Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, parents, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The CAA Tournament tips off this weekend in Washington, DC, and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD will be covering all the angles so you can look forward to an abundance of articles in the week ahead. Jon Teitel commences our coverage with an interview of Northeastern basketball parent Mark Alarie.
We both attended Brophy College Prep in Phoenix and Penn in Philly, but only 1 of us was good enough to play ACC basketball: what made you choose Duke? It was a combination of 2 factors. Attending Brophy made me academically aware, so I had a desire to go to the best college I could get into. It came down to Stanford and Duke, so I compared coaching staffs/opportunities. I thought Stanford was a better school, but due to a young/inspiring coach named Mike Krzyzewski I felt that I had some undeveloped potential and could become a good ACC player.
Coach K won 5 NCAA titles and 3 Olympic gold medals: what made him such a legend, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? There are 2 aspects of Coach K that drove his success. 1 is that he was an incredibly hard worker: it is a prerequisite for success, but not every coach has it. Gary Williams and I have become friends: he is a Hall of Fame coach who won a national title, but he could not keep up with the time/energy required to win recruiting battles because it was not in his DNA. Coach K burned the candle at both ends: he would coach/develop us while building a pipeline of new players who would continue to improve the program. If you ask any of his former assistant coaches what their hardest job was, they would all say being his assistant due to the amount of time it required. The 2nd part of the formula was his attention to detail, which is where I learned the most about life. At every practice I remember he had each drill mapped out to the minute, as well as the rationale for the purpose of each drill. We would start with 1-on-0, then 1-on-1, then 2-on-2, etc. We would finish with a 5-on-5 scrimmage that was a build-up of all the fundamentals that he wanted to teach. It was such a predictable way to learn that it was perfect for me and a lot of my teammates. It is like learning math by making sure you do not forget your multiplication tables. The fundamentals were never assumed to be mastered but rather drilled into us for 4 years. He was a great communicator, which is the 3rd leg to the stool: he explained why the techniques would work and we trusted him.
2 other members of your recruiting class were Johnny Dawkins (head coach at UCF) and Jay Bilas (ESPN college basketball analyst): when did you 1st get the sense that you were part of a special group? I certainly did not know it when I was there. To this day Jay is 1 of my best friends and we are godparents to each other’s children. I definitely thought that he would become a TV broadcaster: when we were watching a game in our apartment and got bored we would turn off the sound and ask Jay to call the game, and he would have us all in stitches! He was just born to do what he is doing now (rather than practicing law), and good for him that he realized it. Johnny has become an outstanding coach, as have Tommy Amaker/Quin Snyder, and Danny Ferry/Billy King became NBA executives. That is a LOT of basketball talent on 1 team, which is a testament to Coach K: if he had to choose between recruiting talent and character then he would choose the latter. I remember seeing Vince Carter dunking with his head over the rim as a freshman at UNC, but Coach K would rather have a guy like Shane Battier because they are 2 different types of players. Vince was a great athlete and a Hall of Famer, but was not the same as Shane.
As a senior you made it all the way to the title game and scored 12 PTS in a 3-PT loss to Louisville: what is the secret to winning games in March? We did not have a 3-PT line back then, which has changed the game and made upsets more achievable. Shooting really matters, especially FTs during a close game. You must also defend the 3-PT line for the same reasons: the perimeter matters on both ends of the court.
Your 2136 career PTS remains #5 in school history: what is the secret to being a great scorer? For me it was about doing what I did best. I was a good post player with an effective jump hook over my left shoulder, so if I was given that shot from 8 feet and in, I probably had a make rate of 75-80%. Part of that is me, but also my coaches realizing it and my teammates giving me the ball. I was a good shooter if I was left open and was comfortable out to 20 feet. It was about getting the ball where I needed to get it.
You were inducted into the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Arizona High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2008: where do those rank among the highlights of your career? Those are prestigious honors that gave me a sense of accomplishment. I would never have believed that I was in company like that after finishing my career at Brophy. I never thought about it until it was all over, and it is still hard to believe, but I am proud of both accomplishments.
In the summer of 1986 you were drafted 18th overall by Denver (6 spots ahead of Arvydas Sabonis) and spent 5 years in the NBA: what is your favorite memory from your time as a pro? My best basketball memories are from college, which is a function of not playing on a great team in the NBA. In Denver we were swept out of the playoffs by the Lakers, and in Washington we were competitive but never got out of the 1st round, so we did not have any bragging rights. Those were great experiences for me, but they pale in comparison to playing on significant teams in college.
Since retiring as a player, you have worked in several different fields including investment banking/private equity/compliance software: what are you up to these days, and how long do you plan on sticking around for? I am officially retired but still work on several boards of companies that I have invested in, which is interesting for me. I am keenly interested in what the next big thing will be: right now it is AI, so as an investor I am trying to figure out how to leverage my capital to be a part of that growth industry.
Your son Xander is a freshman at Northeastern, and your daughter Bella was a 3-time Ivy POY at Princeton: who is the best athlete in the family? I think that Bella has bragging rights: she was drafted 5th overall, and she always reminds me that she was drafted way before I was! Xander is confident that he will become the best of all of us: he is a hard worker and has similar characteristics to me/Bella because he has been a late bloomer physically. He was 5’10” to start high school and was never on elite teams, but now he is a young man competing against grown men, as college rosters have plenty of 24 and 25-year olds. He has the necessary toughness: he just needs to mature both physically/mentally to achieve his potential.
Any predictions for Northeastern this weekend at the CAA Tourney and/or Duke this postseason? I feel so bad for Coach Bill Coen and his staff: I have never seen so many injuries on a college team. I wondered if they could put all the parts together to be competitive, but they just got chopped down to their bare bones 1-by-1…yet are still winning games in March! They finished last in the CAA but did not pack their bags so I applaud them for winning the play-in game earlier today. If they win another game tomorrow, then I would consider it a successful season for surviving an avalanche of injuries. As far as Duke, beating Michigan on a neutral court in DC last month put them as the likely #1 seed if they take care of business in the ACC. I do not think they have to win out, but they have as good a chance as anyone to win the whole thing. Last year’s team was the best Duke team I have seen since 1999 when we lost to UConn in Florida with an unbelievably loaded team that just could not finish the job. Last year I thought they were also the best team but could not finish the job. I do not see the same level of dominance this year as I did last year, but they still have a chance to win it all. There are a few players remaining from last year’s team who know how hard it hurts to lose when everyone expects you to win. Having those voices in the locker room and leadership that understands what happened last year will help.
