Rick Scruggs spent several decades as a head coach at many different schools including North Greenville/Belmont Abbey/Pikeville/Milligan/Gardner–Webb/Mars Hill. He had a 30-win season and a couple of postseason appearances but 1 of his greatest games was his 2007 road opener at Rupp Arena. His Gardner–Webb squad showed up in Lexington as a 25-PT underdog, then proceeded to score the 1st 14 PTS of the game and ended up beating the Wildcats by 16 PTS. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Scruggs about playing a game in prison and cancelling a game when the referees did not arrive. Today marks the 14th anniversary of that unbelievable upset so we take this time to reflect on a wild win.
(photo credit: wbtv.com)
You once played an exhibition game inside the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary: what the heck was that like, and did you make sure to let the prisoners win the game?! I was actually at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. We were scared to death: they counted us when we arrived and told us not to leave the group, take a shower, etc. We discovered that we had the same color uniforms as the prisoners so we had to wear their “away” uniforms…even though they never played an away game! I scored 12 PTS and we won the game: some prisoners told us that they had money on us to win so we felt more pressure in that game than we did the rest of the year. What got me is that they had 3 prisoners acting as refs…but it was some of the best officiating that we had all year, which may prove my point about where I think officials should be! 2-3 of our guys took their “away” uniforms as a keepsake but I did not want to run the risk of getting caught stealing state property and having to return to the prison. It scared me to death: if 1 of the prisoners was coming at me on a breakaway, should I take a hard foul on them?!
In 1995 you became head coach at Gardner-Webb, and 5 years later you were named conference COY: why did you take the job, and what did it mean to you to win such an outstanding honor? When I was at Milligan College we went to the national tourney. There were several jobs that I thought I would enjoy taking on and Gardner-Webb was at the top of the list. I went after it hard and took it as quickly as I could. I knew that it would be a lot of work due to the lack of talent/attendance so we had to build it up from scratch. The best day of my life was the day I got married…but getting that job was probably #2. I have a great record at every level of basketball from JC/NAIA all the way up to D-1, which not a lot of coaches can say.
In 2000 Gardner-Webb made the transition from D-2 to D-1: why did the program make the switch, and what is the biggest difference between D-2 and D-1? They told me during my interview that they wanted to make the switch to D-1, which excited me but did not scare me. They hired us (I say “us” because I think of my wife and I as a package deal) because they had a great visionary president who was big on athletics. He put the money/resources into it but it was tough to play all of those guarantee games against great teams. The stigma of being a D-2 program used to keep us from recruiting some guys, but after joining D-1 we could go after a lot more players.
What are your memories of the 2005 Atlantic Sun tourney final (Gary Johnson scored 19 PTS in a 9-PT win by UCF)? We had split with them during the regular season by beating each other in close games on the road. We got all sorts of publicity when we made it to the final because it was like David vs. Goliath. I remember us being very focused but if possible we might have been too prepared. We played well but the best team won that day. That crushed me because I really wanted to coach in the NCAA tourney.
In 2007 your team scored the 1st 14 PTS of the game en route to a 16-PT win over Kentucky in Rupp Arena despite being a 25-PT underdog (www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbqtWUTLDc): how were you able to pull off the upset, and how did that game change your life (if at all)? We had seen them on TV twice so we had a great feel for them even though it was early in the year. I remember telling someone the night before the game that they were going to have a hard time guarding us and that we had a shot if we could keep Patrick Patterson in check. We had a strong game plan and the kids bought into it. To get an upset on the road you have to have things go your way early (to build confidence) and you have to have good officials (to make sure you do not get robbed on the road). As luck would have it, 2 of the 3 refs that day were good friends of mine! Everything we did early worked great. After we won I told my kids not to do anything stupid like take a victory lap or stomp on the Wildcat logo. The bus ride back lasted 6 hours…but I would not have minded if it would have taken 20 hours! When we got back there were people waiting to congratulate us and I did interviews for 2-3 weeks after that. I got to live like John Calipari/Rick Pitino…and it wore me out. I enjoyed every minute of it and returned every phone call that I got. We scored on 16 backdoor plays during the game. My secretary back then did not know a lot about basketball: when she asked if I would take a call from some guy named “Bob Knight” I told her that I would! He called me to congratulate us on the success of our fundamental basketball. I still have the front page of the next day’s newspaper up on my wall: I love that the emphasis was on the team. Even today it gets brought up at least once a month. It was strange to be recognized at airports and in bookstores, which had never happened before that game. My wife and I could not go anywhere for 3 months without me having to sign an autograph. I will never forget how quiet Rupp Arena got towards the end of the game, but their fans were so classy that they gave us an ovation afterwards.
You had several players from Australia: how are you able to recruit kids from so far away, and what impact do you think that foreign players will have on NCAA basketball in the decades to come? They are already having a big impact due to coaches going back and forth from the US to foreign countries and the talent level increasing around the world. I had a former player who went to Australia who would send me the names of other players back there, and I rolled the dice 1 year to get a kid from the Australian Institute of Sport. Once we brought in some kids who were successful and had them graduate, the Australians started to trust us and we were able to develop a pipeline of talent. There is no language barrier so they can adjust very well to life in the US. They are not as athletic but their big men can step out and shoot from behind the arc.
You left in 2010 after going 8-21 with a schedule featuring the likes of Duke/UNC/Texas: who made your schedule that year, and how do you strike a balance between scheduling good teams and trying to win games? We had to bring in a certain amount of money every year to help the school. Our best player (Grayson Flittner) had microfracture surgery and was never the same after that. Our schedule was generally dictated by money but that final year they asked me to schedule 2 more games in order to prevent budget cuts. I was a team player so I thought it was the right thing to do…and the 2 schools that could best fit into our schedule happened to be Duke/UNC. A high # of guarantee games can really affect a team: we did our part to support the school even when we knew we would take it on the chin.
You later became an assistant coach at Appalachian State to Jason Capel (who was the youngest D-1 head coach in the nation at the time): why did you take the job, and how did it feel to be an assistant with 32 years of coaching experience for a head coach who was only 30 years old? I am really close to Jason’s father Jeff Sr. and have known Jason since he was a ball boy for his dad at Wake Forest. Jeff saw that I did a good job of taking care of players and recommended me to Jason. Jason and I had a 5-hour-long talk and he decided to hire me. Jason has great bloodlines and I feel that he is ahead of his years. The biggest adjustment for me was that I could not stop our practices anytime I wanted to! Jason asked me for input on a daily basis and used a lot of my stuff offensively. He is a class guy who does not have a big ego and it helped that we had 2 other good assistants. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and it was a great relationship.
You had a wild season with 1 game cancelled after no referees showed up and another game delayed after your opponent left its uniforms behind: was it as crazy as it sounds? I told Jason 1 day that he faced more things before Christmas than I faced in the past decade! Jason was a great player himself at UNC because his dad raised him well. I think it was hard for him at the start to work with players who were not as motivated as he was. We had a lot of injuries that year but as we got healthy we became very good.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? I hope I am remembered as a players’ coach who really cared about the welfare of my kids. I have guys from my 1st high school team who still call me even today, which is nice…even if they call me “sir” or “coach”! I did it the old-fashioned way: building my way up from a junior high school coach to a D-1 coach. I hope that nobody ever forgets the Kentucky win.