Coaches dominate the game

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© St. Petersburg Times
published March 14, 2002

Once, a young man shot a basketball. It went through the net and pandemonium, as it tends to do, ensued.

The young man's name was Keith Smart, and you could mount a pretty solid argument that his basket may well have been the most memorable shot ever made in an NCAA title game. It was one of those improbable shots by an improbable hero, coming with four seconds left and turning defeat into victory. It was 15 years ago, and it made Indiana University a national champion.

For the record, they did not make a movie about it.

Instead, they made a movie about the coach, a guy named Bobby Knight. Two movies, really, if you count Blue Chips (Warning: If you count it, the rules say you have to watch it).

Four years earlier, there was another important shot in the final. A forgettable forward named Lorenzo Charles grabbed an air ball shot by teammate Dereck Whittenberg and laid it in, simply an amazing play, to give North Carolina State an upset of legendary proportions over Houston's famed Phi Slamma Jama team.

They didn't make a movie about that one, either.

They made a movie, instead, about the coach, the late Jim Valvano.

As the NCAA Tournament cranks into full gear today, those tidbits should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about college basketball.

It's a coaches' game.

First, last and always.

More than any other sport, and more than any time, college basketball is a game ruled by the men with the scowls on their faces. It is their personalities that define programs, their standards that define success. The players are important, of course, the way queens and rooks are important to chessmasters. But it is the coaches who turn successful teams into programs, and programs into self-perpetuating fiefdoms.

This is the best way to look upon the competition to come. Think not of the forwards slashing to the hoop, but of the guy calling timeout on the bench. It is a game of Mike Krzyzewski's sharp features, and Rick Majerus' round ones. It is eternal grumps such as Bob Huggins and crying guys like Roy Williams. It is crusty old Fast Eddie Sutton and bouncing Billy Donovan. It is retreads like Steve Fisher and new stars like Ernie Kent.

It is an old guy like 72-year-old Davey Whitney, in his 26th season of coaching Alcorn State (which, sadly, is already one-and-done), and Notre Dame's Mike Brey who is, like, 14. It is Jim Harrick, who still looks out of place at Georgia, and Tubby Smith, who has looked out of place since he left. It is Gary Williams, whose face gets one more line every time the ball goes through the hoop. It is Tom Izzo and Mike Jarvis and Rick Barnes and Kelvin Sampson and Mark Few, who obviously has done something to offend the NCAA selection committee. And, yes, it is Knight, who would eat Brian Dennehy's liver with some farva beans and a nice Chianti.

As a group, college basketball coaches whine entirely too much. They gripe about seeding when they don't deserve to be in the tournament at all, and they gripe about location and game time and touch fouls and shot clocks and their latest Nike deals. They can be power-hungry and ego driven, and too many coaches have too few graduates.

As a group, however, there is also this. They keep you watching.

Little acknowledged fact: The talent isn't nearly what it used to be in the NCAA tournament. There are too few seniors, too many sophomores. Too many role players are starters.

The coaches have kept you from noticing. It doesn't matter how many teenagers leave. These guys keep coaching on the fly, shoving a freshman toward the court instead of a rising junior, coaxing players to buy into a game that no longer has time to wait and convincing you to pay attention.

(Unfortunately for Nolan Richardson, sometimes, they even make people pay attention to your television show, where a coach may waggle his ears at the administration from time to time. At press time, Nolan was still trying to make it into his office and, one presumes, the tournament.)

When you look at a bracket, perhaps you think about point guard matchups. Perhaps you think about seedings, or records, or history. I suggest you see it as celebrity boxing among coaches.

In the South, the pick is easy. Always pick Krzyzewski. Even when he has to face Brey, Mike Davis and the Alabama Crimson Gottfrieds in a row. Interesting early-round match: Mike Davis of Indiana takes down Henry Bibby of USC.

In the West, there are a great many teams, and coaches, that you could pick. I cannot get past the delicious image of Mark Few of Gonzaga climbing to cut the net and pausing to stick his tongue out at the selection field. Yeah, it means that Few has to survive Lute Olson of Arizona and Kevin Sampson of Oklahoma and Scowling Bob Huggins of Cincinnati. A guy has got to dream, doesn't he? Interesting second-round matchup: Miami's Perry Clark over Ohio State's Jim O'Brien.

In the East, Maryland's Gary Williams is finally a No. 1 seed, but there are a lot of pretty good coaches hanging around. Mike Jarvis and St. John's could get Williams in the second round, and Tubby Smith and Kentucky could get him in the third. It says here that Williams survives into the Final Four. Interesting matchup: Michigan State's Tom Izzo takes down Texas Tech's Knight in the semis.

In the Midwest, it's hard to see anyone upsetting Kansas and Roy Williams. He'll get past Western Kentucky's Dennis Felton, Illinois' Bill Self and Oregon's Ernie Kent to win. Interesting second round matchup: Self over UF's Donovan.

And in the Final Four?

It says here that Kansas finally gets Roy Williams his title.

When his movie comes out, everybody cries.

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