The NBA Finals date back to 1947 (when they were known as the Basketball Association of America Finals) and the very 1st NCAA tourney was held in 1939. Olympic basketball competition is even older: it debuted as a demonstration event in 1904 and the men’s version became a medal sport in 1936, with the women finally getting their chance to go for the gold in 1976. The United States has dominated Olympic basketball competition from the start: the men have won 15 gold medals in the 18 tournaments they have participated in during the past 84 years, while the women have won 8 gold medals in the 10 tournaments in which they have competed during the past 44 years. Those of you who were looking forward to the 2020 Olympics opening ceremonies in Tokyo on July 24, 2020 will have to wait an extra 364 days, as the coronavirus caused a postponement until July 23, 2021. Due to the absence of college basketball since mid-March, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel decided to fill the void by trying to interview as many prior Olympic players/coaches as possible so that you have something to read this summer while not watching the Summer Games. We continue our coverage by chatting with Jon Teicher, UTEP radio play-by-play man, and Bill Knight, former reporter for the El Paso Times, about Don Haskins winning 1 of the most famous college basketball games ever in 1966 and losing the most controversial Olympic basketball game ever in 1972. Today marks the 48th anniversary of team USA’s infamous loss to the USSR.
(photo credit: usab.com)
Haskins was nicknamed “The Bear”: who gave him the nickname, and how did he like it? Jon Teicher: I think that he was okay with it. It came from SID Eddie Mullins, who was big into nicknames, and based on Haskins’ demeanor he came up with “The Bear”. Bill Knight: It was given to him by former SID Eddie Mullins. He did not use it or go by it but privately I think that he liked it. He resembled an old bear on the sideline.
He made the Final 4 in 1949 and 1951 as a player for Hall of Fame coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M: what made Iba such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that Haskins ever learned from him? JT: He was steeped on the fundamentals. Bob Knight also thought that Iba was a great coach. He learned the discipline required by the game to experience success. Even to his last days Don referred to him as “Mr. Iba”. BK: Coach Iba was just relentless and controlled every detail: he did not even want his players holding a girl’s hand on campus! During Christmas time they would have 3 long practices each day but Don still had the utmost respect for him.
He was hired as head coach at Texas Western in 1961 and had only 5 losing seasons until retiring in 1999: how was he able to remain so successful for almost 4 decades at a small school in the middle of nowhere? JT: It was a different time back then. He incorporated African-American players into his lineup long before it became the accepted norm in college basketball. He was a stickler for fundamentals/discipline, which helped him be so phenomenally successful. He was a terrific recruiter at 1st and later hired tremendous assistants such as Tim Floyd/Rus Bradburd. BK: He was just able to take average players and get them all working together on the same page. He had a great run during the 1960s of course but also in the 1980s when they won several conference titles. In the beginning he was an outstanding recruiter, although he never enjoyed it. He recruited the 1966 championship team solely by himself, and also recruited future #1 overall pick Jim Barnes after sticking with him forever during his JC career. Coach put down the scholarship papers and said that he would leave Jim alone after they had a FT contest…and Don could make his FTs! He knew the game so well and communicated it well to get players to play hard for him, which is the most important thing that a coach can do.
In the 1964 NCAA tourney All-American Jim Barnes fouled out after playing only 8 minutes in a 4-PT loss to Kansas State: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of his career? JT: I was not around at that time but Haskins often said he thought that it was the best team he ever had, even including the 1966 championship team. Barnes was probably the best individual player he ever had. BK: It really was. He told me a couple of times that it was not until 1966 that he realized his 1964 team was capable of going all the way. Their only 3 losses that season were each games that Barnes fouled out of.
Take me through the magical 1966 NCAA tourney:
The Miners started the season 23-0 before a 2-PT loss in their regular season finale at Seattle: how close did the come to going undefeated, and what was the team’s mood entering the postseason? JT: He always said that if you had a chance to win on the road then he would take it, but if you watch “Glory Road” it was portrayed as a tremendous disappointment. BK: They had beaten Seattle earlier that season and took them lightly during the rematch. Coach Haskins was furious with the loss but he had a group of confident young men that had destroyed a very good Iowa team earlier that year.
In the Elite 8 he had a 1-PT 2-OT win over Kansas: how much of a home-court advantage did they have in Lubbock, and do you think that referee Rudy Marich was correct when he ruled that Jo Jo stepped out of bounds before making a 28-footer at the end of the 1st OT that would have won the game? JT: Everything I have heard is that Jo Jo’s heel was on the sideline when he took the shot and Haskins said there was no controversy about it at all. As big as Texas is I think that Lubbock might have been as close to Lawrence as to El Paso. BK: I do not think they had much of a home-court advantage because the state is stretched out and Lubbock is a LONG way from El Paso. A few years ago I saw a series of photos showing that Jo Jo stepped on the line: Don said that was their toughest game all year.
In the title game against Kentucky’s 5 White starters he started 5 African-American players and had a 7-PT win to clinch the title: what did it mean to him to win a title, and what impact did that game have on ending racial segregation in college basketball? JT: I do not think that Don or his players truly realized the social impact until later on. He was thrilled to win a title but took so much flack for so many years after starting the 5 players that he almost wished he did not have to go through that, although I am sure that was mostly tongue in cheek. He took a lot of criticism for that despite being right in the middle of the civil rights movement. BK: I have talked to a lot of people about it over the years, including Pat Riley who played on that Kentucky team. The walls started tumbling down and even Kentucky began to bring in African-American players. Coach was so driven/competitive that he had a headache on the plane ride home because he was already worrying about next year! They became the 1st college team to go into the Naismith Hall of Fame: Bobby Joe Hill had passed away but most of the rest of them were still around. Riley said that it was a painful loss but many of his future African-American players mentioned how important that game was to them. Coach Haskins would always get stopped by strangers in airports by people who said the same thing.
He served as an assistant to his college coach for team USA in 1972: who do you blame the most for the controversial loss (Bill Walton for not playing, Iba for using a slow tempo, the Secretary General, the timekeeper, the refs, other), and why is no medal better than a silver medal? JT: My opinion is that any medal is great but I know that Don felt his team was robbed. You can find a lot of people who were responsible but they felt the outcome was not justified so they did not accept the medals. BK: You have to blame the timekeeper and the politics of it all. It was the best team that we could put together but Walton not playing hurt them. They still technically won the game even if the officials said they did not. Jim Forbes played on that team and said they are unanimous in not wanting that silver medal. Some players even have it in their will that they will never accept it so if that is how they feel then I respect their wishes.
In the 1987 NCAA tourney Mike Richmond had 18 PTS/11 REB in a 7-PT OT win over Arizona in Tucson: how on earth were they able to beat the Wildcats despite having 4 players foul out? JT: I was part of the program by that point and remember that game very well. It was the last season that a team could host an NCAA tourney game so it was impressive to win it in Tucson. The Miners won 5 straight WAC titles and made the NCAA tourney 7 straight years, which was quite an accomplishment. A lot of those players were recruited by Floyd. BK: That was just an amazing performance with everything stacked against them. Coach Haskins had a knack for coming up with a game plan against anybody. It was a pretty deep team but very few coaches could survive 4 guys fouling out.
In the 1992 WAC tourney title game Kevin Nixon made a 54-footer at the buzzer in a 2-PT win by BYU: where does that rank among the most amazing shots that you have ever seen? JT: It was just beyond half-court: he threw it toward the bucket and it happened to go in. Even though it was disappointing to lose that game UTEP still made the NCAA tourney and upset Kansas and made it back to the Sweet 16 for the 1st time in almost 30 years. I believe that team could have easily gone to the Final 4 but fell behind 10-0 to Nick Van Exel’s Cincinnati team before losing by 2 PTS. BK: It is right up there. I was sitting courtside for it and it seemed as if UTEP had the game won. Nixon threw up a prayer that only goes in 1 of 20 times…but that time it did. It was a deflating loss but the Miners still made a nice postseason run and almost made the Final 4. They upset #1-seed Kansas in the 2nd round in Dayton: Coach must have paced a mile or 2 in the underground parking garage before going to the arena! He used 3 small guards on offense and a triangle-and-2 on defense to beat a great coach in Roy Williams. It showed his ability to game plan and how intense he was. It was a Sunday afternoon game and our flight back to El Paso was delayed. We did not get back until midnight and the entire airport was packed with fans.
He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1997, inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and his entire 1966 team was inducted in 2007: where do those rank among the highlights of his career? JT: Knowing the way he was I think his crowning achievement was for the entire team getting inducted. He was a really unassuming guy and did not care about a lot of the individual accolades: he marched to the beat of a different drummer and would never campaign for it even if he enjoyed it. BK: Every 1 of those was important and he really appreciated them. He was also really proud when the school named its arena after him. He had his former player Nate Archibald introduce him in 1997, which is pretty unique, and he also has another former player who was inducted in Nolan Richardson.
He passed away in 2008: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? JT: To me he is 1 of the absolute best to ever stroll a college sideline. I take nothing away from guys like Coach K/Roy Williams, but to have so much success so far off the college map was a tremendous accomplishment. His team always played the right way and got the job done with a great effort. Bob Knight would also say that Don was 1 of the best. BK: As a competitor but also a man who never saw color: he just wanted his best players on the floor. 1 of his childhood friends in Oklahoma was African-American.