Grip on Sports: Some college coaching traditions are heartwarming; others just give us heartburn
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s funny how life’s little journeys lead us down the road to the future. It showed yesterday as the Final Four coaches met the media and related their interconnected relationships with each other, ranging from chance encounters to lifelong friendships – and rivalries. It’s all part of life’s long, strange trip I suppose. Read on.
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• About 10 years ago, former Times sportswriter Bud Withers and I were in Charlotte, North Carolina for Washington State’s Sweet Sixteen game. Having some free time one day, we decided to drive into South Carolina and visit Rock Hill, home of Winthrop, a school that had played Gonzaga and WSU in the NCAA recently.
It was a fun trip to a small southern college, and town, that culminated in a diner lunch that was something to remember.
A couple years later Kim and I traveled north from Disneyworld with the express purpose of visiting Charleston, the birthplace of the Civil War. We toured Fort Sumter, visited some of Charleston’s ancient churches and ate she-crab soup at an old home-turned-restaurant that was something to remember.
See a connection here? No, not the fact when I travel I remember the meals. South Carolina. I’ve been there twice and yet never visited the capital of Columbia.
Kim and I left Charleston headed to Augusta, Georgia and a trip around the walls of Augusta National – and a great hamburger at Hardees. But instead of staying on the Interstate, which would have taken us through Columbia and probably enticed me to stop and look at USC’s football stadium (we did that at Auburn a couple days later), we took back roads to get a feel of the South Carolina countryside.
I regret the chance missed. But only because Gonzaga is playing South Carolina Saturday in the Final Four. The off-the-beaten track trip through the state yielded some picturesque memories and at least one decent meal. But no connection to the Gamecocks’ campus.
Connections are important. Mark Few has connections with Roy Williams, the one Final Four coach who has been there before. He has connections with Dana Altman and Oregon, for a lot of reasons. And he has peripheral connections with Frank Martin, the Gamecocks’ coach.
Such things occur all the time in the college coaching community.
• Want to know another thing that happens all the time in the college coaching community? The athletic director does his end-of-the-season evaluation with a coach and lets him or her know changes need to be made. Sometimes the changes are directed. Other times the A.D. tells the coach to make the decisions him or herself.
My guess is something of that nature took place in Pullman recently.
WSU announced yesterday that two veteran coaches, Greg Graham and Silvey Dominguez, two longtime friends and confidants of head basketball coach Ernie Kent, were leaving the program to pursue “other opportunities.”
Like what, collecting unemployment?
I’m sorry, but this is crappy.
A few years ago, WSU athletic director Bill Moos told then-coach Ken Bone he needed to get better players in his program. To do that, he needed to add another recruiter to his staff. So Bone demoted one of his best friends in the business, Jeff Hironaka, from assistant to director of something, a non-coaching position.
That was crappy too.
After a third consecutive losing season in Pullman, Kent probably got the same talk from Moos. The Cougars do need better players if they want to compete in the Pac-12. And Kent had to make a choice. Be loyal to his longtime friends or open up spots on the staff in an attempt to improve recruiting.
Loyalty isn’t going to win. I get it. And I’m sure Graham and Dominguez get it. It doesn’t make it any better. It’s still crappy.
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Gonzaga: As we head into the Bulldogs’ historic week, we start with John Blanchette explaining the five steps Gonzaga took that led it to the Final Four, and why the Zags weren’t a one-hit-wonder in 1999. … Jim Meehan covers the connections we wrote about above, after the coaches each held conference calls yesterday. … Want to get Zag Final Four gear? Whitney Ogden tells us it isn’t easy to find. … Jacob Thorpe looks at the predictions for the semifinals and the final. … Nigel Williams-Goss is a Wooden Award All-American and a finalist for the overall trophy. … So this story was on the front page today and I missed it earlier. But it’s by the boss, so I better link it. You know, you hear Gonzaga mispronounced so often it doesn’t seem to register anymore. At least not for me. Others, not so much. … Over the years the Zags have had their ups and downs. Eli Francovich has a story on a GU student who decided to chronicle them. … Tyler Tjomsland and Jesse Tinsley took their cameras around town and documented the Gonzaga support at businesses. … Speaking of support, the entire West Coast has two teams to get behind this weekend. … We did a bit of exploring today and came up with a handful of stories from South Carolina to pass along. The Gamecocks have put it together in the NCAA tournament. Which is causing their fans to have to dig deep to keep supporting them. … I pass along this story mainly because it is a great example of, I don’t know, East Coast bias? … The coaching connections are a topic all over the country, including Eugene. … Aaron Brooks, a Washington kid who played at Oregon, wants a Gonzaga/Oregon championship.
WSU: Jacob has the coverage of the assistant coaches’ leaving. … The Cougars’ baseball team bounced back and defeated Cal State Northridge yesterday. … California’s basketball coaching hire is being dissected by lots of folks. … Another Washington recruit is out looking. … Washington’s Kelsey Plum is a unanimous All-American. … In Pac-12 football news, the Huskies opened spring practice yesterday, with quarterback Jake Browning mainly watching as he recovers from surgery. … Arizona and Arizona State are back at it. … Utah is thinking about expanding its stadium. … Oregon State’s baseball team is back at No. 1.
EWU: One of the best players in Montana State history is no longer on the Bobcats’ football coaching staff. … Portland State’s top coaching candidate decided to stay in California.
Idaho: A track athlete picked up a Big Sky award.
Whitworth: The Pirates won two softball games and a baseball game yesterday.
Mariners: The M’s pitching was pretty awful yesterday as they lost 12-2 to the Padres. … Our prospect story of the day is about Dillon Overton. … Jarrod Dyson played in minor league games and led off almost every inning. … The injury front has some mixed news.
Seahawks: Backup quarterback Trevone Boykin was in a car that was involved in a car crash over the weekend. He was cited for being drunk and having marijuana in his possession. Did I mention this happened in Texas? It may affect the Hawks’ off-season plans some.
Sounders: Jordan Morris is back in Seattle but still not ready to play.
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• On the trip through the South a few years ago, I received two pages of restaurant reviews from former WSU associate athletic director John David Wicker, who lived and worked all over the region. I can say this: Wicker, who is now San Diego State’s athletic director, could have done well as a restaurant reviewer. From big cities to small towns, every place on the list we tried had incredible food. I gained 10 pounds in a week. Until later …