Friday, December 23, 2016

The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day Seven

On the seventh day of Gheorghemas
Big Gheorghe gave to me

Seven (Give or Take) Voters (Should Be) Voting
Six Simpler Memories
Five shows to binge watch on TV
Four Random Thoughts
Three Punk Rock Playlists
Two Digits Throughout History
And the debut of Mac McFis-ty

The season of guest surprises continues today, as FOGTB Dave Fairbank wandered off the beach, swigged a Red Stripe at Tortuga's, and continued one of the quests he embarked upon years ago in his days as a mild-mannered ink-stained wretch. Our JMU readership will dig it.

He was born on Dec. 25 in humble surroundings to parents of modest means. His life’s work was a calling that took him to homes and venues far and wide. His message and success brought him great recognition and many followers. His methods weren’t embraced by everyone, and he had plenty of detractors. He was a larger than life figure known by one name.

I speak, of course, of Charles Grice Driesell – coach, character, showman, raconteur, pioneer. Lefty, who turns 85 on Christmas Day, is again a finalist for the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. This often evokes the response: You mean he’s not already in?

Nope. Lefty has been passed over by the Springfield selectors for years, despite one of the mountainous careers in college basketball history. In my prior life as a keyboard jockey at a daily newspaper, it became kind of a small ‘c’ cause of mine to stump for Lefty. I fear that as the years pass, his accomplishments and stature will fade into old photos and dry numbers on a ledger, which is the polar opposite of the man.

Lefty was a presence, a big man whose steely determination was offset by a southern drawl and manners that charmed young and old. A Norfolk, Va., native, he was blunt and funny and combative and maddening. He was generous and big-hearted, but not above calling reporters who he didn’t think were fair to him. In an era of buttoned-down coaches with carefully crafted images, he is a throwback we are unlikely to see again.

I have my suspicions about why Lefty has been rejected by the voters, but his resume’ and contributions to the game speak for themselves – or should, anyway. Start with the numbers: In 41 years, Lefty’s teams went 786-394. He is the only coach in history to win at least 100 games at four different schools. He took all four of those schools to the NCAA tournament, one of only two coaches to do so (the other is Eddie Sutton).

When he retired in 2003, he stood fourth in career victories, behind only Bob Knight, Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp. He is still ninth on the all-time list, as coaches such as Krzyzewski, Boeheim and Roy Williams passed him in recent years.

More remarkable, Lefty never walked into a situation with a stacked deck. He carved out wins and made basketball matter at schools where that wasn’t the case: Davidson, Maryland, James Madison, Georgia State. Davidson hadn’t had a winning season in the 11 years before Lefty arrived in 1960. Maryland won just eight games each of the two years before he came to College Park in 1969. At JMU, then school prez Dr. Ron Carrier saw a chance to elevate the program’s, and the school’s, profile with a big-name coach a couple of years removed from his tenure at Maryland. He more than delivered, elevating not only JMU, but the entire CAA. His four predecessors at Georgia State had a combined .295 winning percentage. Lefty more than doubled that, going 103-59 at a downtown Atlanta commuter school that was barely on the local sporting radar.

Lefty invented Midnight Madness, which ought to be worth at least a plaque in Springfield by itself. College basketball practice traditionally started Oct. 15. Lefty usually had his teams run a timed mile on the track to begin the first practice. But because many of the players were gassed, they often weren’t sharp afterward. To begin his third season at Maryland, he decided to have the players run their mile just after midnight on Oct. 15. Hundreds of students lined up around the track to watch. Lefty saw an opportunity, and he and other coaches eventually turned midnight practices on opening day into parties and spectacles.

Full disclosure: I’m a Maryland native and College Park grad (Class of 1980) who spent many hours in the Terps’ great old barn of a gym, Cole Field House, watching Lefty’s teams. The joint buzzed and Maryland games were a hot ticket. Later, I covered a bunch of his games when he was at JMU, and the Convocation Center rocked.

Terry Holland, Lefty’s first recruit at Davidson and later a coaching rival at Virginia, was emphatic that his former college coach and mentor belonged in Springfield.

“There are many coaches with lesser credentials who are in the Hall,” Holland wrote to me in an email, “but I am not sure there are ANY with his credentials who are not in the Hall.”

For all of his success, some people thought that Lefty should have won more. His rep was as a terrific recruiter and assembler of talent, but an inferior tactician. Duke students held up photos of Lefty with a gas gauge superimposed on his bald noggin and the needle pointing to E. He won only one ACC tournament title and one CAA tournament championship. His JMU teams were often the kings of January, but flamed out in March.

The hole in Lefty’s resume’ for Springfield appears to be a national championship, though there are other coaches enshrined who didn’t win titles. Lefty didn’t make good on his vow to make Maryland “the UCLA of the East.” He never even got to a Final Four, though as Holland pointed out, the system denied some of Lefty’s best teams at Davidson and Maryland the chance to compete for a championship. Before the NCAA field expanded, only conference tournament winners were invited. Lefty’s famously talented 1974 Maryland team (Tom McMillen, John Lucas, Len Elmore) stayed home after losing to David Thompson and eventual NCAA champ N.C. State 103-100 in the ACC title game in what many folks in these parts still consider the greatest college game ever played.

I suspect that Lefty isn’t in Springfield due to perception and poor exits. He was forced to resign at Maryland in the aftermath of All-American Len Bias’ death from a cocaine overdose in 1986. At JMU, he announced following the 1996 season that he intended to coach just one more year. He was fired less than 24 hours later. He stepped down at Georgia State, and for good, in Dec. 2003, when he couldn’t shake a cold that sapped his energy and stamina. One of the giant careers in college coaching history ended with a quiet, mid-season departure. No farewell tours, no victory laps, no testimonials.

Maryland announced that it planned to honor him with a banner in the rafters of its arena during a ceremony in February. Georgia State named its court after him. Worthy gestures. But the game’s greatest honor inexplicably eludes him. The man ought to be in Springfield. Here’s hoping that the award isn’t posthumous.

44 comments:

zman said...

Now that a professional writer took a Gheorghemas guestie I'm too intimidated to write a post.

Danimal said...

Good old Chucky. As a JMU alum during the Lefty years, I'll speak for at least all of my pals and say he left us all sorely disappointed. And as a kid that lived in Harrisonburg during the Campanelli years and is to this day friends with the family, basketball mattered greatly at JMU prior to Lefty, just for clarification. But yes, it meddled in near disparity after he left and until Carrier nabbed Driesell which was an exciting day indeed.

Danimal said...

Immediately he was nabbing players that wouldn't typically consider JMU and in many cases the opposite. The high profile guys - Steve Hood, Fess Irvin and William Davis all drove brand new 300 Z's. Strange. But pretty good guys by all accounts. (as an aside, Davis picked me up while hitchhiking home from a bar one night in his - imagine my surprise when I get in and it's him)
But every year as mentioned, numero uno in the conference regular season only to always shit the bed in the tourney.

Danimal said...

Fess by the way was a McDonald's All American. That was a first.

zman said...

I feel like I should drive a Z.

zman said...

The Jaguars are using Korn Ferry to run their HC search? I guess it isn't surprising that they don't have the expertise in-house.

Whitney said...

I remember growing up on the farm, going to sleep and hoping and praying that when I awoke the Korn Ferry would have left me a kernel or two under my pillow.

TR said...

But she did, Whit! Just not under your pillow. She left it in your feces.

TR said...

Right now, it's a battle of my inner sense of responsibility versus a bottle of the wifey's and I's favorite white wine.

rob said...

and strunk & white

rob said...

sammy watkins out here costing me money

TR said...

For all of you fondue pot-owning parents, I highly recommend meat fondue as a fun family meal. It's our Xmas Eve tradition. Cube some sirloin steak, heat some veggie oil in the fondue pot, and let the kids stab raw beef and drop it in hot oil. Kids love it.

Whitney said...

I dig Rob's subtle snooty grammar hammer on TR. So William & Mary.

rob said...

our xmas tradition is pizza with a bunch of friends. tactical error on my part this year: started drinking a stout i hadn't had before: weyerbacher sunday mole stout. super chocolatey with a spicy kick. had two before i realized that they packed 11.3 abv. daddy's drunk.

rob said...

double colons. good for jabba the hut, good for me.

rob said...

i see you, gheorghe bailey

zman said...

Pearl Bailey? Like "A Five Pound Box of Money"?

rob said...

potter, man

Mark said...

I had the chance to have the Sunday mole stout last night at dinner. Didn't do it. Kind of happy now that I know what they ABV is. My personal Xmas eve tradition is a glass of Pappy Van Winkle. Started it last year.

Merry Christmas, Gheorghies. Y'all make my life better.

rob said...

merry christmas, you magnificent bastards. mark said it well.

T.J. said...

Merry Christmas, Gheorghies.

Happy Hanukkah, Wheelhouse Jerry.

zman said...

Merry Gheorghemas. My house is awash in a sea of shredded wrapping paper, cardboard boxes, and the plastic things that hold toys in place inside cardboard boxes.

Whitney said...

Merry Christmas, Joyous Gheorghemas.

I love you guys.

T.J. said...

Just added ten new records to the collection. I am much excite

rob said...

i learned this morning that last year's gheorghemas didn't end until january 11. so breathe easy, those of you working hard on days 8, 9, and 12.

Danimal said...

Great. Let's shoot for Jan 15.
Merry Holidays guys. Peace and Love.

rob said...

attention, whitney: run the jewels are playing the norva on january 18. they're in dc the week prior, but i'll be in vegas.

Mark said...

RTJ is in Orlando in 1/21. I've already got my tickets. I bought my wife the Nintendo classic for Xmas. She's spent multiple hours playing already today.

I, on the hand, just finished smoking a Maple bourbon brined pork belly. 6+ lbs of it. It is fucking delicious if I do say so myself.

zman said...

Robert Trent Jones (as Whit would say)? I roasted a beef tenderloin. Not as exotic or labor intensive but it paid handsome dividends.

rob said...

is that a euphemism for naughty time, z?

zman said...

I always do my due diligence with respect to my meat.

T.J. said...

A beef brisket marinated for past 36 hours has been cooking slow and low for a few hours now. It's gonna be lit af, as the kids say

rob said...

the squatty potty was a big hit this morning. money well spent, just for the reaction.

T.J. said...

George Michael is dead?!?

rob said...

which one?

zman said...

The one from Wham not the Sports Machine.

rob said...

that'll be an interesting case of heavenly mistaken identity

Whitney said...

I'll confess to being an unabashed George Michael fan. From his Wham! output of Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go through his earliest solo stuff, I dug some GM. Then he got clubby and rest area-y and that was that. But during that brief period, Everything She Wants, Freedom, Last Christmas, I'm Your Man, The Edge of Heaven, Battlestations, I Want Your Sex, and especially Faith all take me back to a simpler time that even pre-dates the simple times of day 6.

And then
and then
and then

..there's this: https://youtu.be/GaoLU6zKaws

It's FOGTB Greg all the way.

zman said...

It's officially Christmas in zhome: zcats are zooted off their tails on catnip for at least the sixth year in a row.

rob said...

at the local ice rink picking up my kids. there's a hockey practice going on. two kids on the ice have 'clavin' on the backs of their jerseys. they have never been in my living room.

Whitney said...

I woke up this morning and hopped in a rented minivan heading southbound. Sister, niece (8), nephew (5), daughters 15 & 13. Charleston tonight with uncle and aunt, then 24 hrs at Disney, then 3 nights in Sarasota with mom and stepdad and then home.

Gonna need some time sans family after this. And a drink.

zman said...

Road trip to Morris County!

Mark said...

My sisters birthday is today. So all the adults are going out to dinner. I could handle a night sans extended family but all the kids are spending the night at my parents house so I shouldn't complain.

Whitney said...

Teej, what records?