Being an East Tennessee State University graduate I have to say the their performance against  Pittsburgh was excellent. Consider both teams shot under 40% for the game and committed numerous turnovers this was without a doubt one of the most interesting and hard fought games of the tournament. The score does not give justice to East Tennessee’s effort to become the first number 16 seed to win over a  number  1 seed in the history of the tournament. The final score was Pitt 72-62.

The game was in doubt  all the way to the 1:50 mark.   East Tennessee, a small college located in the Hills of Northeast Tennessee gave the Panthers all they could want before pulling away for the win.

Pitt will need to play  much better if it expect to advance  to the title game.

The  key to the success of a college basketball team is the ability of the Coach. A successful bench coach can and will spell the difference of success and failure.  Some coaches in the heat of the battle wilt when in pressure game situations. Usually because they did not manage the clock well during the course of a game. Depending upon how well the coach makes decisions and manages the game, determines how much pressure he will face with  under minutes remaining in a game. The coach  can create a pressure situation by mis-management of the game.  The players are usually not disciplined enough to execute or the coach has a flawed philosophy in game management. Either way it is the coach’s job to get their team ready for any situation.

What  causes me to wonder is when a coach uses all of the allotted time outs and have none to call in crucial game ending situations.  This happens a lot when coaches do not manage the game well.  Being a top flight coach  involves how well you manage crucial situations at the end of a game.  You must make all the right moves at the right time in order to be effective. With that said, I put together a list of coaches who I feel have demonstrated that they know how to manage the game and change strategy when needed.  The coaches are not listed in any particular order, but all have demonstrated that they know how to manage a game, ultimately producing a win.

Mike Krzyzewski, Duke- Without a doubt the most successful coach in the ranks of college basketball.  He has  had the good fortune of coaching superb basketball talent and the benefits of coaching at The Premier Basketball School in the country.  Coach K is at the top as America’s top coach on nearly every ones list.

Bill Self, Kansas- He coached his way to the top, by winning the National Championship.  This is the litmus test of  the  coaching ability of the coach.  Self proved that he belongs in the top tier of coaches.

Roy Williams, North Carolina-Williams came into his own when he returned to North Carolina as The Head Basketball coach. Great coaching ability and a unique ability to bring talent together and lot of it at Carolina.

Jim Calhoun, UConn-  The cornerstone of UConn’s offense is a great point guard combined with a good inside game. Usually  the inside is occupied by a better than average center.  But with Calhoun’s offense a good point guard is the key to push the ball up the floor, distribute the ball,  or effectively take the three.  Calhoun is great at managing the closing minutes of a game.

Jay Wright, Villanova- The three guard offense has been highly effective for Jay Wright and when he has three guard who can shoot from the perimeter, slash and dish effectively to the basket, he can  break down the opposing defense fairly quickly.  Wright because of his knack of recruiting exceptionally quick, efficeint shooting guards,  has been able to manage  the  closing minutes of a game quite effectively. 

Tom Crean, Indiana (Formerly coach at Marquette)- Crean is a master of managing a game and interchanging players at just the right time to keep the opposing team off balance on both offense and defense. He did this extremely well at Marquette. Look for Crean to recruit more power rated players at Indiana than he did at Marquette. This will insure that he will continue to  have success in the closing minutes of a game.  Crean is a master of managing a game.

Billy Donavon, Florida- Donavon is another coach who when he has reasonable talent, can effectively manage a game, by substituting strategically and effective pull out of game,  by making superb coaching moves.   Donavon won back to back  national Championships and it was because he is a great bench coach.

Billy Gillespie, Kentucky-  Although he had a mediocre  year at Kentucky last year, Gillespie is a great recruiter and has a knack of drawing out the best of players who over the course of the year adapt well to his system. Look for Kentucky to remain one of the top echelon programs, because of the coaching ability of Gillespie. Last year was a great example of Gillespie’s coaching ability. Kentucky struggled all year long, but they game together in the end to win a seed in the NCAA tournament.

Rick Pitino, Louisville- Pitino is somewhat erratic at times.  Does not manage the clock well and sometimes makes bone headed substitutions at inappropriate times.  However, his teams or capable of hitting home run balls, via the three point line,  which let him off the hook when making bad coaching decisions, and  when he has managed the clock unresponsively.  It is a situation where  Pitino is on or he is not. Louisville rises and falls with the nuances and the management of the clock by Pitino.

Luke Olsen, Arizona- No coach has consistently managed a game better than Lute Olsen. He has accomplished this with great point guard play  and above average inside game.  But Arizona’s offense rises or falls with the point guard.  And Olsen has had some good ones. He is without a doubt one of the top bench coaches in terms of managing the waning minutes of a game in America.

Ben Howland, UCLA- Howland brought his magic to Westwood and has created a talent pool that is exceptional to say the least.  His clock management has been good and he has effectively advanced to the NCAA tournament enjoying good success.

Bob Huggins,West Virginia- Last year Huggins over achieved.  The talent level at West Virginia was suspect, but Huggins managed to pull out a respectable year, making the NCAA tournament.  For West Virginia, cloak Management became increasingly important. Look for Huggins to have the Mountaineers at the top through the upcoming season.

Bob McKillop- Davidson- Unless you were on another planet last year you have to be impressed with the coaching ability of McKillop. However one player  made all of this possible and it was Stephen Curry. He is a shooter period. Enough said. He can get his shot off in a way that is not quick, but subtle. The point is he got his shot off consistently to get Davidson to the final eight last year. Curry is not a top ten player, so McKillop had to coach this team to success.

Mark Few-Gonzaga- Few coaches have done more than Coach Mark Few, to raise the National name recognition of one one school in ten years.  Mark Few is an excellent bench coach and recruiter who has elevated Gonzaga to a household name.  What can be said about the successes the Few has had. The best I can say is that he is an excellent bench coach.

Rick Barnes-Texas- Just study his history and the number of players that have made it to the NBA and how Texas is now known as a point guard factory and you see why Riick Barnes Made this list.  He is an excellent coach and one of the great thinker in America.

Best Of the Rest

John Thompson III

John Calipari

Tim Floyd

I’m sure there are others that should have been on this list.

Here’s a list of the top coaches from the past.

Bobby Knight

Adolph Rupp

Denny Crum

Al McGuire

John Wooden

Dean Smith

John Thompson

Gale Catlett

The 1966 Texas Western ( now known as The University of Texas at El Paso -UTEP)- Kentucky NCAA Championship Game will go down in history as one of  the most historically significant game. Certainly the most significant game ever played in the history of basketball. Simply because of the segregated nature of basketball in the south during the sixties. This game and this game alone served to remove the barrier and unwritten rules that college coaches observed in the failure to sign the black athletes to a four year scholarship in the segregated south . After this game, the barriers were lifted and southern schools began in earnest to recruit the black athlete.

Adolph Rupp, The head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, went to great lengths not to diligently recruit black basketball players. He did recruit Wes Unseld a graduate of Louisville Seneca High School and he also recruited Butch Beard from Breckenridge County High School in Kentucky, But both players felt at that Kentucky would not be a welcoming environment and they chose to attend the University of Louisville. Rupp did pay a visit to Ron King in his home in 1969.  King along with Otto Petty led  Louisville Central to the 1969 Kentucky State Championship.  The same year King was named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball. King decided to attend Florida State, where Hugh Durham, a Louisville Native coached.
Adolph Rupp won 4 national Championships at Kentucky during his career. He wanted to win just one more championship before he retired and 1966, he felt this was his year to do it. Rupp had a team, featuring five undersized players, led by Pat Riley, current Miami heat Coach, Louie Dampier, Tommy Kron, Thad Jarez and Larry Conley. They were known as Rupp Runts and they terrorized the Southeastern Conference. They were a great team and they played an exciting brand of basketball.

Texas Western had one of the best point guards ever in Bobby Joe Hill from Detroit. Haskins recruited five black players and he promoted that he would flaunt it doing warm ups. He would encourage his players to dunk to create intimidation. Haskins was a con-man, and a pool shark, he transferred those characteristic to the basketball floor.
A white basketball player on Texas Western team, said he grew up hating opposing white players, because of the despicable things that they said to the Texas Western’s black players. Pat Forde, a Reporter for the Louisville Courier Journal, said they brought a street game with them. It started with Don Haskins Texas Western team.
Kentucky won a number one ranking by beating nearly everyone, with a unrelenting defense and fast break offense, Rupp’ s team was a well oiled team. Texas Western survived Kansas by one point in double overtime. The other semifinal game over shadowed the Texas Western-Kansas Game. The general consensus was that the Kentucky – Duke winner would be the National champion. Texas Western was furious. They wanted to beat Kentucky not because they had the possibility of being the first all black team. They wanted to beat them because they were being overlooked.

Haskins made a crucial strategic decision prior to the game. He played three guards to keep up with Kentucky’s speed. Haskins, rolled out five black players to start the NCAA championship Game. Just understand there was an unwritten rule by white college basketball coaches in the south; never start five black players at one time. Haskins did it. It was on. One undefeated team in Kentucky and one once defeated team in Texas Western.

Haskins was a gambler and he would do anything possible to win the gamble; beat the racist coach, Adolph Rupp. Haskins did ,more in this one game to further the cause of integration than Martin Luther King. This game was the defining game of the Century for College basketball.
It had tremendous social implications. I remember seeing the game myself . I was only 11 years old, but this game is sealed in my memory as the most exciting and significant game ever in NCAA finals history. There was the notion that if you had five black players that they were not as intelligent as the white players. If you put pressure on them they would crack. Texas Western proved this to be unfounded.
At the start of the game Big Daddy Latin rejected Pat Riley shot and the next time he dunked over Pat Riley Head. Later, point guard, Bobby Joe Hill made two consecutive steals in the game. Kentucky was down 34-31 at the half. Kentucky kept it close they felt they could win. Texas Western won the NCAA Championship 74-65.

The Texas Western players, as always took it in stride, Haskins hoped his players would be a little excited about the win. Coach Haskins Smiled. Don Haskins begin to realized the impact of the victory. He would later received basketball cans filled with hate mail for coaching all black players. He even received letter from black leaders who called him an exploiter. Haskins, a white coach, paid a price for his courage.

But if it were not for his courage, college basketball would not be where it is today. Adolph Rupp fought the memory of that game for the rest of his life. In a time when our country was in turmoil, fighting for equality for blacks in the south The Texas Western- Kentucky NCAA championship played a significant role in breaking the chains of integration. After this game, White southern Collegiate Basketball Coaches started recruiting the black athlete, one by one the ban was lifted. Adolph Rupp coached five more years before his retirement. He Finally successfully recruited and signed to a scholarship, his first black player, Tom Payne, out of Louisville Shawnee High School in 1969. Rupp died of cancer in 1977. In 1998 Kentucky won the National Championship, ironically, a black coach, Tubby Smith.