Wednesday March 21, 2007

Coaching Impressions

Coaching Impressions
I am very fortunate to have been to so many sporting events starting at an early age but my 15-year old son is less fortunate because he has to hear about many of them in the form of corny stories.

Tonight I will take him to the game and let him experience a game that features a Hall of Fame coach. Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim will be on the opponent’s bench tonight and he will become just the fourth Hall of Famer to ever coach in Littlejohn. I was fortunate enough to see the other three Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith and Frank McGuire.

The other three had a presence about them and are among a list of coaches that I have had the opportunity to see coach in person who left big impressions on me. As I have told you before, I was lucky enough to work the home basketball games in my days at Clemson with the sports information office as a student assistant and often times I got to sit on the last seat on press row which was beside the visiting bench. This kind of close up action was incredible and the idea of watching these legends work a game and an official was awesome. Five of the best years of my are filled with the memory of the great ones at work.

Dean Smith came across as a gentleman but he often was not what you saw in public. Smith was a chain smoker and worked down more cigarettes in the tunnel of Littlejohn than the Surgeon General thought was possible. He also used questionable language at times. Like all great coaching legends, Smith usually had superior players but I thought the way he worked the clock was his true genius. Dean Smith could make the last three minutes of a game last an hour. His teams were never out of it because of the way he managed the game.

It would not shock the average fan to know that Mike Krzyzewski works officials better than any coach I have ever seen. The language he uses might shock your grandmother though. I never considered Coach K to be a great X and O guy though. I always thought his genius was that he got his players to play harder than the opponent. He is an ultra-competitor who lives and dies with every trip down court.

Frank McGuire had an air about him. I am not sure if it was his stylist clothes or his New York accent. McGuire invented working the refs. Long-time South Carolina play-by-play announcer Bob Fulton tells stories of how he would intimidate the officiating crew before the game ever started. McGuire had style and I always got the sense that Frank Sinatra was just around the corner and might pop out during a time out to see if McGuire needed anything done to the officials. Unfortunately I saw McGuire at the end of his career where his teams were struggling.

Jim Boeheim is a guy that I have never seen coach but I did play golf one time with Boeheim and P.J. Carlesimo. Both were good friends that were spending time in Hilton Head and my head pro asked me to show the coaches around the course. Boeheim is another ultra-competitive guy. I would classify both as two pretty good guys and I enjoyed their company.

Roy Williams is a true gentleman. Williams might be the most respective full coach I have ever been around. The next time you are at a game where he coaches notice how he steps out from his team huddle during the introduction of the opponent and he applauds each player. I think this classy act is only part of the story. Don’t get me wrong, Williams can get feisty but I think he is a great example of sportsmanship. I am not sure how much of an X and O guy he is but it is fun to watch his teams push the tempo and race up and down the court.

Lefty Driesell came across as a good ole boy. I always got the impression that Lefty would have been a good football coach too. In fact a lot of people never knew it but at one time Lefty and Danny Ford were pretty good friends. I always liked Lefty. I never trusted him but always liked watching him and loved going to his press conferences after the games.

Gary Williams is awesome to watch. I am not sure I have ever seen anyone at any level that hates to lose like Gary Williams. The jacket gets sweat soaking through it in the first ten minutes of the game. The language would be hard for your young kids to hear but all in all I like Williams. I love to watch him rip his assistant coaches when a ref makes a bad call. Often times when he sees a bad call from the official he will turn to his assistant and cuss him instead of the official so he will not get a technical foul. I could never imagine what it is like in the Williams’ household the day after a loss.

Bobby Cremins was awesome. He was perhaps the funniest coach in the post game press conferences. Whenever he lost a game at Clemson he would sometimes say, “You guys know I went to the University of South Carolina so I can’t be that smart.” Cremins was charismatic. He knew how to work the room. He always seemed to wear the gold tie and blue blazer during his days at Georgia Tech but he was anything but boring. Cremins’ accent was awesome too. The way he would explain a decision always seemed better in that accent. Again here was a guy that not noted for X and Os but man he could recruit.

Terry Holland was the definition of boring. It always amazed me that he could stay so calm in the face of so much pressure. However, he lacked the charisma of many of the other great ones.

John Thompson was a guy I saw coach in the NCAA regional in Atlanta one year Clemson was there. Thompson had a presence about him. He is a huge man that seemed to always be standing up to show his presence.

Dave Odom is a guy that I think is a fantastic X and O coach and I know USC fans may chose to disagree. In his days at Wake Forest and USC he always seems to have a good game plan. Some of those he may not have had the athletes to win but the plan was always sound. He is another gentleman. Odom shakes the hand of everyone working on the stat crew each game. He is a classy competitor. Again, I know Gamecock fans may run him out of town but I really like this gentleman.

Mike Jarvis struck me as a man who had a presence about him. I saw him bring in a team from Boston University and came away very impressed. Jarvis is another guy who accent rang throughout the gym. He worked extremely hard and it was obvious he was on his way up. Plus he had to have had the shiniest head I have ever seen. On a serious note, it always surprised me that he did not enjoy more success at St. Johns.

I have been very fortunate to see some great ones but all took a backseat to the late, great Jim Valvano. Jimmy V was the most impressive coach I have ever seen in any sport at any level. I think he was a terrific recruiter and an even better X and O guy. The way he worked the clock in their 1983 national title game was amazing. Valvano commanded respect and got it from me. He could work the ref and his team. I was always impressed when he had his head trainer time the time outs with a stop watch. It showed his attention to detail. Another thing that amazed me was the attention level he commanded from his team and coaches during timeouts. Often times you may see a couple of scrubs standing in the back of the huddle checking out girls in the stands but this never happened with Valvano. Every player gave him total respect at all times. The man was passionate about every small detail of his life. He coached hard and his passion was present ever where he went. They broke the mold when they made Valvano.

I never got to see John Wooden in person. I would have loved to watch Rollie Massimino work a game and tonight we are lucky to watch Boeheim. Too bad we could not schedule just one more game with Jimmy V.

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