http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1084094890180320.xml Pros are different game for college coaches Sunday, May 09, 2004 By Ted Lewis Staff writer One day, now probably sooner than later, Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt will hear from an NBA team or teams desirous of his services. A hot commodity after taking the Yellow Jackets to the NCAA championship game and one with a lifelong love of the Knicks, Hewitt would seem like a natural to make the transition. Ultimately, though, he most likely won't. And if he does, chances are he'll regret it. The Hornets' firing of Tim Floyd on Friday is another example of the difficulty college coaches face in making the adjustment to the pros. And that's just one factor why so few, particularly those well-established in their profession, actually wind up making the move. Unlike the NFL, which college coaches view it as essentially coaching the same game -- just at a more sophisticated level -- the difference between running a college program and coaching in the NBA has less appeal. "I've been intrigued, but never really tempted," said Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson. "It's just a totally different game. College success doesn't necessarily translate to pro success. I don't know if I'm qualified to be an NBA coach." And it may be that the NBA isn't that interested in the college guys, at least not if current trends continue. "NBA owners want guys who understand the pro game," said Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, who has turned down the Atlanta Hawks, among others. "So they go out and hire those guys. I think that at all levels of basketball players want to be inspired, led and pointed in the right direction. But the pro game is definitely different." The biggest difference is control over the players. College coaches have it. Pro coaches don't. "Most of us can figure out the 24-second clock," Sampson said. "But it's how you handle your players. What works in college won't work in the NBA. If Baron Davis is five minutes late for a team meeting, are you going to make him run bleachers at five in the morning?" Not that there aren't those willing to try to make the leap. Nomadic Larry Brown jumped to the San Antonio Spurs after winning the NCAA title at Kansas in 1988. Four years later UNLV's Jerry Tarkanian also took the Spurs' job, but quit after 20 games. Rick Pitino twice left the college ranks for the NBA, only to twice return. But the last four coaches to go from college to the NBA without previous NBA playing or coaching experience -- Floyd, Lon Kruger, Leonard Hamilton, and John Calipari -- all are now out of the league, fired after compiling a cumulative record of 280-437. "They aren't bad coaches," said ESPN college commentator Jay Bilas. "They just got bad jobs, which is how jobs usually become open in the first place." Fellow ESPN commentator Bill Walton echoes that view, adding that team owners are often too quick to pull the trigger. "Tim was put in a position in Chicago where he was doomed to fail," Walton said. "And it's not his fault that his two best players in New Orleans came down with injuries. We live in world where if you don't win today, it's the coach's fault. It's sad, embarrassing and wrong." And for their parts, Kruger and Calipari have few regrets about their experiences. "I knew it was a difficult challenge, but that's what lured me to it," said Kruger, fired after two-plus seasons with the Atlanta Hawks after making the move from Illinois in 2000. "I'm glad I did it. My only regret is that we didn't get it turned around." Calipari, who left Massachusetts to take over the New Jersey Nets in 1996, said he was done in by the lockout of 1998-99, a change in ownership and the loss of point guard Sam Cassell. "We went to the playoffs and everything was rocking and rolling," he said. "Then too many things rocked the boat and we couldn't recover. If you're winning in a marquee job, there's nothing better. But if you're not in a winning organization, it's not worth it." Calipari admits that there was a large learning curve for him, one that a little experience as an assistant on the NBA level might have helped. But that's almost financially impossible for a college head coach to undertake. "I wish I could have spent a couple of years on the bench with Larry Brown before moving up," said Calipari, who did just that after being fired by the Nets. "But I was making too much money (at Massachusetts) to do that. If I had it to do over again, I absolutely would have, though." Experience as an NBA assistant does help. Experience as an NBA player may be even better. Eight of the 16 playoff coaches this season were once NBA players. And only Floyd never spent time as an NBA assistant. When the Cleveland Cavaliers made Brad Daugherty of North Carolina the No. 1 pick in the 1986 draft, his coach was Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkins. "Everyone had the utmost respect for Lenny because he had played the game. And when he explained it, he explained it from the aspect of a player," said Daugherty, now an ESPN commentator. "Then we had Mike Fratello, and although he was a good coach, he didn't understand all of the touches and feel of the game. "Our team was clearly divided. We'd hung on every word of Lenny's, but with Mike there just wasn't the same reaction." Kruger, however, disputes that notion, at least in his case. "Our guys were great," he said. "They worked hard, practiced hard and stayed with me right until the end." For college coaches, Daugherty said there also is the adjustment of going from being the center of attention to taking a secondary role to the players. "A college coach is working with bendable models," he said. "They're raw pieces of clay you can take and mold into student-athletes. The NBA is all about entertainment, and the coach is just a by-product of everything else that's going on. You're more a manager of egos than anything else." With that, Calipari agrees. "You don't have any control over the players," he said. "That's not what the NBA's all about, and you should know that going in. Most of the guys who go into the NBA for the first time do it for the money, and because they think it's a heck of a thing that they no longer have to recruit, and it's all about basketball. "But if anybody says it's not first and foremost about the money, they're lying." For those reasons, there always will be those who yearn for the opportunity. Nolan Richardson, out of coaching for the past two years after his firing at Arkansas, said he now would welcome a shot at the NBA. "I don't think I had that aspiration until now," he said. "But if the NBA is about managing people, I think I can be pretty good at it. It's getting your people to perform at a peak level. I've always been able to do that." Still, Richardson and others say the spate of firings in the league of late have made them more mindful of the lack of job security. Kruger felt it twice. He was an assistant with the Knicks this season until new general manager Isiah Thomas shook up the team by firing Don Chaney. "That was pretty abrupt," Kruger said. "I know it happens in college, but usually not until you get to the end of the season." The good news for the ex-college coaches who have failed to find success in the NBA is that they can always return to their roots. Hamilton is now at Florida State, Calipari is at Memphis and Kruger was recently hired at UNLV. Floyd, who had success at Idaho, UNO and Iowa State before going to the Chicago Bulls in 1998, could follow that path after losing his second NBA job. And, if that does happen, Floyd's NBA ties could be viewed as a benefit. "In the pros they said I was a college coach," said Calipari. "Now they're saying guys want to play for me at Memphis because I'm a pro coach. "Go figure that out." . . . . . . . Ted Lewis can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3405. --

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