You might think that basketball coaches are incapable of doing anything else but Nelson Catalina proved that is wrong. After spending more than a decade as head coach at Arkansas State with four 20-win seasons and four postseason appearances he left the business and became a financial professional at Merrill Lynch. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Catalina about winning an NIT game with no time left on the clock and losing an NIT game at the buzzer. Today is Coach Catalina’s 71st birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!
(photo credit: soundcloud.com)
You were hired as head coach at Arkansas State in 1984: why did you take the job? Most coaches have the goal/ambition to coach at a D-1 school. I had been the assistant for 5 years and understood the culture here and what we needed to do to make it better: it was a normal stepping stone for me.
1 of your most famous players was Arthur Agee from the documentary “Hoop Dreams”: how did you convince him to head south from Chicago, and how good a player was he? He was at a JC in Missouri just north of us. We went to go see him play and needed an experienced PG pretty bad. We looked around and decided to offer him a scholarship. He saw an opportunity to start, which is what most JC players want to do.
In the 1987 NIT you had a 3-PT OT loss at Arkansas on Friday the 13th: how close did you come to winning the game, and do you think that you would have won if you did not have so many injured players that day? I will not use the injuries as an excuse but it was a great game. It was probably 1 of the most physical games that I have ever been a part of and it got even worse during the final 10 minutes. I think the reason we lost was the physicality and the fact that we missed a couple of FTs. We have not played them since and I do not think it ever will be something I can forget.
In the 1988 NIT Rhon Johnson made a FT with no time remaining to clinch a 1-PT win at Stanford: how was the backup guard able to stay focused after the Cardinal called 2 timeouts before he stepped up to the line, and where does that rank among the most exciting wins of your career? I have been asked that question a lot: it has to be ranked in the top-3. Their floor designed by their engineering program allows you to bounce even higher: our guys were accustomed to more of a hard surface. Stanford had just beaten #1-ranked Arizona on that floor about 10 days before so we knew they had a good team. Rhon drove the baseline and I felt that he could either make the shot or get fouled…and to our amazement they actually called the foul! To beat a big/good team on the road is very tough.
In the 1989 NIT Chris Dillard had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 before collapsing in tears in a 2-PT loss at Nebraska: what do you say to a player after such a devastating loss? Chris was a great shooter and the last thing anyone had on their mind was that he would miss a FT: he had unlimited range. All you can do is console the player and explain that something happened in the game that put us in that position: a FT at the end is never the only reason you win or lose.
In February of 1990, 13 of your players skipped practice and threatened to quit school unless you were fired: why did they do that, and how were you able to resolve such a difficult situation? It is not 1 of my favorite topics but I think they just got aggravated at me. There is always a head dog when it comes to leadership but after the season was over we sat down and talked it out. I thought the personnel we had brought in did not help us win, but the following year we had the winningest season in program history.
In 1991 you were the regular season champ of the American South Conference: how big a deal was it for the program and/or the school? Anytime you win a championship it is a big deal and it was a great accomplishment for our players. After going through so much the year before when we had a more talented team, to put the team ahead of everything else and win some really big ball games was great. We actually had a shot to win the conference tourney but just came up a couple of points short against Louisiana Tech: that game has stuck with me a long time. I really felt that if we could get by that game then we would end up making the NCAA tourney for the 1st time. That team was extremely quick and very athletic: we just did not have a 6’10” guy who could dominate inside. We could switch everything on defense, which made us really good.
After retiring you became a TV analyst for the Red Wolves: how did you like it, and what do you hope to do in the future? ESPN3 covers games across the country and I was fortunate to do several games for them last year. Basketball has been part of my life since the 3rd grade and I still go to the arena to watch games.
Your grandson Noah Gatlin played football at Arkansas: who is the best athlete in the family? He is the best athlete: he is 6’7” and 300 pounds and works out with a special trainer. There is no doubt that he has great footwork and is still so young but we think that he has a bright future.
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? Regardless of your profession you want to be remembered as someone who cared. I tried to develop our team and make us the best that we could be because that is all we can do. I hope that people look back and say that I gave it everything I had.
