In Coaching, It’s Sometimes About Who You Know and Where You’ve Been

It’s why former N.B.A. gamers like Clyde Drexler (Houston), Chris Mullin (St. John’s), Eddie Jordan (Rutgers) and Kevin Ollie (Connecticut) didn’t have enduring success at their alma maters, although Ollie did win a nationwide championship earlier than fizzling. And it’s why Patrick Ewing has struggled at Georgetown, the place his group misplaced its ultimate 21 video games this season.

“Many of the guys which were within the N.B.A., they’ve made a lot cash, they didn’t actually care that a lot about teaching,” mentioned Roy Williams, who retired final 12 months as North Carolina’s coach after profitable three nationwide titles and cheered on Davis in Philadelphia final weekend.

Extra not too long ago, although, there are indicators of success.

Mike Woodson at Indiana, Penny Hardaway at Memphis and Aaron McKie at Temple, together with Howard and Davis, have their alma maters trending in the best course. Solely Woodson, a distinguished N.B.A. coach, had a lot expertise as a head coach.

Memphis has been to the N.C.A.A. event simply as soon as in three tries underneath Hardaway, however his affect on the faculty was instant: Attendance jumped by 7,840 folks in his first season, the largest spike in school basketball in 25 years. He has surrounded himself with N.B.A. veterans — the previous gamers Rasheed Wallace and Mike Miller have been on his workers, as is Brown, the one coach to win each an N.B.A. and N.C.A.A. championship. However final week, the N.C.A.A. charged Memphis with 4 main recruiting violations, together with failure to cooperate with investigators.

When Leon Costello, the athletic director at Montana State, was searching for a basketball coach to rejuvenate a languishing program, he couldn’t flip to an inventory of former N.B.A. gamers.

However he may flip to Danny Sprinkle, a freshman star on the Montana State group that reached the 1996 N.C.A.A. event. Sprinkle additionally had expertise as an assistant on the faculty.