Coaches
Everything involving NCAA coaches.
Some videos need no explanation. Well, very little explanation.
Tim Floyd resigned as USC’s men’s basketball coach last June. Since then, he’s mostly been off the radar, perhaps occasionally speaking to teams when friends asked him.
He’s also breaking up fights at a casino. Yes, breaking up fights at a casino.
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Bob Knight refused a $75,000 check from an anonymous Indiana booster, which would’ve settled a long-standing suit between the legendary Hoosiers coach and his ex-school.
Is there a better way to say “I’m not coming to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and I’m not even bothering to decline the RSVP” than by shrugging off 75 grand?
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For those who think college coaches’ salaries are excessive, change is coming. Slowly. Maybe.
A Knight Commission poll released Monday found that 85 percent of the 119 university presidents at D-I football schools think coaches’ salaries are too high, but 56 percent of them are pessimistic about controlling those salaries. Most would love to see a reduction in the sheer number of assistant coaches and support personnel for revenue-producing sports.
Translation: We’re not sure we want to anger the big guy by paying him less, but we’d like to take away part of his staff that helps him do his job.
No wonder university presidents are feeling pessimistic.
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Without even coaching a game, John Calipari’s given Kentucky basketball fans everything they could want.
National attention. A recruiting class for the ages. Making himself accessible to fans and generally being an exceptional ambassador for the program.
And somehow, Calipari keeps topping himself. The response to his speech at Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness has already reached mythical proportions among the Big Blue Nation.
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Tom Izzo is trying to downplay his Michigan State squad that’s pretty much a consensus Top 5 team entering the 2009-10 season.
“I enjoy the expectations, but I’ve got to remind myself and you (media) what we lost,” Izzo said Wednesday. “I am concerned about living up to them, but I like the challenge of living up to them.
“I speak with guarded optimism.”
Wow. When did Lou Holtz start coaching the Michigan State basketball team.
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It sounds corny, but don’t underestimate how beloved Kay Yow was by the N.C. State faithful.
Yow spent 34 seasons coaching the Wolfpack women’s team, amassing 672 wins, 5 ACC titles, 20 NCAA tournament berths and a Final Four in 1998. And a good portion of that was after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She spent more than 20 years raising money for cancer research and raising awareness about the disease. In 2007, the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund was established, leaving her a lasting legacy beyond the court. She died on Jan. 24, 2009.
So a N.C. farmer decided to honor her with a corn maze portrait.
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Billy Gillispie finally settled his wrongful-termination lawsuit with the University of Kentucky. It should be a nice sense of relief, right? A potentially messy situation is resolved, which lets the ex-Wildcats coach focus on his current off-court issues and the school gets to turn its eye to a promising basketball season.
Except when it comes to the amount of money Gillispie will receive – nearly $3 million.
It offended one writer so much, he ripped the coach and the school. And the writer doesn't even live in Kentucky.
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John Wooden turns 99 Wednesday. It’s going to result in a lot of birthday greetings from various sources, retrospectives and features.
Saw one this morning on Wooden’s birthplace, Hall, Ind. Here’s another from the L.A. Times – 99 factoids about John Wooden.
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The thing about coaches on the “hot seat” is that there’s no one temperature.
Some coaches feel the heat immediately, depending on the expectations and the hoops environment. Others endure a rough few seasons – or six – finally put together a decent year and that seat ain’t so bad anymore.
But there are other reasons a coach may be feeling the heat. Here are 13 for 2009-10.
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John Wooden turns 99 Wednesday. I can only imagine that outpouring of stories next year, but this year should produce a fair number. (Not counting Web sites like this where you can wish Wooden a happy 99th.)
If we’re lucky.
Here’s the first one I’ve spotted. Mike Lopresti – a syndicated writer living out of Richmond, Ind. – traveled to Hall, Ind. to see what Wooden’s birthplace was like.
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