For over 40 years I have been a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). And, as a member I have regularly attended its national convention. This event is always held at the site of the Final Four. Back in the day, the site for this event was rotated from an East Coast location to the Midwest to the West and back to the Midwest, the East, etc., etc.
This is no longer true since television has dictated that the hosting arena have a football sized seating capacity. Lousy venue for watching basketball in my estimation. As a member of the NABC I used to have a very good seat every year. Now the coaches for the most part are relegated to Section X.
The NABC convention is an event of many stories. It is a place and time for celebration and sadness. It is a time when just-fired coaches are scrambling to find a job. It is a time when young, ambitious coaches are politicking to advance their careers. In the 25 years I coached basketball, I have been all of those at some point in time.
It has also become an event where Athletic Directors set up shop to interview all of their candidates to replace the coach they just fired. Or at least, trim down the number of candidates to a workable number. It is an environment of equal parts of stressing and unwinding. It is the hub of the culmination of a month that is now termed œMarch Madness.
My first Final Four was in Portland, OR and played in the five year old Coliseum which seated about 11,000. It was later ot be my home court as coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. It still stands today next to the Rose Garden, the current home of the Blazers.
Sorry, I digress. Back to the Final Four. We had driven from San Jose, five coaching friends from San Jose to Portland. If we were a check at the bank we would have been stamped œinsufficient funds.
The participating teams were Wichita State University, Princeton University, University of Michigan and UCLA. I got to see Princeton great and Senator to be, Bill Bradley, torch Wichita State for 56 points. Thats a record that still stands for an NCAA playoff game. I swear he hit one of every kind of shot you could makeup and he sat out the last 4 minutes of the game. I got to see UCLA rip the Michigan Wolverines for 42 points on the way to a championship.
The coaches were a tight group. I think there were only about 900+ members (over 8,000 today) and some of them attended the first final in 1937, won by the œTall Firs of the University of Oregon. That one was held on a college campus.
I got to hang out, rub elbows if you will, with John Wooden, Pete Newell, Henry Iba, Adolph Rupp, Tex Winter, John Bennington, Clair Bee, Howard Hobson, Branch McCracken, Ned Wulk, Abe Lemons and Guy Lewis just to name a few. I found these coaches to be generous with their time and wisdom. I am not so sure that environment exists for young coaches today.
This weekends teams are representing the old-time elite. The University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, the University of Kansas and the University of Louisville. All those programs have had multiple dates at the œBig Dance. The beat goes on. Any one of the coaches in the finals this year makes more money than all of the coaches mentioned above added together. Thats progress I guess. Or, maybe it just adds more pressure to a difficult job at best.
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