Picture of me during my college days at MTSU “trying” to guard Western Kentucky All-American Clem Haskins

March is the time of year when basketball fans get “pumped up” with the anticipated tournament games of March Madness. The excitement builds from the conference tournament games, and through the announcement on Sunday of the 64 teams with the basketball brackets. The whole month of March has taken on its own life with terms like Bracketology, Bracket Busters, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, etc. It is a great time to be a college basketball fan unless you are a college coach that has not had a very good season or even if you have had a successful season BUT your team is not going to make the tournament field. (Making a deep run in the tournament should not be the determining factor of whether a coach keeps his job. In many instances it is.) As a retired college coach of over 10 years I began thinking of the coaches that I knew that revolutionized college basketball. These seven coaches changed the way the game was played by their offense or defense, their recruiting, their style, their innovative concepts. I am NOT saying that these 7 coaches are the greatest college basketball coaches but some were. I am saying that in many respects these coaches approached their trade in a “different” way. Some might even call them “rebels”. These are seven coaches that I knew, and/or coached against.

The first coach that I remember as being “different” was E.A. Diddle, who coached at Western Kentucky from 1922 to 1964. Coach Diddle was already a legend when he came to my house in 1962 to recruit me out of high school. He was 66 years-old and needed help to climb the 5 steps leading up to our front porch. I was honored that he would travel the 160 miles from Bowling Green, Ky to Galatia, Il to personally talk to me. He was the first coach to coach 1,000 games at one school. His overall record was 759-302. What set him apart was his fast-break style of play and his bench excitement during the game. He would wave a red towel around during the game to excite the crowd. He was an outstanding recruiter and always maintained that he was an entertainer as much as a basketball coach. He was responsible for breaking the color barrier at WKU. (Clem Haskins and Dwight Smith) The current basketball arena is named after him. *Picture above is of Middle Tennessee State vs Western Kentucky, #22 Jack Sutter going after the ball with #22 Clem Haskins.

I didn’t sign to play at Western Kentucky but signed a scholarship at the University of Missouri. I was from a small town in southern Illinois and decided after one semester that the school was too big for me. I started looking around for a smaller D1 school and found that school in Middle Tennessee State University that was coached by another one of my “maverick” coaches. Ken Trickey was from southern Illinois (Cairo) and had recruited several players from southern Illinois that I knew. MTSU had about 4,000 students and the small town atmosphere was what I grew in and felt comfortable with. Like Coach Diddle, Coach Trickey emphasized fast break basketball. After he left MTSU to coach at Oral Roberts University his offense was referred to by the media as WRAG (We Run and Gun). Also, like Coach Diddle, Coach Trickey was the first basketball coach at MTSU to recruit African-American players. (He and a HOF track coach named Dean Hayes integrated the athletic program at Middle.) Before Coach Trickey left Murfreesboro, Tn, recognized for having been the sight of several Civil War battles, he would be the first college basketball coach in any conference in Tennessee to start an all black team. I played for him for three years and later served on his staff at ORU and the ONE constant in our game plan was we were always playing fast. The ORU teams finished in the top 5 in scoring and led the nation in scoring in the 1970-71 season with an average of 104 points a game. In his five years at ORU his teams were 118-23. No school in the history of the NCAA has gone from a NAIA program to playing in the Elite Eight in D1 in a shorter period of time. His teams went to two NIT’s and lost in OT to Kansas in 1974 for a chance to go to the Final Four. Ken Trickey, had a tremendous influence on the way basketball was played in Oklahoma. He was a true visionary and altered the perception of how to play the game of basketball that was once dominated by HOF Oklahoma State coach Henry Iba.

We played against some great teams that were coached by great coaches but one of those men stands out as a “revolutionary” coach. Jerry Tarkanian, who was called “Tark the Shark” became a legend in college coaching at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He was an outstanding coach long before he coached at UNLV. Our ORU teams played against his Long Beach State teams in 1970 and 1971 and lost both times. LBS was a small “no name” basketball program, much like ORU, before Coach Tarkanian got there in 1968. (It started out as a junior college.) Five years after Tarkanian arrived recruiting and playing predominately black players his teams were 122-2o, and considered a national basketball powerhouse. Coach Tarkanian’s incredible coaching and recruiting ability was often overshadowed by his “run-ins” with the NCAA. He won a national championship in 1990 with UNLV, went to four Final Fours, and finished his career with an unbelievable 778-206 coaching record. In his 31 years of coaching at the college level his team’s only failed to win 20 games in a season ONE time. Thirty-four years after the Runnin Rebels won the championship they are still remembered as one of the best college basketball teams in the history of the tournament.

My fourth “rebel” coach is Nolan Richardson. I did not know Coach Richardson personally but any coach that can win a Juco Championship, a NIT Championship, and a NCAA Championship has to be on this list. Frank Sinatra’s famous song “I Did It My Way” could be the theme of Coach Richardson’s outstanding career. He made “40 minutes of hell” much more than just a slogan as any coach would attest if you had to play him. During his 17-year tenure at the University of Arkansas he compiled a 389-169 record. He came from Tulsa University where his teams won 119 games and lost 37 including an NIT title in 1981. Before Tulsa his Western Texas JC team won the juco championship in 1980 and finished the season a perfect 37-0. His Arkansas teams dominated the Southwest Conference before switching their membership to the Southeastern Conference in 1991-92. His Arkansas teams were an opposing coaches nightmare to play against. His teams prided themselves on being in superb shape able to wear the opponents down in the second half. The Razorbacks won the NCAA Championship in 1994 and finished that season 31-3.  Coach Richardson was a “special” coach that won and won at every level he coached ….. his way.

The next coach was referred to as the Michelangelo of basketball coaches by HOF, TV personality Dick Vitale. Coach Smith won basketball games in seven different decades. We played against his North Carolina team in the 1973 NIT and as great as many other coaches were at preparing their team his Tar Heel team was the most prepared team I have ever played against. I had always heard of Coach Smith’s attention to detail and in that game in Madison Square Garden in 1973 his NC team proved to me that he came by that distinguished quality honestly. They took us out of our offense and totally dominated our ORU team in every facet. His teams won two NCAA Championships, 17 ACC Championship, and 879 games (.766%). Off the court Coach Smith was known as a humble, classy coach that ran a “squeaky clean” program that graduated 96.9 percent of his players. He recruited Charlie Scott in 1966, the first black basketball player to be awarded a scholarship to NC. Coach Smith is remembered as being an innovator in the game with the “four corners” and different defensive schemes. I remember attending a basketball clinic he spoke at in Kansas City. He is the only coach in my 22 years of attending clinics that conducted the session in a suit and tie. Dean Smith does not “fit” my criteria one hundred percent but he was definitely a innovator in the game of college basketball and by any criteria he is one of the game’s greatest.

Don Haskins took a “no name” school, Texas Western (University of Texas at El Paso) and  a bunch of “no name” players to College Park, Maryland in 1966 and WON the NCAA Championship. In a game that many college basketball historians believe is the most revolutionary game in the history of the sport. A true “ground breaking” coach led the way. His all-black team beat Adolph Rupp and his all-white team (Kentucky) in this historic game. That team was led by Bobby Joe Hill from Highland Park, Mi. A player I had the opportunity to meet several years later when I served the same school district as athletic director. The Miners lost only one game that 1965-66 season despite having to play most of their best opponents on the road. The “gruff” and “hard nosed” Coach Haskins played for the legendary Henry Iba at Oklahoma State where he was schooled on discipline, defense, and a deliberate , slow pace offense. Coach Haskins finished his career with a 719-353 record but what is more remarkable is that UTEP under Haskins won 20 or more games in 17 seasons. (When Coach Haskins took over the program in 1961 one of the players he inherited was Nolan Richardson.) Coach Haskins recruited African-American players when most of the country was segregated. (Fewer than 10% of major college basketball teams had a black player on their team.) Haskins teams were quick and played a hard nosed, pressing full court defense. Coach Haskins was a “maverick” among college basketball coaches.

The last coach on my list of revolutionary college basketball coaches is perhaps the most controversial. Love him or hate him, Bob Knight was a brilliant basketball coach. Some would say he was an egotistical and arrogant bully. Most of his players would say that even if he was, he cared about them, he “demanded” that they get their degrees, and he helped them become responsible men. On the court his teams won 902 games and lost only 371 (.709%). His Indiana University teams won three NCAA Championships including an undefeated 1975-76 season when they finished 32-0. In 29-years at the helm of the Hoosiers his teams won 11 Big Ten titles, an NIT Championship, and went to five Final Fours. He later coached at Texas Tech for 7 years going to 4 NCAA Tournaments and winning 220 games. Coach Knight is given credit for creating and perfecting the “motion offense”. His teams were known for playing almost flawless man-to-man defense. The outspoken and volatile coach was a nightmare for the media, whom he often made fun of and disparaged. A friend of mine, who served on his staff at Indiana, told me “The General” was a fitting name for this iconic coach.

That is my list of revolutionary coaches that I have personally come in contact with by playing against their teams, knowing them, having a connection to them, or studying them out of respect for what they have accomplished within the game I love. My all-time favorite coach, John Wooden, who set the bar for championships could have been on this list. I admired the legendary UCLA coach and actually had an opportunity to meet him and attend one of his practices. Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest men’s college basketball coach in history with 1,202 could have been on this list. As could have Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Adolph Rupp, John Cheney, Larry Brown, Mark Few, Tom Izzo, Bill Self, Jim Calhoun, Kelvin Sampson, and many others. But let me remind you that my criteria were coaches that were considered “mavericks”, coaches with a “unique” or somewhat unconventional style. They all have one great attribute, one common trait that set them apart from other college basketball coaches, they DO NOT fit into one common mold. You could say they were different, I say they were “rebels”.