Boyd “Tiny” Grant was born in Idaho on August 17, 1933, and exactly 87 years later he passed away after suffering a stroke. In between he became 1 heck of a college basketball coach: assistant to Jim Williams at Colorado State, assistant to to Joe B. Hall at Kentucky, 1976 NJCAA national champ as head coach at the College of Southern Idaho, 3 NCAA tourneys and the 1983 NIT title as head coach at Fresno State, then 2 more NCAA tourneys as head coach at his alma mater of Colorado State before retiring in 1991. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Grant a few years ago and is proud to present this previously unpublished interview for the very 1st time. We send our condolences to the Grant family on the loss of their loved one yesterday.
In the 1976 NJCAA tourney title game as coach at Southern Idaho tourney MVP Kenny Davis scored 16 PTS in a 12-PT win over Mercer County CC to finish the year 32-1 and win the title: do you remember the 1 loss, and what did it mean to you to win a title? I do remember the 1 loss: it was to Snow JC (where I had played in the past) and we only lost by a couple of PTS. We actually won 49 in a row over a 2-year span. I lost the 1954 NJCAA title as a player at Snow to Moberly Area CC by 5 PTS in OT so to finally win it as a coach meant a lot to me. There were some great coaches before me like Eddie Sutton/Jerry Hale who had never won a title, and I remember telling my kids before the start of the season that our goal was to win the title.
In the 1981 NCAA tourney as coach at Fresno State Chip Rucker made a layup with 4 seconds left in a 2-PT win by Northeastern: how frustrating was it to stand on the sideline while the Huskies held the ball for 5+ minutes until the final shot? We called a timeout with about 20 seconds left. We had 1 foul to give and planned to use it but we let the kid go down the court and make the basket. I felt we had the better team but Northeastern was very well-coached by a young guy named Jim Calhoun. We led for most of the way before losing in the final seconds and it hurt a lot.
In the 1982 NCAA tourney Patrick Ewing scored 15 PTS in a win by eventual national runner-up Georgetown: how on earth did the Hoyas shoot 63.6 FG%? They got ahead of us early before we were able to make it close in the final minutes. Ewing was blocking shots and making passes which forced us to foul down the stretch.
In the 1983 PCAA tourney title game Eric Booker made a 23-footer with 2 seconds left in a 3-PT OT win by UNLV: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? I would say that was the most devastating. For the 1st 35 minutes I do not think I have ever seen a team play better. We inbounded the ball to Mitch Arnold at the end of the game and the ref called him for walking: I watched the film 100 times and he never moved his feet! I really felt that when we had a 19-PT lead in the 2nd half we would win but we made up for it the following year.
In the 1983 NIT title game Ron Anderson scored 14 PTS in a 9-PT win over DePaul en route to being named MVP: what did it mean to you to win the title, and where does that rank among the highlights of your career? It was tremendous to win it because it put us on the national stage. We had 2000-3000 fans who came out to Times Square to cheer for us. Nobody in New York City had ever heard of Fresno State but when you win a title in Madison Square Garden then people take notice.
In the 1984 PCAA tourney title game you had a 2-PT win over UNLV: was your team out for revenge after the heartbreaking loss the previous spring? No: I do not think we even talked about that. When you face Coach Jerry Tarkanian you just try to give yourself an opportunity to win because he always had great teams. Jerry was a graduate of Fresno State and well-liked there so it was a big win for us.
Your zone defense led the nation in scoring defense on multiple occasions: what made it so effective, and what is the secret to playing great defense? You just have to teach the fundamentals. We were ranked last in the conference during my 1st year in Fresno so what we needed was a post person. We did not have great outside shooting so as a staff we decided to teach man-to-man pressure and exactly what to do. Coach Don Haskins told me that he thought that it was a new thing in college basketball and that nobody else was doing it at the time. Other coaches would often tell the media that they could not figure out if we were in a man or a zone because we pressured everyone the same. After a few years coaches would come in to see what I was doing and the fans loved it as well. I coached the offense and Ron Adams coached the defense (who is now a 3-time NBA champ at Golden State). I do not mean to be egotistical but when you get a 5-second call 13 different times in a single half you know that you are good! If I did not have Ron then that probably would have never happened.
You remain the all-time winningest coach in Fresno State history: what made you such a great coach, and do you think that anyone will ever break your record? I think that someone will break the record. All of my players were willing to listen, had supportive families, and had a lot of respect for our great staff. It was tough to play us at home because of the “Red Wave”, which was our home crowd that gave us a huge advantage. It was a real honor to be there during that time.
In 1987 you became head coach at Colorado State: why did you take the job, and how did you feel about returning to your alma mater? I always felt that I was in debt for the education I had received. I was proud to play for the Rams and owed them a lot so when the job opened up the athletic director talked to me and asked me to interview for it. I love the university.
In the 1988 NIT consolation game Pat Durham scored 7 of his 17 PTS in the final 41 seconds including a layup at the buzzer to clinch a 1-PT win over Boston College: how were you able to overcome a 13-PT deficit to win the game? We had a team that would not quit. We had a reserve guy go down with a knee injury so I ended up using the same starting 5 most of the year…and none of them fouled out all year long. It was tough to lose to Ohio State in the semifinals but Pat made an amazing shot to win the consolation game after the ball deflected directly to him. It was the luckiest thing you have ever seen: we laughed about it all the way back to Fort Collins!
When people look back on your career, how do you want to be remembered the most? The only thing I want to be remembered for is working hard and having good assistants/players/administrators. I knew where I came from and never changed. I was very fortunate to get a scholarship after not being big enough to be recruited anywhere else and I remained lucky along the way to get into coaching. You can use luck to get somewhere but you have to work hard to stay there.
