Jack’s Blog

On last Tuesday night’s Jerry Tarkanian Show, our guest was Billy Packer.  During his interview with Jerry, Billy made a statement many prognosticators, including Tark, have said - “Duke is not only the best team in the country, they’re head and shoulders above everybody else.”

I’ve blogged previously that the difference between this Duke team and the others is that freshman Kyrie Irving is unlike any of the point guards who’ve played for the Blue Devils - including Jay Williams.  He’s not just savvy and tough like Hurley, Wojo, Dawkins and the rest.  He’s more like a guard you see on the roster of Kentucky, UCLA or Kansas.  Lightning quick, impossible to stay in front of, with the ability to get others great open looks.  And now, according to the release from Duke, he’s out indefinitely.

Some may say that with Coach K at the helm the Blue Devils are still the team to beat.  Possibly, but with the way Kansas, Ohio State, Syracuse, UConn and Pitt are playing, “head and shoulders” might no longer be applicable.  Don’t count out Michigan State either.  The Spartans have to have played not only the toughest schedule in the country but the toughest ever by a team that doesn’t have to, e.g. Coppin State where head coach Fang Mitchell (who doubles as the school’s AD) sacrifices his basketball team in the preseason so that their other sports - men and women - can exist.  Tom Izzo and Sparty have no such monetary problems.

When Josh Selby becomes eligible for KU, there might be a new sheriff in town and if UK’s appeal for Enes Kanter goes through, the Wildcats just might surpass both Kansas and Duke.  No doubt, even with Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and the Plumlees, Duke will feel the loss of their precocious floor leader.  As far as Irving’s return goes, I imagine Mike Krzyzewski shares the same feeling expressed by Sandra Knell, who said:

“I’m looking forward to looking back on all this.”

Last night #1 Duke beat #2 Michigan State (yeah, they lost to UConn, but they’re still the second best team in the nation), leading from start to finish.   The game was played at Cameron Indoor Stadium which, if it weren’t the home of the defending national champions and the perennial power Blue Devils, would be considered an antiquated dump (I know because that’s what MacArthur Court at Oregon, where I spent a grad assistant year in 1975-76 when we were known as the Kamikaze Kids and played to raucous full houses, became).

For true basketball fans, the game was a thing of beauty - not because of scintillating dunks (I must have a Dick Vitale hangover using the word scintillating) - but because the viewers got to see defense played at such a high level against players that are, as the late Abe Lemons used to say, “hard to guard.”  The game had to set a record for shot fakes (and somebody, somewhere, probably has that stat), mainly because every shot was contested.  Coaches always are saying they want their guys to “play hard.”  No problem in this contest.  Every young kid should have seen the game - or shown a video of it.

Most prognosticators claim that there is a significant gap between Duke and every other team in the country.  Michigan State can hang in against them because of their toughness, a trait starts at the top with head coach Tom Izzo.  Duke’s head man, Mike Krzyzewski, is a tough SOB too.  The main difference in this Duke team and the others that Coach K has put on the floor is freshman point guard Kyrie Irving.

The youngster is unlike any guard Duke has had - Hurley, Wojo, Dawkins, Scheyer, even Jay Williams.  Irving cannot be kept not only from penetrating, but from getting all the way to the rim.  The one area the previous Duke guards excelled where he has yet to is on defense.  And don’t think the staff at Duke won’t be constantly harping on him to improve that aspect.

It’s so hard to go through a season unbeaten, but barring an injury to one of their major contributors, this might be the year.  Don’t be surprised if the team that has the final chance to knock them off is, as long as they, too, avoid serious injury, Michigan State - in the final game in Houston.

That’s thinking waaaaaay ahead, but as the saying goes:

“Stay tuned.”

Stanford filled their vacant head coaching position with long-time Duke assistant, Johnny Dawkins.  Several people have made mention of the fact he has had no previous head coaching experience.  Having been a 30-year assistant on the intercollegiate level and never getting the opportunity I craved ( a head coaching job), this hits really close to home. It’s the ultimate Catch-22: you can’t get a job because you don’t have the experience and you don’t get the experience because you can’t get a job - all independent of your knowledge, people skills (recruiting ability) or work ethic. 

Everyone wants to be guaranteed the coach their favorite school hires will produce a winning (on some levels, championship on others) program.  Sorry, coaching hires don’t come with such a label.  Hiring a coach is pure and simple - a crap shoot - and no one’s yet figured out how to load the dice.

Most decision-makers at schools with coaching openings are more intent on “winning the press conference” than in hiring the right person, i.e. seldom does due diligence figure in the selection process.  Today, athletics directors, presidents, committees or whoever use “head hunting” firms (see 3/5 blog for a thorough piece on that type of hiring strategy). 

For the purpose of this blog, let’s keep the focus on Johnny Dawkins.  His lack of head coaching experience has no significance to his ultimate success or failure at Stanford mainly because the job is so much more than calling times-out or making substitutions.  First and foremost is recruiting.  Stanford has the highest academic requirements (for schools who hope to win a National Championship) in the nation.  How fortunate they’ve been to find two pairs of twins each one of the kids having big-time Division I skills (good enough to play in the NBA), were brilliant students, wanted to go to Stanford - and, best of all, were seven-footers!  Something that would surpass head coaching experience would be for Dawkins to find out how his predecessors, Mike Montgomery, in the case of the Collins’ twins and Trent Johnson, with the Lopez’s  pulled off those remarkable feats.  On a more realistic note, one thing in his favor is the fact that both Duke and Stanford recruit on a nation-wide basis, so the contacts he’s developed throughout the country will serve him well on the Farm.

Next is the total organization of a program.  Learning from Hall-Of-Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski for 11 years as Mike’s associate - and that’s not even counting his playing days - beats the heck out of some guy who was a head coach for a few seasons at some other college.  Throw in all the ancillary parts of the job, e.g. meetings with academic advisors and compliance personnel, booster club functions, scheduling, dealing with the media and each of those will determine his success or lack of it much more so than prior head coaching experience. 

Having lived so long in the college basketball environment I witnessed guys who took opportunities and won and others who got their chance and didn’t.  One guy in particular I recall, had a great deal of success at what people would call a low-major school (this one happened to be an institution which didn’t even offer scholarships).  He moved “up” in class to a bigger program and got fired.  He was then hired at a Division II school and proceeded to win a National Championship!  Another “big-time” job opportunity followed only to produce another pink slip.  Maybe some guys are fit for certain levels better than they are for others. 

Another guy was a giant in the business, winning at many institutions - until two rules were passed: the three-point shot and the shot clock.  His philosphy was to 1) “pound it inside” and, 2) if his team had the lead, he was going to “take the air out of the ball” and make you chase him (he believed he had a delay game that took good care of the ball) or foul him (his feeling was, “If we make our free throws, we’ll win; if we don’t, we don’t deserve to”).  Each of these rules were completely contrary to his philosophy, but he stubbornly held on to his beliefs until he, too, lost his job.  Ultimately, he was re-hired at a lower level, realized he should have changed with the times and, ironically, eventually took his new team to the NCAA Tournamnet - on the back of his three-point shooters!   

Unlike what many out there think, “coaching is coaching, it doesn’t matter the level” is as far from the truth as what most politicians promise during campaigns and what they deliver.  And if Johnny Dawkins wins at Stanford, fans will claim it was because of the reasons described above, mainly due to his relationship and tutelage of Coach K.  If he doesn’t, those same people will swear it was because he never should have been hired in the first place - because he had no head coaching experience.  And that will be a shame for all the other assistants out there who’ve toiled and deserve a shot because, as Franklin D Roosevelt said:

“Repetition  does not transform a lie into a truth.”

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