Jeff Lebo is the basketball coach at Tennessee Tech.
He’s also a Dean Smith guy.
Lebo might not have gained the former title without the latter, and he is not alone in the insular world of college basketball. Coaching lineage has a profound effect in shaping careers, dictating playing styles and establishing the game’s power structure. It’s no coincidence that three of this year’s Final Four head coaches played for or served as assistants to men who won national championships.
“It’s almost like the Mafia,” Lebo said. “You’ve got all the families. There’s a Bob Knight guy. There’s a Carolina guy, a Duke guy. It’s like everybody is somebody’s guy.”
In some ways, the comparison between Mafia members and basketball coaches fits almost too well. They strut around in designer suits. Poor execution can cost them their jobs. And they have a thing for ostentatious rings.
There is one critical difference. Basketball coaches who break with their families don’t end up in cement shoes. They often end up with shoe contracts, but that’s an entirely different story.
The Final Four is a prime networking opportunity for coaches. The lobbies of downtown Indianapolis hotels are jammed this weekend with young coaches dying to become someone’s guy–figuratively speaking, of course. This isn’t the Mafia.
“It’s who you know,” Northwestern coach Kevin O’Neill said. “That’s all this profession is about. College basketball is completely unique in that way.”
It helps if who you know has a pile of victories, and a championship banner or two doesn’t hurt either. When athletic directors and search committees seek new coaches, they tend to rely heavily on the recommendations of the hottest coach of the day.
“We’ll lie for you and we’ll take up a collection if it will help,” joked former Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote, who had two former assistants, Tom Izzo of MSU and Mike Deane of Lamar, in this year’s tournament. “When a program has a lot of success, those hiring gravitate to those programs, and those guys get the better jobs.”
For years, Indiana coach Bob Knight was able to place former players and assistants in jobs all over the country by simply picking up the telephone. Knight’s influence may have waned, but many Division I coaches bear his imprint, including Iowa’s Steve Alford, Washington’s Bob Bender, UAB’s Murry Bartow, Baylor’s Dave Bliss, Bowling Green’s Dan Dakich, Evansville’s Jim Crews and Indiana State’s Royce Waltman.
Knight’s role as the ultimate kingmaker appears to have been supplanted by one of his progeny–Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, who played for Knight at Army. Krzyzewski’s recommendations helped Tommy Amaker and Quin Snyder go directly from his staff to jobs at Seton Hall and Missouri, respectively. Both also played for Coach K.
Amaker, who was a leading candidate for the Northwestern job before he signed with Seton Hall, doesn’t deny his ties to Krzyzewski. But when a potential Duke-Seton Hall matchup loomed in the NCAA’s East Regional this year, Amaker made it clear that he has become his own man in South Orange, N.J.
“Subliminally, I incorporate things from Duke in what I do, of course,” Amaker said. “But I don’t invoke the name. We’re Seton Hall. I’m a Jersey guy now.”
Aren’t the Sopranos Jersey guys, too? Just asking.
Connections may help a coach land a job, but they won’t keep him in it. “You can’t be that particular coach,” said Kentucky’s Tubby Smith, who served as an assistant to Rick Pitino in Lexington. “You’ve got to establish your own identity right away.”
Still, the link between past and present success is clear. Consider that three of this year’s Final Four entries are led by coaches whose mentors won national titles.
Izzo came to State four years after Heathcote won the 1979 national championship. Florida’s Billy Donovan played for Pitino at Providence and served on his staff at Kentucky, leaving two years before Pitino won the 1996 national crown. North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge spent 30 years on the bench next to Dean Smith, including his 1982 and 1993 NCAA championship seasons.
The lone exception in this Final Four is Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett, who worked his way to Madison through high schools and small colleges.
If present success predicts future hirings, keep an eye on Izzo assistant Brian Gregory (who also worked for O’Neill at NU) and Donovan assistant John Pelphrey (who also played for Pitino at Kentucky).
Of the many trees dotting the major-college landscape, Smith’s is perhaps the most impressive, tracing its roots to the sport’s founder, James Naismith. Smith, who retired in 1997 as the winningest coach in college history, played at Kansas for Phog Allen, a disciple of Naismith. According to one estimate, when Smith retired he had 26 former players in the high school, college and professional coaching ranks. His active Division I proteges include Kansas coach Roy Williams, who is rumored to be at the top of the list to succeed Guthridge; Eddie Fogler of South Carolina; and Appalachian State’s Buzz Peterson, who roomed with Michael Jordan in Chapel Hill. Notre Dame’s Matt Doherty has two links to this tree: He played for Smith and served as an aide to Williams.
Lebo said the Smith coaching tree is “like one of those big redwoods out in California. You’ve got twigs all over the place.”
On Saturday night, Guthridge had to match wits with a branch of the growing Pitino tree. Donovan has borrowed liberally from his mentor, recruiting blue-chip players and installing an up-tempo attack that relies heavily on three-point shots.
Pitino helped Donovan land the Marshall job when Donovan was 28. Six years later, Donovan began the weekend two wins away from becoming the third-youngest coach to win an NCAA title. Donovan often credits Pitino with boosting his career, but Pitino’s reputation hasn’t won a single game for the Gators in this tournament.
“I think the one thing I realized after leaving coach Pitino was that I needed to be myself,” Donovan said. “How your guys react to you is important. I think if you’re trying to be something you’re not, players can see through that.”
To advance to the Final Four, Donovan had to defeat Oklahoma State’s Eddie Sutton, who is a member of the mighty Henry Iba coaching tree, which has branched into its fourth generation.
Iba coached at Oklahoma State from 1935-70, winning 767 games. Among his players was Don Haskins, who went on to win 719 games at UTEP. Among Haskins’ assistants in El Paso was Tim Floyd. Before he came to the Bulls, Floyd coached at Iowa State, where he was succeeded by a former assistant, Larry Eustachy.
This season a mentor will revel in his protege’s championship. That’s the best part of this coaching genealogy business. And the worst part?
“You’ve got to win,” Kentucky’s Tubby Smith said, “or a guy’s not going to claim you.”
