What’s the difference?
Gene Steinmeyer
College basketball is over. Last week, Kentucky was the most dominate team. The Wildcats were expected to cruise to a NCAA title. Wisconsin and Duke got in their way, with Duke winning its fifth national title.
Everyone knew about Kentucky. Did you know Connecticut was almost as dominant in women’s basketball? The Huskies stumbled early in the year at Stanford. It didn’t matter as Connecticut didn’t disappoint and easily won its 10th NCAA title.
What I love most about Connecticut is its outspoken coach, Geno Auriemma. Geno matched the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden, for most NCAA basketball championships. Even Geno said you can’t compare the two accomplishments, but he said a lot more.
I want to take you back to about halfway through my college coaching career. I always thought I had a good relationship with most of the men’s coaches I had contact with.
The real truth came out one night after a game at Hastings College. Ken Rhodus, the Hastings women’s coach, invited me to his house for a postgame get together. The Hastings men’s coach was there, too.
Very late into the night, the three coaches got into a debate about coaching. The Hastings men’s coach looked me in the eye and said that he would never hire a man who coached a women’s team to coach a men’s team.
I never claimed to be the smartest basketball coach, but I took exception to his negative opinion. No matter how much Ken and I argued, we couldn’t get him to concede that we might know as much about basketball as he did.
I could go on and on debating the attitude displayed by the Hastings men’s coach. Instead, I want to go back to Geno Auriemma and some of the statements he has made.
During this year’s run at his 10th national championship, Geno took direct aim at men’s college basketball. He admitted that women’s basketball has its flaws when he said, “Hey look, the women’s game is less watchable (than men’s games), don’t get me wrong.”
But men’s basketball took the biggest hit from Auriemma.
“College men’s basketball is so far behind the times, it’s unbelievable,” Geno said. Citing lack of offense, he described many men’s games as “scrums.”
Way to go Geno. I couldn’t agree more. Even though they didn’t win a national championship, I never missed a West Virginia, VCU or Iowa State game where great offense was on display. In the cases of West Virginia and VCU, full-court defense led to the fun offenses.
Geno was never bashful about expressing his opinion. Early in his career at Connecticut, Geno was critical about the NCAA pairings. He claimed that the brackets were set up so most of the good women’s teams coached by men were in the same region. He claimed it virtually guaranteed three female coaches in the Final Four.
I have no idea if that was true back then. I do know that those types of arguments have never been whispered again. If the brackets are bad, the sex of the coach has nothing to do with it.
Geno also brought out the fact that many great men who coach women’s teams are not recognized outside their sport. Have you ever heard of Russ Rose or Anson Dorrance.
Geno used these two as examples of great accomplishments that not many sports fans know. Ross is the volleyball coach at Penn State. He has never won less than 22 games and has won six NCAA Division I national championships.
What Dorrance’s women’s soccer teams has accomplished at North Carolina pales the milestones achieve by Auriemma, Krzyzewski or even Wooden. The Tar Heels has won a staggering 22 national championships in just 34 seasons of national tournaments.
I don’t know who is a better coach, Auriemma or Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. I don’t know which has the toughest name to spell. Both coached the national teams and will probably coach the next Olympic basketball teams.
It would be an interesting experiment if they switched roles, with Geno coaching the men’s team and Mike going to the women’s side for the Olympics. I’ll bet their teams would still win gold medals.
My uncle, Gene Else, was a college basketball coach while I was going to high school. When I graduated from college, he became my mentor in the coaching profession.
I coached girls’ sports in the summer and boys’ sports during the school year. After six years, I had the urge to become a head coach. I asked my uncle if I should stick with boys or look at girls’ basketball. He gave me the best advice I ever received. He said, “Coach where you can win. Players make coaches; coaches don’t make players.”
Great advice; I saw an opportunity to win in girls’ high school basketball and took a head coaching job. I stayed with the females the next 33 years. Little did I know my basketball knowledge is perceived as inferior.
What’s the difference?
