This is our saddest Selection Sunday ever because there is too much Sunday and not enough Selection. America obviously has bigger problems to worry about this month and quite possibly the only silver lining is that we have a LOT of free time to reflect on Sundays from the past. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel begins our 3-part series with former South Carolina State coach Cy Alexander, who shared a story from Selection Sunday in 1996 and a quote from 1 of his players that ended up on the Jayhawks’ bulletin board.
In 1987 you took over at South Carolina State, inheriting a program that was coming off its 9th straight losing season: why did you take the job, and were you worried that the rebuilding process would take a long time? I had been an assistant coach for 11 years at Howard and felt that 1 of 2 things would happen: I could either take the South Carolina State job at age 33 or go with Leonard Hamilton to become his assistant at Oklahoma State. After talking to Hamilton I decided to take the D-1 head coaching job and see where it would lead me. It was not a great job back then but it became a solid mid-major program over time.
In the 1989 NCAA tourney (the 1st in school history), national POY Danny Ferry scored 18 PTS/6-11 FG in a win by Duke: what was it like to face Coach K in March? We had cut their lead from 17 PTS down to 9 PTS with about 8 minutes left. Our PG Darrell Gilmore went in for an uncontested lay-up that would have cut it to 7…but he missed it and then Duke went on a major roll. It was critical because all of the non-Duke fans were starting to pull for us as the underdog, but after the miss it was immediately deflating.
In the 1996 NCAA tourney Paul Pierce scored 15 PTS in a 38-PT win by #2-seed Kansas: how ugly was it? We had bad luck: Kansas was 1 of the top-ranked teams all season long but they got knocked down to a #2-seed after a 1-PT upset by Iowa State in the Big 8 tourney final. I distinctly remember having a party at my home that Selection Sunday where a TV reporter asked Derrick Patterson (who had transferred in from Georgetown) what he thought about the Jayhawks, and he said they were “big and slow”. I was stunned that he said that and could not retract it because it was on tape so I went on TV and tried to clean it up without making Derrick feel bad or think that I was lacking confidence. Believe me: there was nothing slow about Kansas! They used that as bulletin board material. I never saw a kid get from point A to point B with a ball faster than Jacque Vaughn. They had 4-5 future pros in their starting lineup so I figured our only hope was to help off of the slumping Jerod Haase…but he came out of his slump against us (scoring a game-high 17 PTS/4-5 3PM). However, we would not have gotten there without Patterson, who was our conference tourney MVP.
In the 1998 NCAA tourney Roderick “Moo Moo” Blakeney had 23 PTS/10 AST/3 STL in a loss to Kentucky: could you tell that the Wildcats were good enough to win it all that year (which they did)? Our backcourt outplayed Kentucky’s backcourt but we did not have enough size to compete with their frontcourt. Tubby Smith is a good friend of mine and he said that we gave them 1 of their hardest games prior to the final against Utah. There was a non-call during the game that angered Tubby, who subsequently screamed at the refs, “This is Kentucky!”. From that point on we did not get another call the rest of the game: at least he apologized to me afterward.
What are your memories of the 2000 NCAA tourney (a loss to #1-seed Stanford, who was led by Casey Jacobsen’s 18 PTS)? We got off to such a bad start in that game: I think that we might have just been happy to be in the tourney. It was 1 of our worst tourney performances during my time there.
In the 2003 NCAA tourney you lost to #1-seed Oklahoma: did you think that you had a chance to pull of the upset after Hollis Price had to sit out the majority of the game due to a groin injury? I thought that we competed very well: we had some big guys who could match their size and some guards who were good shooters. However, Chucky Gilmore got 2 quick fouls, which changed the entire dynamic of how we had to play them in the paint. Oklahoma got a big lead by halftime (35-16) because we did not shoot the ball well.
1 of your starters on that 2003 team was Moses Malone, Jr.: how did he compare to his famous father, and did you have to do anything different when coaching the son of a Hall-of-Famer? It was a unique situation because Big Mo was very visible in the stands at our games. Little Mo was able to mature as both a person and a player, which I think is why Moses sent him to play for me. He ended up getting his degree and playing professionally in Europe. We won a game at home during Little Mo’s 1st season but all he did in the locker room was complain about the officiating. Big Mo came into the locker room and told him, “You have no goddamn game: that’s your problem!” That was Moses: he just wanted to make his son tough rather than be a prima donna who was given everything. Moses earned every dime he ever made because he would work hard in the paint and get every possible rebound. I remember another time when we were leaving a road game on the bus and 2 women knocked on the door and asked if they could get their picture taken with Little Mo.
Shortly after your 2003 NCAA tourney appearance you became coach at Tennessee State: why did you decide to make the switch, and do you have any regrets? I have some regrets now because I got fired at Tennessee State after 6 years but I did not regret it at the time. I was a finalist for several jobs around the country back then: Ohio State, SIU, etc. I was a 5-time bridesmaid so when the offer came I just thought that it was time to try something else. What hurt me is that my best player Bruce Price (career 16.4 PPG) tore his ACL in both his sophomore and junior seasons and only ended up playing 6 games combined during those 2 years. We beat Illinois during my final year, which gave me some personal pleasure because their coach Bruce Weber had beaten me out for the SIU job in 1998. We graduated most of our players and I was on several powerful college basketball committees so I brought a lot of positive publicity to the school. As a head coach the 2 most important people you need to have supporting you are the AD and the school president. I was offered jobs at other schools while still at Tennessee State but I thought that we were on the cusp of success so I decided to stick around.
You later served as assistant coach to Perry Clark at Texas A&M CC: how did you like working for Perry, and what do you hope to do in the future? I hope to get another head coaching job and I think that my track record speaks for itself. I am most proud of the fact that we finished 1st or 2nd in the conference during 13 of my 16 years in Orangeburg: even Coach K has said how impressive that is. Perry gave me the opportunity to be a head coach even though I was just an assistant. We ran things together and I hope we did well enough that someone will give me an opportunity in the future. He made it a lot easier to go from over 2 decades of being a head coach to being an assistant. Some head coaches did not want to hire me because I had not been an assistant for a long time, and others were worried that I was too intimidating because I had been a head coach for such a long time! I got calls from guys like Karl Hobbs, JT3, and Perry, but Perry was the best fit.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I want to be remembered as someone who tried to do things the right way and cared about the people he coached. I am a man of high integrity who worked very hard. I tried to develop young men as both basketball players as well as great people. They inducted the 1989 South Carolina State team into the school’s Hall of Fame a few years ago, and I am really proud of that.