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As the summer comes to a close we can rejoice in the fact that college basketball is right around the corner! The season will tip off in a couple of months at the Champions Classic on November 5th at Madison Square Garden featuring a doubleheader of Kansas vs. Duke and Michigan State vs. Kentucky. To get you ready we will spend the preseason speaking with as many players/coaches as possible. We begin our coverage with St. John’s special assistant Paul Pressey. After leading his alma mater to the 1st 4 last March, Coach Chris Mullin stepped down in April and was replaced by former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson. To help create his future staff, Anderson turned to the past and selected his former Tulsa teammate/roommate Pressey to be his special assistant. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Paul about winning the 1981 NIT and working for Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.
Your nickname was the “Rubberband Man”: how did you get the nickname, and how did you like it? The Spinners had a song by that name. I loved it because it identified the way I played: I had a 7’1” wingspan and could cover a lot of space. Coach Nolan Richardson gave me the nickname in college. Our theme song/intro music was “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead, and that is just the way we played.
You began your collegiate career at Western Texas under Coach Richardson, where you finished 37-0 and won the NJCAA national title: how was your team able to maintain its focus for the entire season, and what was the most important thing he ever taught you? I think we went 27-5 during my 1st year there, which I thought was pretty good. However, after we came up short and realized that there was no next year for the sophomores we just felt so bad for them. They gave us the vision that we had to find a way to get back there and win it all. Coach Richardson played 10-11 guys per game: he would sub in 5 guys at a time because we were such a strong team. We never had any letdowns because there was so much competition between the starters and the bench players.
After following Coach Richardson to Tulsa you were named MVC Newcomer of the Year and led the nation with 96 STL: how were you able to come in and contribute so quickly, and did you feel like you were the best defender in the country? Coach Richardson took me and several of my teammates from our title team as well as Mike Anderson and we just came in like gangbusters and did not miss a beat. Nobody expected anything out of us as the new kids on the block but we were already a team.
Take me through the 1981 NIT:
You had a 4-PT win over UTEP, who was coached by Richardson’s mentor Don Haskins: what did it mean to Coach Richardson to beat his mentor? He was a chip off the old block: a lot of Nolan’s ideals came from Don and it was a big win for us. Don was proud of Nolan but crushed at the same time.
You had 20 PTS/9 AST/7 STL in a 2-PT win over West Virginia: where does that rank among the best all-around games of your college career? It was probably 1 of my best games because of the stage that it was on. Playing against a high level of competition every day really prepared me for those games.
NIT MVP Greg Stewart made the game-winning shot with 30 seconds left in a 2-PT OT win over Syracuse to clinch the title: how did that title compare to the NJCAA title, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? I was excited for Greg because we played a lot of years together side by side: to see him step up in his backyard of New York was just wonderful. For a little town of Tulsa to beat Syracuse in their own state was a big win for our university. People were cheering us until we were almost in tears.
In 1982 you were named MVC POY/All-American: what did it mean to you to win such outstanding honors? I just give a lot of credit to my teammates. Everyone made sacrifices for each other and I was able to thrive on both ends of the floor. We were all about winning and we got that from Coach Richardson.
What are your memories of the 1982 NCAA tourney (Rob Williams scored 26 PTS in a 4-PT win by Houston)? I cried: it really hurt me. We had a chance to beat them but they hit some big shots down the stretch. We were in our backyard at Oral Roberts and it was my last year. I knew that I would be losing some great teammates and a great coach who helped me grow as a player and as a young man. All of the seniors in the locker room after the game had tears in their eyes.
In the summer of 1982 you were picked 20th overall by Milwaukee (7 spots behind Sleepy Floyd): did you see that as a validation of your college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? It was a dream but a far-fetched dream. I wanted it to happen but felt that I would just get my degree and maybe get into coaching. I thought that I might get picked in the 2nd or 3rd round but never thought I would go in the 1st round. I had about 8 turnovers in the Aloha Classic and twisted my ankle so I thought that I had blown my chance, but I went to the pre-draft camp in Chicago and my stock went back up.
In both 1984 & 1986 you lost to the eventual champion Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals: was it frustrating to keep facing those legendary Celtics’ teams, and do you think anyone could have beaten them back then? Hold on: you have to go back to my rookie year…when we swept them in the 1983 Eastern Conference Semifinals! After that it was a great challenge to play Boston/Philly/Detroit: there were so many good teams back then that there was minimal room for error.
In 1986 you finished 6th in the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest: what kind of dunks did you do, and how amazing was it to see 5’7″ Spud Webb win it all? I was a player who could dunk in traffic but guys like Spud and Dominique Wilkins were “highlight dunkers”. I could do 1-handed cuff dunks and hook dunks but those 2 could do anything!
You were named to the All-Defensive team for 3 straight years in the mid-1980s: what is the key to being a great defender, and who was the hardest player you ever had to guard? There is no single best opponent I ever faced but Bernard King/Michael Jordan/Larry Bird/Dr. J are right at the top of the list. They were the key players on their teams at the time and you always had to be on your toes even if they did not have the ball. I always believed in taking the challenge of making my opponent work for his shot. Defensively you just need to have some inner pride and make the other guy earn his keep.
In 1992 you were an assistant coach with Golden State when you had to come out of retirement due to so many injured players on your roster, and after playing 18 games you got injured as well: how were you able to make the unusual transition from coach to player, and did you feel it was just karma after you got injured yourself? I had a torn calf muscle that forced me to the sideline. I became a free agent that summer and Don Nelson asked me to be an assistant coach for him. He said that if someone went down I would be the 1st guy he activated. It was the best of both worlds in terms of the opportunity: I had always wanted to coach and give something back to the younger guys. I got activated after Tim Hardaway went down and my 1st game was against Chicago: I held Jordan to 30 PTS!
You spent 6 seasons as assistant to Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, where the Spurs won their 1st-ever NBA title in 1999: what makes him such a great coach? Coach Pop just knows how to communicate with people. He is no-nonsense but wants you to have fun while you are doing your job. I want to keep doing this until my hair turns all gray!
Your daughter Angela made it to the 2007 Final 4 as a volleyball player at Cal and your sons Phil/Matt played basketball at Missouri: is it a coincidence that you have such an athletic family, and do your kids credit at least some of their success to genetics? Of course: their mother was an all-around athlete who had a basketball scholarship! Our kids have good genes and we always preached to them to pick a sport. Angela was a 3-time All-American in high school and later became a 4-time All-Pac-10 volleyball player.
At Missouri your 2 sons played for your new boss Mike Anderson, who became your teammate/roommate at Tulsa after your Western Texas team beat Mike’s Jefferson State team in the 1980 NJCAA title game: how did his relationship with your family affect your sons’ decisions to play for him? It is nice when you know the coach very well: he will help them grow and understand the basics of becoming a young man. We have done vacations with the Anderson family for a long time so my kids have known his kids for many years. My boys went to some of his camps when he was head coach at UAB. They were excited about his fast-paced style and made their own decisions.