Coach continues to elevate program to new heights

Kelly Graves would rather plow a potato field than wear a tie.

At least that was the case 20 years ago, when he left a job with a finance company to commit his future to coaching basketball as the men’s assistant and women’s head coach at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake.

“I also got a job plowing potato fields, 5 a.m. every day, teaching classes and working in the dorms,” Graves said.

He’s still wearing ties – but usually only on game days.

The next knot gets tied Saturday when he leads his Gonzaga women in the NCAA basketball tournament. The Bulldogs face Middle Tennessee State at 5 p.m. at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion.

Though the tournament is a first for Gonzaga, it’s just a continuation of success for Graves.

In his seventh year at GU, Graves is the program’s winningest coach with a 120-92 record, 59-39 in the West Coast Conference. None of the previous coaches lasted as long or came close to his success.

The Zags are 104-51 in the last five seasons, 57-13 in the WCC, and are making their third postseason appearance after having just one in the previous 17 years.

“If I said I knew how quickly he would turn it around, then I’d be lying,” Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said. “I knew Kelly would be able to recruit, and Kelly would be able to coach. We were confident Kelly could do both of those things, but ultimately I was surprised how quickly he turned it around.”

Graves arrived in Washington, sight unseen, in 1987 when his high school coach from Saint George, Utah, Mark Poth, hired the recently unemployed graduate assistant from New Mexico to assist him at Big Bend.

The experience was good – the yearly stipend of $1,250 wasn’t. After one season Graves went back to Utah to work for a finance company.

But he missed basketball.

The former high school standout and two-time All-Scenic West first-team forward for Ricks College was also chafing at the restraints of the corporate world. Then the Big Bend women’s job opened with a stipend of $2,500 – and he could coach with both programs.

“I had never been interested in coaching women’s basketball, didn’t know much about it but I did it and I loved it. Loved it,” Graves said. “I loved my team, that’s still one of my favorite teams and we were awful, like 4-22.”

His opinion of women’s basketball hasn’t changed, which is why he never jumped at opportunities to coach men.

“What I like about the women’s game, and this is general, is it’s not as results-oriented,” he said. “To our players, at least what I’ve discovered, the process is more important, how we go about succeeding. With guys it’s, ‘Did we win or lose?’ With women it’s about the whole experience.”

When the Bulldogs travel, they don’t bunker up in their hotel.

Or, as senior Stephanie Hawk said, “He makes it fun.”

Graves doesn’t apologize for his preference to coach women to those who think Mark Few’s GU men’s team is the only game in town.

“We don’t play above the rim, strength is more of an issue and the speed of the game is different,” he said. “But those are all physical. The strategy, the competitiveness, all the other things I like about basketball are the same. My players are just as competitive as Mark’s players. They want to win just as bad.”

Although he comes off as easygoing, Graves is just the same.

“Kelly is probably the most intense competitor I’ve ever been around,” Portland women’s coach Jim Sollars said. “He hates to lose at anything, even noon-time games. He practically destroyed our noon-time games with the coaches, he was so intense.

“He used to be able to shoot, until he got fat, (and) I don’t think he ever saw a defense that he wanted to play.”

Which is odd, since the success of this year’s team starts on the defensive end.

Still, it’s a long way from the potato fields of Moses Lake to the NCAA tournament.

Big Bend went from 4 wins to 18 to 22, which is when Sollars, who built his resume at Wenatchee Valley Community College, discovered Graves.

“I knew how difficult that job was at Moses Lake,” Sollars said. “After the game I went up to him and asked him to coach with me.”

A great friendship developed that endures to this day.

From 1986-1992, the University of Portland Pilots averaged 10.8 wins, but in five years with Graves on staff they averaged more than 20 and went to the NCAA tournament four straight years. Out of that, Graves landed the head job at Saint Mary’s. A program that averaged 14.4 wins over six years won 20 in all three under Graves and went to the NCAA tournament.

Despite the success at Saint Mary’s, when the GU job opened Graves was interested because his wife, Mary Winter, whom he met in Portland, was born here.

“I started the process of visiting with Kelly and Mary and realized as long as I could recruit Mary I had a pretty good chance of getting Kelly,” said Roth, the athletic director, “which was one of the more easy recruiting processes I’ve ever been through.

“It was a one-horse race. We did not interview any other candidates.”

Gonzaga took longer to rebuild than other stops. Graves’ first team in 2001-01 was 5-23, 0-14 in the conference. Then it was 11-18, 2-12.

All of that was forgotten with a magical 2004-05 season. The Bulldogs steamrolled the conference, 14-0, ran up a 23-game winning streak and received their first national ranking. But an injury contributed to a loss in the conference tournament finale and the NCAA snubbed the 27-3 team.

The key to success is players and no matter where he’s been he has shopped in Spokane.

“He’s been the most consistent with the athletes from my program, that’s why he has the most,” Spokane Stars coach Ron Adams said. “He never pressures them. That’s the main thing that separates him from other Division-I coaches.

“The kids tell me everything. The players from the Stars program that have been in his program have nothing but good things to say about it. That’s how you sign future players.”

Graves explained, “They have to have athleticism and savvy, but if you recruit players that are good citizens and good people, they’re going to perform for you on the court. We look for that – character counts for us as much as ability.”

After GU’s spectacular, if unfulfilling season, a Pac-10 school courted Graves. He was flattered but didn’t jump – and may not any time soon.

“Over the next couple of years we could make splash nationally,” he said. “We’re starting to get national-level kids.”

Mary’s grandfather used to be a Spokane policeman and ran Opdie’s restaurant. There’s a lot of family in the area. “It’s been a great move,” Graves said. “I’ve loved here it more than anywhere. I loved Portland. That was a good gig, I loved working with Jim. Now the pleasure is other things, family things.

“Basketball is our extended family.”