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DHD
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 1,407
... the Coach K/Dillon Brooks bullshit has inspired me to share these observations about college coaches I've seen in a lecture and/or clinic setting.
Biggest Asshole: Coach K, and it's not even close. I've seen him 3 times and he's been a complete asshole every time. Every third word is "fuck" and he routinely insulted anyone that dared ask him a question. It's amazing that he has the goody two shoes rep, because he is an ego maniacal jackass.
Best Teacher: Coach K. Saw him teach his zone offense principals for 3 hours on a floor to a bunch of JC kids that he didn't know. It was like a religious experience. An amazing teacher of the game.
Good teacher/great speaker: John Calipari, Phil Martelli. Calipari was really good and so was Martelli.
Best shtick: Roy Williams. That whole "dad gum" hillbilly bullshit is about as transparent as you can imagine. One of those guys that you think would be great to play for, until you show up on the first day of practice and realize that none of that hokum yokum stuff is for real.
Painfully Boring: Lute Olson (before the dementia set in). No one even close. 10 minutes in and half the room was asleep. Lorenzo Romar would be a distant second in this category.
Best Stories (Shit Faced Category): Bob Huggins. No one even close. Dude was lit up at 1pm and followed Lute Olson. Spent 10 minutes mocking Lute, while Lute was still trying to figure out how to get out of the room. He then proceeded to make fun of how stupid, by name, each of his players were.
Best Stories (Non Shit Faced Category): Bob Knight ... and everyone else is so far behind that they don't even deserve mention. Watched him speak for 4 hours and he was absolutely one of the best speakers I've ever seen. Great stories and he was wonderfully gracious and a total class act to everyone in the room.
Must Have Had a Bad Day: Tubby Smith. Saw him speak about 2 weeks after he won the national title and it was completely bizarre. He made almost no sense and his delivery was so scatter shot that it was nearly impossible to track what he was trying to teach.
Guy I'd Want Coaching My Team: Tom Izzo. Great speaker, good teacher and came off as 100% genuine. Said that they start their pre-season rebounding drills by having the entire team get in full football gear (helmets included) and then they teach them how to rebound. Toughness. Runner up would be Mike Montgomery ... he came off as being very similar philosophically and in demeanor to Izzo.
Guy Who Talked About Shit No One Cared About: Ernie Kent. Spent about two hours talking about coaching for Aramco while in Saudi Arabia and how he ran his team with a "corporate" structure. WTF?
Guy Who Belied His Reputation: Jim Boeheim. Great speaker, funny and very gracious. Totally opposite of the petulant dick that he appears to be on the sideline. He's also a really big guy ... probably 6'4 or 6'5 ... really physically imposing.
Blatantly Honest: Dana Altman. Talked about developing his zone offense to fit slow white guys who could shoot because he couldn't get any black kids to come to Omaha (Creighton) when he recruited them. Honest, but borderline uncomfortable in his directness and would probably get the "rayciss" tag if he talked that way these days.
Most Pathetic: Bob Bender (he was still at UW at the time). Got half way through his lecture and had to call up an assistant coach to the podium to help him finish explaining his zone offense because he couldn't remember how to do it. Yes, this really happened.
I've seen lots of other guys, but those guys really stand out.
Biggest Asshole: Coach K, and it's not even close. I've seen him 3 times and he's been a complete asshole every time. Every third word is "fuck" and he routinely insulted anyone that dared ask him a question. It's amazing that he has the goody two shoes rep, because he is an ego maniacal jackass.
Best Teacher: Coach K. Saw him teach his zone offense principals for 3 hours on a floor to a bunch of JC kids that he didn't know. It was like a religious experience. An amazing teacher of the game.
Good teacher/great speaker: John Calipari, Phil Martelli. Calipari was really good and so was Martelli.
Best shtick: Roy Williams. That whole "dad gum" hillbilly bullshit is about as transparent as you can imagine. One of those guys that you think would be great to play for, until you show up on the first day of practice and realize that none of that hokum yokum stuff is for real.
Painfully Boring: Lute Olson (before the dementia set in). No one even close. 10 minutes in and half the room was asleep. Lorenzo Romar would be a distant second in this category.
Best Stories (Shit Faced Category): Bob Huggins. No one even close. Dude was lit up at 1pm and followed Lute Olson. Spent 10 minutes mocking Lute, while Lute was still trying to figure out how to get out of the room. He then proceeded to make fun of how stupid, by name, each of his players were.
Best Stories (Non Shit Faced Category): Bob Knight ... and everyone else is so far behind that they don't even deserve mention. Watched him speak for 4 hours and he was absolutely one of the best speakers I've ever seen. Great stories and he was wonderfully gracious and a total class act to everyone in the room.
Must Have Had a Bad Day: Tubby Smith. Saw him speak about 2 weeks after he won the national title and it was completely bizarre. He made almost no sense and his delivery was so scatter shot that it was nearly impossible to track what he was trying to teach.
Guy I'd Want Coaching My Team: Tom Izzo. Great speaker, good teacher and came off as 100% genuine. Said that they start their pre-season rebounding drills by having the entire team get in full football gear (helmets included) and then they teach them how to rebound. Toughness. Runner up would be Mike Montgomery ... he came off as being very similar philosophically and in demeanor to Izzo.
Guy Who Talked About Shit No One Cared About: Ernie Kent. Spent about two hours talking about coaching for Aramco while in Saudi Arabia and how he ran his team with a "corporate" structure. WTF?
Guy Who Belied His Reputation: Jim Boeheim. Great speaker, funny and very gracious. Totally opposite of the petulant dick that he appears to be on the sideline. He's also a really big guy ... probably 6'4 or 6'5 ... really physically imposing.
Blatantly Honest: Dana Altman. Talked about developing his zone offense to fit slow white guys who could shoot because he couldn't get any black kids to come to Omaha (Creighton) when he recruited them. Honest, but borderline uncomfortable in his directness and would probably get the "rayciss" tag if he talked that way these days.
Most Pathetic: Bob Bender (he was still at UW at the time). Got half way through his lecture and had to call up an assistant coach to the podium to help him finish explaining his zone offense because he couldn't remember how to do it. Yes, this really happened.
I've seen lots of other guys, but those guys really stand out.
Comments
great fucking post, thanks for sharing
Huggy Bear makes a ton of sense given his comments after his team got eliminated this year. Pretty comical but also brutally honest.
Izzo being Izzo makes a ton of sense ... it's pretty obvious that he knows his shit.
Not surprising that the guys that you thought were full of shit were full of shit ... if you are a head coach and can't explain basic basketball fundamentals you are fucktardedly stupid.
As for Boeheim, I think in general he's an insufferable prick but I've heard on many accounts the same views of him as being actually not that bad of a guy. He most definitely probably falls into the category of the kind of guy you wouldn't mind having a beer with away from the office but you hate him if you have to work with him.
Few and Boeheim are best buddies. I'll leave it at that.
I believe they both have that in common.
I saw most of these guys at Nike sponsored clinics and these guys were contractually obligated to appear and present at these clinics as part of their deals with Nike.
(I also attended some Converse ... before they got bought up ... and Adidas clinics, but the vibe at the Converse and Adidas clinics was much different than the Nike clinics.)
The big time Nike coaches spent a considerable amount of time profusely thanking Nike for their "support" of the coaching profession. Virtually every presentation began with a testimonial to the virtues of Nike.
It was borderline cultish, and these guys made it clear that their allegiance to Nike was every bit as important as their allegiance to their schools.
Sonny Vaccaro was present at one of the clinics and it was amazing to watch these big time coaches kiss his ass. They all knew who the Godfather was, and Sonny "got his ring kissed" repeatedly.