Coaching 101

Is there anything that's not totally refreshing about Brad Stevens?

If you pay him mere casual attention, you're probably impressed. He's calm and composed on the sidelines, seldom if ever throwing the tantrums you see from so many other coaches. He's thoughtful and respectful during those pointless TV interviews you see before and during games, opting against the impatience and condescension you see most the time.

And man, can the guy coach. That notion has been in abundant evidence over the last few weeks, when Stevens has overcome the loss of a first-round draft pick (Gordon Heyward) to make a return trip to not only the Final Four, but the Final Two.

Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe has a nice column on Stevens today, and the piece successfully illuminates more elements of this remarkable story.

One of the more impressive things about Stevens, as Ryan points out, is that he hasn't gotten all full of himself. You do wonder how much longer he'll be able to resist cashing in his chips and taking a bigger job -- and my bet is that he won't be able to resist much longer -- but he doesn't come across as someone who is poised to pounce on the first big thing that comes along.

“When we went to the national championship game last year,’’ Stevens says, “everybody asked me, ‘Are you going to be able to recruit a different type of player?’ We’re Butler. We’re going to be Butler. We’re not trying to be somebody else. We want Butler to be unique. We want Butler to be something that people look at and say, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s special.’ I think that’s, hopefully, the way people have viewed it.’’

Butler is truly unique when it comes to a legitimate focus on academics. Not saying other teams don't devote some focus to their studies during the NCAA Tournament, but I'm guessing Butler is the first team in a long, long time whose players actually attended classes the day of the national championship game.

That happened last year. And yeah, the Bulldogs were playing only a few miles from their campus in Indianapolis. But could you imagine the hissy fits that'd be thrown by Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, John Calipari or from a number of coaches at the suggestion that their players put their focus on books on this day?

One unfortunate habit of the modern coach is blaming everyone and everything else if they're not successful. Of course if you're a coach you want maximum commitment from your administration at all levels, and if you don't see that commitment then you have some justification to complain.

College athletics brings big bucks, and so the latest frontier in athletics competition is spending big bucks on all kinds of lavish facilities, on coaches' salaries, on academics centers, and whatever else everyone else is doing.

Of course you want to keep up with the Joneses, but you also want coaches who are good enough to win with inferior resources and luxuries. You want coaches who don't constantly complain about Team B having this or that.

This from Stevens in the Ryan column:

If Butler really does desire to have Final Four-quality teams ad infinitum, the school can’t stand still. “You do need growth,’’ Stevens points out. “Maybe an additional charter flight a year than in the past. You need to invest. You need to do some things to give yourself a chance when you go up against a great team, five-on-five, for 40 minutes.’’

And then this:

But it can’t come at the expense of being Butler. “We’re not where we are because of dollars spent on practice facilities, and those type of things,’’ Stevens declares. “We’re where we are because we have unbelievable people. People are greater resources than any amount of dollars.’’

Dollars certainly help. Ask Alabama fans if they're paying too much for their football coach. Ask Kentucky fans if they're paying too much for their basketball coach. On a more local level, try telling Clemson fans that its upgrades in football recruiting from 2005 to 2008 didn't have strong roots in much-needed facilities upgrades.

But the refreshing story of Stevens and Butler shows that sometimes good coaching can still trump all else.

LW