Before They Were B-ball Coaches

http://www.lostlettermen.com/2010/01/weekly-feature-before-they-were-b-ball-coaches-part-iii/

Big East

Cincinnati: Mick Cronin (Cincinnati)
Mick Cronin began running practices in the fifth grade when his father (the coach) was late to practices. Good thing he took to coaching at a young age. Near the end of his junior season in high school he suffered a major knee injury, ending any shot at college ball. He worked various high school jobs while an undergrad at Cincinnati until he graduated in 1997 and joined Bob Huggins’ staff as an assistant.

Connecticut: Jim Calhoun (American International)
Jim Calhoun originally had a scholarship to Lowell State but never played a game before he had to come home to support his family. After 20 months with various jobs he went back to school, this time at American International College in Boston, where he earned another basketball scholarship. He was the team’s leading scorer his junior and senior year. During his final season he captained the team and led AIC to the Division II playoffs in 1968.

DePaul: Tracy Webster (Wisconsin)
DePaul named Tracy Webster interim coach on January 11th in an effort to help its fledgling basketball program in any way possible. They called on the right guy. Webster knows a thing or two about helping considering he’s Wisconsin all-time leader in assists (501). He lettered three times and was a team captain in the early ’90s with the Badgers.



Georgetown: John Thompson III (Princeton)
For John Thompson III, the opportunity to play under his father was the very reason not to go to Georgetown. Instead he chose to go to Princeton, where he was one of the school’s best distributors (third all-time in assists). In his senior season he racked up 103 assists while turning the ball over just 34 times. He was a co-captain his senior year and also co-team MVP in 1988, a year before the Tigers almost pulled off the upset of the century against his dad.



Louisville: Rick Pitino (UMass)
Pitino, who was on the same team but never played alongside Julius “Dr. J” Erving, came to UMass in the ’70s a 30-point scorer in high school. But by his own admission, “I got worse as a player.” He was a solid guard, leading the team in assists his junior and senior seasons, and played with current Boston College coach Al Skinner.



Marquette: Buzz Williams (Navarro College & Oklahoma City College)
Buzz Williams knew he wasn’t good enough to play in college, so he started his coaching career as soon as he reached campus at Navarro College. After two seasons he went to Oklahoma City Community College to be a student assistant there. In 1994 he took out a $1,200 “emergency loan” from the school and flew to the Final Four in Charlotte, pestering coaches for three days just for the chance at moving up. It was only a matter of time before he got a major program of his own.

Notre Dame: Mike Brey (Northwestern State & George Washington)
Mark Brey played three seasons at Northwestern Louisiana State (now Northwestern State) from 1977-80 and led the team in assists and steals all three years. He transferred to George Washington for his senior season and although he didn’t put up gaudy numbers (5 points and 5 boards a game), he was the team captain and MVP that season.



Pittsburgh: Jamie Dixon (TCU)
TCU went from worst to first in the old Southwest Conference thanks in large part to Jamie Dixon. The Horned Frogs won conference championships during Dixon’s junior and senior seasons. His buzzer-beating halfcourt shot that defeated Texas in 1986 is still the stuff of legends, and his team barely missed a Sweet Sixteen appearance in the 1987 Big Dance. Although based on that smile, nothing seemed to bug Dixon.



Providence: Keno Davis (Iowa)
Keno Davis – the son of Dr. Tom Davis – never played, but learned under his father as a student assistant at Iowa from 1991-1995. Since his father Tom was Iowa’s winningest coach, it’s safe to say Keno had a pretty good mentor.

Rutgers: Fred Hill (Montclair State)
In high school, Fred Hill attended a basketball camp at Iona hosted by a young Jimmy Valvano. Hill was honored by winning the “Rat Award,” given to the scrappiest player by Valvano himself. Hill was never destined for super-stardom, but that overachieving mentality earned him a spot at New Jersey’s Montclair College 30 years ago. There he eventually become an all-conference guard his senior year and helped his team reach the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Seton Hall: Bobby Gonzalez (Buffalo State)
Gonzalez didn’t make much of a mark on the court at Buffalo State. As a point guard, he was stuck behind the team’s star Frank Memoli. And by “stuck behind,” we mean he was at the end of the bench. But he didn’t waste his time, picking his coach’s brain after practice and setting himself up for a career on the sidelines.

South Florida: Stan Heath (Eastern Michigan)
Heath was just a reserve guard for the Eagles. His career numbers barely register that he even played basketball at Eastern Michigan (1.3 points and one assist per game). He graduated from EMU in 1988 with a degree in social science.



St. John’s: Norm Roberts (Queens College)
Roberts almost didn’t get a scholarship to Queens College because his grades weren’t high enough. That’s when his father stepped in: “If you give my son a scholarship, he will not only be the best player on the team, he’ll be the best student.” He didn’t disappoint, finishing in the school’s all-time top ten list for points, steals and assists before graduating in 1987. His number (15) was retired in 1993.

Syracuse: Jim Boeheim (Syracuse)
Jim Boeheim wasn’t scholarship material when he arrived at Syracuse, but the walk-on eventually earned himself a spot in the starting rotation alongside NBA great Dave Bing. In Boeheim’s senior year, he became team captain and scored 409 points, the 12th-best output in a season at the time. He and Bing led Syracuse to just its second NCAA Tournament berth in 1966. It’s hard seeing him intimidating anyone on the court.



Villanova: Jay Wright (Bucknell)
The best dressed coach in hoops earned a spot in the starting five at Bucknell during his junior season in 1982, but the next year he was brought off the bench – a development that angered him at the time. “As a coach, if I [would have] coached me, I would have hated me.”



West Virginia: Bob Huggins (Ohio & West Virginia)
Bob Huggins played at West Virginia from 1975-1977 after spending his freshman season at Ohio. In those three years, Huggins averaged 13.2 points and scored 800 points total. He captained the team as a senior. One of his teammates said of him: “You always knew that he was going to be successful in whatever he did because he worked real hard.”

Wow...Norm Roberts was such a bad student in high school he almost didn't qualilfy?  Shocking.  I really thought Norm was a genius. 

Unless something changed drastically in the years between when he was there and when my siblings and I were HS age... Springfield Gardens HS was no tough academic institution.  And Queens College is an okay school but... geez.