prowled the sidelines.  When a reporter asked Abe if he would be interested in the Kentucky job, Abe deadpanned, “Yeah, and they wouldn’t even have to pay me.”  He paused for effect before saying, “All I want is the same deal Rick Robey got.”  Robey was UK’s 6′10″ center and, naturally, paying a player would be the ultimate in breaking the NCAA rules.

The line got a great laugh - from everyone but the UK faithful.  The man who eventually got the job was Arkansas coach Eddie Sutton, who, early in the process, made the statement, “I’d crawl from Fayetteville to Lexington for this job.”  It turned out Sutton, a highly successful coach (one of a only six coaches to take four different college teams to the tourney), would wind up crawling, but it was out of Lexington, as he left in shame, under a cloud of an NCAA investigation.

At this time, long-time head coach C.M. Newton, a UK alum who’d played for Rupp, was UK’s director of athletics.  He knew exactly which coach he wanted to hire.  His choice was Rick Pitino, who had just finished a stint in the NBA, coaching the New York Knicks.  He inherited a program on NCAA probation and immediately captured the hearts of Kentuckians by producing a winner - squeezing every drop of hustle and skill out of them. Eventually, another NCAA Championship banner would be hanged in the rafters.

After Pitino left to coach the Boston Celtics, Newton already had decided who the next coach would be and he felt the guy was a “can’t miss” coach.  Once again, he proved to be a prophet when he selected Orlando “Tubby” Smith, who is responsible for the last NCAA Campionship banner, hanging in Memorial Gymnasium. 

The stress and demands of the job, along with the criticism he started to receive, mainly because he hadn’t won another National Cahmpionship weren’t giving Tubby the ROI (return on investment) he deserved and he must have come to the conclusion it was time to leave.

No problem.  UK had the perfect replacement in one of Pitino’s former Wildcat assistants, none other than back-to-back National Championship coach, Billy Donovan.  Make that one problem.  Donovan turned down his former employer.

Did panic set in?  Or did the university just try to get a workaholic, a coach who was currently successful and someone with a deep passion for the game.  Billy Gillespie turned around the program at UTEP and then left and had accomplished similar results at football-minded Texas A&M.  A quick, whirlwind courtship and UK had their man.

Conflicts would break out due to basketball consuming Gillespie’s life and, suffice to say, the chemistry at UK just doesn’t wasn’t working.  Toss in a trip to the NIT and a recipe for disaster was imminent.  So Gillespie’s gone.  Donovan has already come out with a statement, claiming he’s not interested and the list is Missouri’s Mike Anderson (who’s on a roll and, independent of what anybody says, Missouri has a better shot at getting to the Final Four than about 340 other D-I schools, including Kentucky), John Calipari, Jay Wright, Rick Barnes and Tom Izzo, each of whom are deified in the respective state they’re in and may keep the rumors floating around because of the economic situation in the country.  After the way Tubby Smith left and now, the way Billy Gillespie’s dismissal is being handled, many coaches (particularly the ones who’ve been mentioned), may use the opportunity to interview as leverage.  With all the success those guys have had, UK may or may not get any of the top notch coaches.

One they can have, and a coach with a good, albeit short, track record is UK alum Travis Ford, currently the coach at Oklahoma State.  However, some may see Ford as a Matt Dougherty, an alum of UNC, but whose experience level was limited - and UK fans remember how that situation turned out at Carolina.  Unfortunately, Kentucky doesn’t have a Roy Williams, an alum who had always said the best job in the country and most people in the know felt Roy would eventually wind up at UNC.

The job is not as attractive as it once was.  Today’s kids aren’t as enthused about Kentucky as they were in my day,or even as they were, say, 20 years ago.  The problem with Billy Gillespie was not his coaching and he’s a master recruitier so it looks like there’s not going to be a dearth of talent.  Allegedly, Gillespie’s personality is what expedited his dismissal.  He violated the second half of Jack Welch’s rule:

“If you’re good at what you do and get along with people, you’re 90% of the way there.”