The Olympians: HoopsHD interviews Spencer Stueve about 1964 Olympic gold medalist Walt Hazzard

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Jon Teitel

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 UCLA historian Spencer Stueve about Walt Hazzard winning an NCAA title and gold medal in 1964.

Walt was born/raised on the East Coast and won 2 city titles while going 89-3 at Overbrook High School in Philly: what made him choose Santa Monica College to start his college career, and why did he decide to transfer to UCLA? His 1 year at Santa Monica College was a bridge to UCLA. He chose UCLA out of high school but had to finish up some academic work at SMC before enrolling at UCLA, which is just 7 miles away. Freshmen were not eligible for varsity basketball at the time so he did not miss anything at UCLA: he just finished his required courses and then transferred.

He played for Hall of Fame coach John Wooden: what made Wooden such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that Walt ever learned from him? Wooden never focused on winning and losing: he relentlessly preached being the best that you are capable of becoming. This is the lesson that resonated best with most of his players. There was no need to compare yourself to someone else: just be the best that you can be.

In the 1962 Final 4 he scored 12 PTS/5-10 FG in a 2-PT loss to eventual champion Cincinnati (Paul Hogue had 36 PTS/19 REB): where does that rank among the most devastating losses of his career? It was the toughest loss for UCLA during his college career. That 1962 team was the best UCLA team in history prior to the championship seasons that shortly followed and Coach Wooden thought that the 1962 team was a championship-quality team.

Take me through the magical 1964 season:
Even though it was Wooden’s 16th year in Westwood, assistant coach Jerry Norman convinced him to implement a zone press for the 1st time: what impact did that have on the pace that they played at, and how crucial was that to their success that year? A full-court press was 1 of the staples of Wooden’s coaching philosophy prior to the 1964 season. He had used it off-and-on throughout his career but in 1963 he decided to make the press defense a primary defensive weapon for his team. They were small/quick/skilled but not very big. UCLA ran almost exclusively a full-court man-to-man press in 1963 to some success. In 1964 they implemented the zone press…and it was the most lethal defensive weapon that college basketball had ever seen up to that point. UCLA had the perfect team to use it with a pair of star guards in Hazzard/Gail Goodrich who benefitted the most.

In the NCAA tourney title game he scored 11 PTS in a win over Duke en route to being named tourney MOP: how was he able to play his best when it mattered the most, and how were they able to go 30-0 that year? Another Wooden-ism that he preached to his team was: “Be at your best when your best is required.” Hazzard and the 1964 Bruins took this to heart. Hazzard also had some hard-nosed Philadelphia grit to his game: he was a tremendous defensive player and got after it. No team really stood a chance in 1964: UCLA’s skill level was so far superior to every other team that it created tremendous mismatches. Their full-court press eventually wore teams out and Hazzard/Goodrich were able to capitalize.

He was national POY/2-time All-American: what did it mean to him to receive such outstanding honors? Hazzard was a team guy, as was required for anyone who played for Coach Wooden. What he was able to do was set a standard of individual excellence, which translated to team success. He was the 1st star player during the championship years at UCLA. Gail Goodrich/Lew Alcindor/Sidney Wicks/Bill Walton/Jamaal Wilkes/Dave Meyers/Marques Johnson and more were all able to follow in his footsteps by earning individual acclaim within the framework of the team’s larger goals.

He played for team USA at the 1964 Olympics: what did it mean to him to represent his country, and what did it mean to him to win a gold medal? I cannot really answer this question because there is not much out there about his thoughts on his Olympic experience.

After averaging 9.3 PPG/4.1 APG in 1967 with the Lakers, he was traded to Seattle and scored a career-high 24 PPG, averaged 6.2 APG, and was named an All-Star: how did that change of scenery allow him to become 1 of the best PGs in the league? Seattle was an expansion team and although he was only there 1 season it was a memorable 1. The best explanation for his increased production is that the Sonics put the ball in his hands and asked him to score more than the Lakers asked him to. The Lakers had a very deep roster including Elgin Baylor/Jerry West/Gail Goodrich/Rudy LaRusso.

In 1971 he and his wife Jaleesa (a former Bruin cheerleader) began to embrace Islam after spending time with fellow UCLA alum Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then he started to use the name Mahdi Abdul-Rahman as a player on the Hawks: what role did religion play in his life (as the son of a Methodist preacher), and do you agree with his assessment that the name change cost him various opportunities both during/after his playing career? Religion obviously played a very large role in his life. He changed his name and was a Muslim for the rest of his life. He was initially introduced to Islam by Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem). As a player he was never comfortable with his perception of how others felt about his conversion. He used his birth name as a professional courtesy so I do not agree that it cost him opportunities. He played for 10 seasons in the NBA and coached for 8 seasons in college with limited success.

After being hired as head coach at UCLA in 1984 he had a 3-PT win over Indiana coach Bob Knight in the 1985 NIT title game and was named conference COY in 1987 after winning the 1st-ever Pac-10 basketball tourney: what did it mean to him to win a title at his alma mater, and what made him such a good coach? Hazzard was very well-liked at UCLA but he was not considered a good coach. He was able to win the Pac-10 title once and the Pac-10 tournament once, but UCLA began to slide during his tenure.

He passed away in 2011: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? I think that he is rightly remembered as the 1st great player to win a championship at UCLA. He helped lead the Bruins into an era of prosperity never seen in college basketball either before or after. He was a great passer/defender/leader on 1 of the greatest teams of all-time. The 1964 team was perfect…and Walt Hazzard was 1 of the main reasons why.

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The Olympians: HoopsHD interviews Gwen and Shaynah Barnes about 1964 Olympic gold medalist Jim Barnes

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Jon Teitel

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 Gwen (wife) and Shaynah (daughter) about Jim Barnes winning a gold medal and being drafted 1st overall in 1964. Today marks the 18th anniversary of Jim’s passing so we are proud to celebrate his memory.

Jim was nicknamed “Bad News”: who gave him the nickname, and how did he like it? Gwen: When I 1st met him he said that his name was Bad News. I asked him how he got the name and he said that during his college career there were a few times when the opposing coach would ask whether Texas Western was bringing him to the game. If the answer was yes then the coach would say “Oh no: that is bad news for us!” He was proud of the nickname but was not boastful. Even though he was called “Bad News” it was a play on words: it was good for him because it showed that his opponents feared him.

He was born/raised in Arkansas where he allegedly picked cotton as a child, played basketball in socks because his family was too poor to afford sneakers, and had a maternal grandfather who was 7’ tall: what kind of impact did his upbringing/genetics have on his success? Shaynah: That is news to me and all sounds incorrect: he was not that hard up. He always made sure to say he was from Tuckerman, AR, rather than Little Rock or another bigger city. He was always out at the court taking shots all day/night long. My dad was the tallest person in his immediate family but the other side of his family has a lot of very tall women. G: Even when we were dating I would sit on the bench and watch him practice by himself. He was very proud of the small town he came from. 1 day he stayed home from school because he was tired and was just sitting on his front porch when he saw the famous Clydesdale horses pull up in front of his home. He was so excited to tell someone about it that he ran all over the entire town…but nobody else was around because they were all out of town at their own jobs! I remember when he introduced me to his family in Arkansas: I was the shortest 1 in the bunch.

He began his college career as an NJCAA All-American who scored 30 PPG at Cameron JC in Lawton, OK: what made him decide to transfer to Texas Western? S: That is when Coach Don Haskins came into the picture after being made aware of this green kid who could be molded into something more. There was some story about Haskins buying my dad a steak if he agreed to come to Texas Western!

He played for Haskins/with Nolan Richardson in El Paso: how did he enjoy being around these 2 future Hall of Famers? S: I never really saw him play but he was always an intense player and picked up some things from both of those men that he admired and helped develop his own game. He would play tennis all by himself and would just hit balls over the net, switch sides, and then hit them back. He never had any problems with his teammates. G: Whenever he started something he always put forth a full effort to master it. He loved backgammon and taught both of us to play. He learned by seeing/doing and was very teachable/coachable.

He played for team USA at the 1964 Olympics: what did it mean to him to represent his country, and what did it mean to him to win a gold medal? S: They were a real team and leaned on each other. When he was asked to carry the torch before the 1996 Olympics it meant the world to him. They wanted him to run it through another town but he made sure to run it all the way through Tuckerman: it was crazy! They were just kids in 1964 and probably did not fully understand it back then but it came full-circle. He was proud of showing some of my friends his rings/medals because he wanted them to understand the he had been a kid just like them and if they worked hard then they could succeed as well. G: I held his gold medal once and it was very heavy.

In the spring of 1964 he was drafted 1st overall by the Knicks (7 spots ahead of Willis Reed): did he see that as a validation of his college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? S: I think it was a mixture of both but more from column B. As he got better and better he realized that he might be good enough to play pro basketball: when you are picked #1 it shows that a team believes in you. It showed that he made it from the dark nights on the playground to the top of the sport. He was a nonchalant/low-key guy: basketball was just something that he was gifted enough to do. G: Kids today aspire to be drafted and say that they have always dreamed about getting there.

He averaged 15.5 PPG/9.7 RPG in 1965 and was named to the NBA All-Rookie team: how was he able to come in and contribute right from the start? S: Work ethic. It was a different time so he just came in and played ball without all of the glitz/glamour. He used his solo skills as part of a team. G: It was not as much of a big-money sport back then: he was just dedicated to basketball and stuck with it. He was a team player and wanted to get the job done well.

Even though he did not play in the 1969 NBA Finals he won a ring as Boston become the 1st team to ever come back from a 2-0 series deficit in the NBA Finals: what did it mean to him to get a ring? G: It may have been a bigger deal to me when I saw the ring! You have hopes/dreams of reaching the next step and then the next step after that. I am sure that there were mixed emotions because he had worked so hard to earn it. Mostly he felt good inside. S: I am sure that he was happy for himself/his teammates/the franchise.

After retiring he became an entrepreneur who organized an annual celebrity tennis tournament and launched “Bad News Barbecue Sauce” which sold more than 3 million cases: how was he able to follow his on-court success by becoming so successful off the court? S: That is what a lot of athletes do. My dad worked out that recipe on his own. G: I remember that before 1 of our trips down to Arkansas he was talking about this sauce that he was crazy about. He brought it home and tried to manufacture it. We talked about what we wanted to do and he thought about getting them into local supermarkets like Safeway/Giant. He cooked it in our small apartment in Washington, DC, I would put it in mason jars, and then we would go out every weekend in DC/Virginia to try to get it into stores. He did pretty well considering he did not have an army of salespeople behind him.

He passed away in 2002 and was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2014: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? G: I have heard a few things about his temper but he was an excellent player who was part of a team. He was not showy and played to win the game fairly. S: He had the business and a great family but would want to be remembered mostly as a great player.

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Season preview: HoopsHD interviews Creighton women’s assistant coach Carli Berger

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Jon Teitel

CLICK HERE for all of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content

We hope you are ready for a season unlike any other: testing, distancing, and bubbles, oh my! Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, or whether anything actually will happen…but in the meantime we will try to restore some order with season previews featuring the best players/coaches/administrators in the country. We continue our coverage with Creighton women’s assistant coach Carli Berger. She made 2 NCAA tourneys as a player at Creighton, then made a couple more as an assistant at her alma mater, and now prepares to welcome UConn to the Big East. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Berger about the key to leadership and her expectations for this year.

You went to high school in Sioux City: what made you choose Creighton for college? The distance from home was the initial factor: I have a big family so the 90-minute drive was attractive. We talk about culture over and over but it is true: everyone was just really authentic and exactly who they said they were.

Take me through the 2012 postseason:
In the MVC tourney semifinals you scored a career-high 29 PTS in a win over Missouri State en route to being named tourney MVP: how were you able to play your best when it mattered the most? I only had 2 PTS in the 1st half but my teammates dragged me out of that and lifted me up. When you know that you need to play well and you are not performing you either crumble or answer that pressure. It was a perfect storm of momentum leading into the NCAA tourney.

In the NCAA tourney against #3 seed St. John’s you scored 14 PTS but Nadirah McKenith drove the length of the court and made the game-winning layup with 0.1 seconds left to clinch a 2-PT win: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? I think about that 1 often and it hurt a lot. We were playing so well and deserved to make it to OT at the very least: there were some calls that did not go our way at the end against a St. John’s team that had just beaten UConn. It was probably the worst feeling ever during college.

You made the NCAA tourney again in 2013 before having to end your playing career due to chronic knee pain: how frustrating was it to “not go out on your own terms”, and how is your knee feeling these days? There is a lot of gray in that phrase because it was a gradual thing over time. I had an entire offseason to think about things but it was my choice at the end of the day and I felt some closure with it. I am not working out as much now as I did during my playing days so the pain is down: it nags here and there but it is manageable.

You became a graduate assistant at your alma mater in 2014, then were named video coordinator in 2016 before becoming an assistant coach in 2017: what has been the best part of the transition from job to job to job? I have been super-fortunate to have my coach Jim Flanery become my boss: I have to thank him 1000 times over. I love Creighton and this might be my dream job to be a coach at my alma mater. I love the staff and the kids we get to recruit so to end up here is kind of the goal. It makes going to work every day a lot easier because I chose this place, just like I am trying to convince our recruits to do.

In 2016 you earned a master’s degree in leadership: what is the key to being a good leader? That degree was very applicable to my daily life. There is not just 1 way to to do it right: I am a relationship-based leader and learn from the stories of others, including the kids I am coaching all of the time. There is a myth that you can learn about leadership by “reading this book” but every single leadership role is different. I just try to change and adapt without losing my core beliefs.

You got married last year: how is it going so far, and how do you balance your work life with your home life? Married life is good: it has been just over a year. It was a crazy year with everything going on but he is great. I do not get asked about it a lot but it is hard to be so intense in your livelihood and then turn it all off when going home…until you get calls at night! I try not to lose myself in my job and my husband really understands the world that I live in. He is so invested and comes to as many games as he can and understands what our goal is. He has been a huge rock in my life and is a little more low-pulse so he helps calm me down: it has been a really fun partnership.

Last March you lost to St. John’s in the Big East tourney, then learned that the rest of the postseason was canceled due to the coronavirus: what was your reaction when you 1st heard the news, and do you think that it was the right decision? I was in a gym full of 2000-3000 people so my 1st reaction was that there was no way this was happening. I found out about it on Twitter and there was an initial shock factor. Our players were back home and getting ready to come back to campus so letting them know the bad news via a group chat was terrible. We had a really special group and 1 of the best culture teams that I have ever been a part of. Life is not fair but it was a hard pill to swallow. If you follow the news/science it seems like they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think it was an extremely hard decision because you hear about it from both sides. Once the NBA canceled its own season there was a ton of pressure to cancel everything else.

You only have 2 seniors on the current roster in Tatum Rembao/Temi Carda: how much pressure is there on them to be leaders this year? There is always a natural pressure on upperclassmen to be leaders. We are lucky to have leaders in our locker room but I do not think they view it as “pressure” because it is such a natural progression during their 4 years here. We have 8 underclassmen this year so we will have a lot of tedious practices where we have to teach the “babies” some basic things. Temi/Tatum have gotten better as both players/people so I think they will help the young-uns out.

1 player who is not returning is 2020 conference POY Jaylyn Agnew, who was picked 24th overall by Washington in last year’s WNBA Draft: how on earth will you try to replace 1 of the best players in school history? We will have to replace her both on/off the court. We do not have to pick 1 player to score all of the points: it is a collective group effort. We will be a little taller this year across the board, which is new for us, so we will evaluate our kids and then see what is working so we can integrate our freshmen into our motion. Jaylyn was a really good team player who taught everyone how to battle back.

What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? With a young roster it is even blurrier to predict but I am very excited for our young players who have been picking up things quickly over the past few weeks. We also have a lot of good experience at the top of our roster so I think our goal is to legitimately get better every day/week while not overlooking the daily process. I hope that the upperclassmen buy into that and hopefully we can knock out the smaller goals that can lead to a top-3 finish in the Big East. I want us to compete every day but our league is so good, especially after adding UConn this year.

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The Olympians: HoopsHD interviews Ted Owens about 1956 Olympic gold medalist Bruce Drake

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Jon Teitel

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 Ted Owens, former player at Oklahoma, about his coach Bruce Drake winning a gold medal in 1956.

In 1929 Drake was named a Helms All-American at Oklahoma: how good a player was he back in the day, and what did it mean to him to receive such an outstanding honor? He was not only an outstanding basketball player but a great athlete: he played QB and was the conference pole vault champ. Even when I played for him in the 1950s he could still do handstands and was a great racquetball player. The school only had 1 court at the time and he was the best on the campus. I never saw film of him playing but he was so athletic. Quarterbacks back then did a lot of handoffs/blocking and the poles he vaulted with did not compare to those of today. Helms was the authority back then.

He became head coach at his alma mater in 1938 and won 6 conference titles during an 11-year span from 1939-1949: why did he take the job, and how was he able to have so much success over such a long period of time? He had a brilliant mind offensively and was very sound on defense. Long before other coaches used America’s “screen the screener” play he was doing that himself in the 1940s. Having that 2nd screen allowed the 1st screener to get open if the defense dropped off. He had a great rapport with his players and treated them as men while motivating them to do their very best. When I arrived in Norman out of high school I had to compete against 25-year old war veterans while treating them in a mature way. It was a great time in our lives but I am sure that it was difficult to be a coach.

He also founded the golf/swimming teams at Oklahoma: which sport was he the best coach of, and which sport did he enjoy the most? You would laugh if you saw the pool: it was not much! He loved to play/coach golf and his portrait is at the school’s course clubhouse. 1 of his best players was Charlie Coe (who is considered to be 1 of the greatest American amateur golfers ever).

In the 1939 NCAA tourney he led the Sooners to the Final 4 before losing to eventual champ Oregon: how close did he come to winning the 1st-ever NCAA tourney? Oregon was head and shoulders above everyone else. We had to win our conference just to qualify, then we had to play the MVC winner to see who would go to the NCAA Western Regional in Kansas City (the Eastern Regional was held at Madison Square Garden). There were only 8 teams in the NCAA tourney so it was very competitive. The team that won in Kansas City would then have to hop on a train to head to NYC for the Finals, and the Regional runner-up would also head east for the 3rd-place game.

In the 1947 NCAA tourney title game Gerald Tucker scored 22 PTS in a loss to Holy Cross: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of his career? I was a high school senior in Oklahoma at the time and that team was very good. Henry Iba’s Oklahoma A&M team was the 2-time defending national champ but was in a different conference. The 2 schools played each other that spring for the chance to go to the Regional and it was a barnburner of a game. Coach Drake used a “Double Zero” play as part of his delay offense that helped win the game and gained him a lot of attention. Most people thought that Texas was the best team in the country with future Hall of Famer Slater Martin. Oklahoma beat Oregon State on a Friday and then Texas the very next day thanks to a jumper from Kenny Pryor, then caught a Sunday train to NYC for the final on Monday while Holy Cross was able to rest on Sunday. It was a great disappointment but Holy Cross had some great players like Bob Cousy/George Kaftan. OU has still never won an NCAA basketball title.

You enrolled at OU soon afterward and spent 3 years playing for Drake: what made him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? I had a wonderful high school coach but he was an old school tough disciplinarian. Coach Drake was more of a great encourager so I tried to copy his style in terms of the way you treat your players. I was a good player and he gave me confidence in my ability. We were competing against guys 5 years older than us who were good players so I did not break into the starting lineup until my senior year. It was a great education for me. Our freshman coach was a great teacher of fundamentals so I had a great balance of coaches. I always liked to run things by him to see what he thought and he was like family to me.

In the 1950s he created the “Shuffle Offense”, which provide scoring opportunities for undersized teams such as his own “Roundball Runts” by promoting team play/offensive movement/ball control: how did he come up with it, and what made it so effective? I think that I was 1 of the 1st people to run the Drake Shuffle as a freshman. It was based on continuity: there was no shot clock so we could run it several times during 1 possession. In later years there was an SEC team who ran what they called the “Auburn Shuffle” but it was really our shuffle. Some newspaper folks just called it “the play”.

He served as Chairman of the NCAA Rules Committee from 1951-1955: how did he like the job, and why did he hate goaltending? I think that he hated it because Coach Iba was winning games with it in Stillwater! Iba did not like it either but used the rule to benefit his team, as he should have. 1 year when they came to Norman to play Coach Drake built a platform that extended out near the basket for Chairman James Sinclair to get a good view of the basket. The final score was 15-11 and Bob Kurland helped win the game by goaltending about 7-8 shots. The Saturday Evening Post wrote an article about it in 1944 called “7-Foot Trouble”…and the rule was changed before the start of the following season.

He was an assistant to his former player Tucker with team USA at the 1956 Olympics: what did it mean to him to represent his country, and what did it mean to him to win a gold medal? He was thrilled! His last year at OU was in 1955 and then Air Force asked him to coach its All-Stars in the 4-team Olympic Trials tourney. Tucker was coaching the Phillips 66ers and there were a couple of other teams as well. Phillips won the tourney so Tucker became head coach and had the added pleasure of having his former coach as his assistant: it was a great honor.

He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1973 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006: when people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? We loved him and had such great admiration for him: I had a lifelong friendship with him. The OU practice court is named in his honor: I was on the committee and helped Coach Kelvin Sampson support it. He played in Oklahoma and lived the rest of his life in Norman. His wife was known as “Mama Drake”: a lovely woman who knew a lot about basketball. They had 2 daughters named Donna/Deonne, the latter of whom married 1 of my high school friends named Monte Moore. Donna would sit in the bleachers and watch practice every day, then she would come down to the court and walk home with her dad hand-in-hand. All of us were very close and have remained great friends over the years. His granddaughter was a cheerleader at Kansas when the Jayhawks won the NCAA title in 1988.

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Season preview: HoopsHD interviews Wright State head coach Scott Nagy

Posted on September 12, 2020 by Jon Teitel

CLICK HERE for all of Hoops HD’s Continued and Extensive Preseason Content

We hope you are ready for a season unlike any other: testing, distancing, and bubbles, oh my! Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, or whether anything actually will happen…but in the meantime we will try to restore some order with season previews featuring the best players/coaches/administrators in the country. We continue our coverage with Wright State head coach Scott Nagy. After setting a Delta State school record with 549 career AST, made the 1989 Final 4 as a graduate assistant at Illinois under Lou Henson, made the postseason during each of his final 5 seasons as coach at South Dakota State, and has won 20+ games during each of his 1st 4 years as coach of the Raiders. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Nagy about being ranked #1 in the country and working alongside his father.

You played basketball at Delta State, where you were named Gulf South Freshman of the Year, and as a senior you were named Gulf South Athlete of the Year: how were you able to come in and contribute so quickly, and how were you able to continue to dominate during your career? I was fortunate to walk into a situation with really good players so all I had to do was take care of the ball and pass it to our scorers. I was not really “dominant” but I broke the record for most games started and also had a good GPA.

During your junior year you went 24-9 and made it to the Final 4: how close did you come to winning a title? We won 8 of those games in OT but were not a great team: we did not even win our conference and had we not won those 8 games then we would have been a sub-.500 team. We ran into Kentucky Wesleyan in the tourney, who was a great team that killed us.

You still hold the school record with 549 career AST: did you realize at the time how prolific a player you were, and did you ever think about playing pro basketball? I kind of knew that college was where my playing career would end and I had planned on going into coaching. The 549 AST are due to longevity as I played about 120 straight games.

You also earned Gulf South All-Academic honors for 3 straight years: how important are academics to you, and how did your intelligence help you on the court? I think that academics and athletics go hand-in-hand: kids who are good in the classroom are generally easier to teach on the floor. It was important for me to do well in school: I was a business major so I just tried to do my best.

You became a graduate assistant at Illinois under Lou Henson and made it to the Final Four in 1989 alongside your dad/fellow assistant Dick: what made Henson such a great coach, and what was it like to work with your dad? Coach Henson probably knew more about X’s and O’s then anyone I have ever been around and his focus on defense/rebounding was key. It was fun to coach next to my dad because I learned a lot from him.

Despite being just 29 years old when you became head coach at South Dakota State your team went 24-5 and won the 1996 NCC title: how were you able to come in as a young coach and have so much success so quickly? 1 thing that helped me during my 1st year was that I still had the 3 seniors who I had recruited as an assistant coach: they knew me and bought into what we were selling. We dominated the league behind 2 great guards.

What are your memories of the 1997 NCAA Regional tourney (your team made it all the way to the Elite 8)? My best memory was playing our regional championship game at home and beating #2-seed Fort Hays State in our gym. It was 1 of the best atmospheres I have ever seen on our campus.

In 1998 you started 21-0, were ranked #1 in the country, finished with a school-record-tying 26 wins: what did it mean to be the best team in the nation, and did it reach a point where your team expected to win every single game they played? When you have a streak like that you win some games that you probably should not have won. To be #1 for the 1st time in school history was fun but it also carried a lot of pressure with it. We put a lot of good teams together throughout the years and that team was the recipient of our past success.

You won 3 straight NCC titles from 1996-1998 and were named NCC COY 5 times in an 8-year span (1996-1998, 2002-2003): what makes you such a great coach? What makes anyone a great coach is having good players: that is just all there is to it. You have to organize them and remain consistent…but any coach who thinks they are great because of what they teach is ridiculous! In all of my years there I only applied for 1 other job because I liked it there and my kids grew up there.

You previously coached barefoot to raise money and awareness about the earthquake disaster several years ago in Haiti (where your adopted daughter is from): why did you choose to do that, and what were you able to accomplish? I chose to do it because I am tied to Haiti through my daughter. I had been in Haiti before the earthquake so I cannot imagine how bad it is now. Anything simple like not wearing shoes to help raise some money for people who need help is always worth it.

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The Olympians: HoopsHD interviews Karleigh Webb about 2016 Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner

Posted on September 12, 2020 by Jon Teitel

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 Karleigh Webb, Outsports contributing writer, about Brittney Griner winning an NCAA title in 2012 and a gold medal in 2016. Today marks the 6th anniversary of Brittney’s Phoenix Mercury team winning the 2014 WNBA title (despite Brittney missing the game due to surgery after being hit in the right eye during the previous game).

In 2009 Griner was named the nation’s #1 high school women’s basketball player at Nimitz High School and scored 20 PTS in the 2009 WBCA High School All-America Game: what made her choose Baylor? EVERYBODY wanted Brittney to come to their college because she was so dominant in high school. I think that Coach Kim Mulkey’s personality was a big factor, as well as the fact that Waco is only a few hours from Houston. I saw her as a very transformational player and in many ways she was: I thought that she would be a Lew Alcindor-type player in college due to her size/athleticism/court-savvy. She went to the Pete Newell big man camp each summer and she mastered a lot of moves that even NBA players could not.

She is 6’8” with an 88” wingspan and in 2010 she set an NCAA tourney record with 14 BLK in a win over Georgetown: what makes her such a great shot-blocker? It was her size/athleticism but she also understood what happened on the court. She was good on her feet, read the sight lines, and knew how things worked. She was so quick for her size: Dikembe Mutombo said that 60% of shot-blocking was being in the right place at the right time, which she does not get enough credit for even today.

In the 2012 NCAA title game she had 26 PTS/13 REB/5 BLK in a win over Notre Dame en route to being named tourney MOP and finishing 40-0 (the most wins in NCAA history): where does that Bears team rank among the greatest in the history of the sport? They were a total team and were good at everything. Brittney was dynamic but if she do not have the parts around her then she could not have gone undefeated. People thought that they would win the Big 12 title during her freshman year but they did not because it is not about just 1 player. I think the 2012 team was the best in women’s history, which is saying something when you consider other schools like Texas/Tennessee/UConn. The whole team did the dirty work, which was a major key. I would have loved to see them play any of the unbeaten UConn teams: it would be a titanic game!

Her 3283 career PTS is #4 in D-1 women’s history and her 748 career BLK is the most by a college player (men or women): how was she able to balance her scoring with her shot-blocking? She just goes out and plays. When she was at Baylor she tailored her emphasis to her opponents: some nights she would focus on offense and some nights she spent more time on defense. She would always get her PTS/REB/BLK and meet Coach Mulkey’s expectations. She had great ability but also great preparation: she averaged 32+ MPG because she could move and was in excellent condition so she could put the team on her back when necessary. Her high school coach said he had to kick her out of the gym so that she would not stay there all night: she is a gym rat who wants to work. God help anyone in Tokyo next summer!

She was a 3-time All-American/3-time national DPOY/2-time Wade Trophy winner: what did it mean to her to receive such outstanding honors? For her the biggest thing is how the team did. The accolades were great but cutting down the net in 2012 was better: to see her smile/tears shows how important it was to her. People view her as a behemoth but she has been a team kid since high school. Mulkey recruited her because she was a star player who did not feel like a star. She wants another WNBA title because she has won them at every level in every country. Her ultimate thing is rings, just like Bill Russell. I remember the last college game that she lost: she was crushed to lose but also because she felt that she had let her team down. She took it hard, as you could see by the way that she walked off the court. All great players are the same way, especially Diana Taurasi: they value team success and when the team does not do well they take it hard.

In the 2013 WNBA Draft she was selected 1st overall by Phoenix: did she see that as a validation of her college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the WNBA, or other? It was 1 of the goals that she had since arriving at Baylor. She wanted to get there by helping her team win, so it was a lot of validation after an up-and-down 4 years in some ways. She had a lot of detractors and people who simply did not like her for whatever reason: there were some fans in the stands who said some nasty things and it was just not fair. She was much-debated in high school/college so to reach the WNBA showed that she was a woman playing among the best in the world.

In 2014 the Mercury set a WNBA record for most wins in 1 regular season with 29, then won the 3rd WNBA title in franchise history: where does that Mercury team rank among the greatest in the history of the sport? I do not know if they are the best but they are certainly in the discussion. The Comets had some great teams in the 1990s and the 2004 Seattle team was very strong. They broke Minnesota’s streak of having their own great run so you can make a serious case for them.

She played for team USA at the 2016 Olympics: what did it mean to her to represent her country, and what did it mean to her to win a gold medal? It was continued validation for her. I think that the Olympic experience can give fans/players a very different view of you. At 1 level it was just another goal that she reached but you get cheers when you wear that “USA” on your chest. Fans warmed to her more after 2016, even opposing fans, because it changed things around a little bit. The gold medal is the holy grail in women’s basketball: it is not just about playing a game but it is part of a movement that is hardwired into the narrative. It is the pinnacle of greatness and completed her string of winning convincingly at every level of the sport: everything after that is gravy.

In 2019 she led the league in scoring with 20.7 PPG while also leading the league in BLK for the 7th straight season: where does she rank among the best women’s basketball players ever? Now we are at a point where we can really have that discussion in earnest and start splitting those fine statistical hairs. It is too early to call her the best ever: I take extreme care because I do not like to rank people until their entire book is written. If she stopped playing today she would already make the Halls of Fame in Knoxville and Springfield. I think she is the best post player in women’s history: if we were picking teams I would take her over Lisa Leslie at her best. She has athleticism/aggressiveness and entered the league knowing how to use her size to her maximum advantage. Lisa eventually learned this after working with Coach Tara VanDerveer at the Olympics. If Brittney had gone to Stanford then she might even be more of a beast now. Overall it is difficult to say because she might not even be the best player on her own TEAM thanks to Taurasi! If you consider all of the criteria then you have to think about Cheryl Miller/Lynette Woodard/Sheryl Swoopes/Katie Smith/Lauren Jackson…but Brittney is right in that discussion. At age 30 it is still too early but she could keep playing another 5-7 years: I do not think we have seen the best of her yet, which is exciting for her fans and terrifying for her opponents.

She came out to her parents in high school, which did not go so well with her father, and after publicly coming out in 2013 she became the 1st openly gay athlete to have an endorsement deal with Nike: how important is her sexual orientation, and what does she mean to the LGBTQ community? There are a lot of layers to that and I am not privy to what happened before she entered the league. On 1 level it is just a shrug of the shoulders because women’s athletics is 25-30 years ahead of men’s athletics. On another level it is important that she came out and was embraced rather than castigated. To put it in context, if you go back to the early 1980s and saw a dominant athlete like Martina Navratilova come out, people were taking 2-3 steps backward because you had tolerance but not acceptance. 30 years later there was an official embrace by Nike: they would not hide it but rather let her shine front and center, which was a big deal because it pushed the door open. She was the right athlete at the right time and did her part on the court. For a lot of fans who think progressively it meant a lot. Sports is a place of refuge and shows how far that we have come: we still have a long way to go but she was a major catalyst in making up a lot of ground in a short amount of time. I think the next few years, especially as she hits her 30s, will see her fandom increase as people warm up to her. I think her best both on and off the court is yet to come.

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