More to Coaching than Recruiting

The following is an article written by Fran Fraschilla (current ESPN analyst and former head coach at Manhattan, Saint John's, and New Mexico).  It is part of the current series "State of the Game" on ESPN.com

It's hard for me to credit Digger Phelps for anything (just kidding, Digger), but in this case I have to. He taught me how to be a head coach. Well, actually he taught Danny Nee how to be a head coach and, when Danny Nee hired me at Ohio University, he started the process of training me.

Drawing from his time as an assistant coach at Notre Dame, Nee entrusted me with responsibilities that included coaching on the floor, recruiting, breaking down film and scouting, developing and giving academic support to our players, running the summer camp and speaking on behalf of the basketball program in public. He was clear that this was how he learned from Digger. In fact, guys like Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, John Calipari, Kevin Stallings, Jim Larranaga and Rick Barnes started the same way I did. I know because I ran into them all the time on the road recruiting and scouting opponents. And, while they all were excellent recruiters, they were more than that.

The trend in recent years has been to hire assistant coaches primarily for their recruiting prowess. And, while procuring players is a key to any coach's success, the job carries way more responsibilities than that.

At the risk of sounding "old school," I don't think young coaches put the time in to learn the game the way that they should. I laugh when I hear someone described as a "skill-development coach." We used to call that guy an "assistant coach." There was no specialization. How could you grow as a coach if you were only good in one area?

The problem is that in the modern game recruiting has taken on more importance than any other aspect of coaching. As a result, young coaches know that they need to become great recruiters in order to land a head coaching gig, and we're left with a landscape full of head coaches who are great salesmen, but not much more. And to compensate for their lack of coaching acumen, these ace recruiters are filling their staffs with specialists, such as big men coaches and man-to-man defenses coaches. Therefore, many college staffs are simply an accumulation of one-dimensional coaches and lack a well-rounded leader.

 
Because of the emphasis on recruiting, other methods of developing into a well-rounded coach have disappeared.



Before the NCAA eliminated in-person scouting, sitting courtside at a game of an upcoming opponent with a Jay Wright or a Bruce Weber was a great way to share basketball ideas and strategies and home in on the latest recruiting gossip. And, getting together to "X and O" at a coaching clinic was very common among coaches back then.

Others like Bo Ryan, John Beilein and Bob Huggins developed their head coaching craft at the small college level away from the bright TV lights of major college basketball. There, through trial and error, each perfected his own style of play that, often times, had to compensate for the lack of star players. The development of players and utilizing innovative strategies were keys to their success.

Working for a strong head coach is important for an assistant coach to move up or, rather, one seat over. Michigan State's Jud Heathcote gave his assistants, including Izzo, the ability to grow into head coaches. "I used to tell them, I don't have time to coach the coaches, I've got to coach the team," Heathcote told me recently when we discussed his approach with his assistants. "So you can coach as much or as little as you want. They could stop, blow the whistle and make any comment they wanted and it wouldn't bother me. As time went along, Tom had a major role in the development."

Roy Williams learned how to be a head coach as North Carolina's junior varsity coach for eight seasons when few schools even had junior varsity programs. It was a valuable part of his experience as an assistant coach to the legendary Dean Smith. "The biggest reason it was so valuable was because you had to make all the decisions, " said Williams. "It wasn't suggestions, it was decisions. You had to teach all aspects of the game and had no help. I made the schedule out. I did the practices."



Today, the path to a coaching gig at a big-time program is proving you can recruit. Now, I am not one to disparage a young coach who may be hired today because he has recruiting ties to an elite AAU or high school program. That has been going on for a long time. Ben Howland hired Atlanta Celtics coach Korey McCray this past summer and, soon after, McCray's top blue chip prospect, Jordan Adams, committed to the Bruins.


As a head coach, I would welcome the opportunity to have a "baked in" recruiting connection, but there would be some strings attached. Namely, he would be putting in the same amount of work that everyone else on the staff put in, allowing me push him toward his potential as a coach in every area of the program. Otherwise, all you'd have on your staff is an independent contractor.

Former New York Gauchos coach Emmanuel Richardson was with head coach Sean Miller at Xavier and went with him to Arizona. In four years he has been a part of two Elite Eights and a Sweet Sixteen. He's on track to been a head coach in the near future and he's preparing for it.

"Sean has taught me the day-to-day aspects of being a head coach. I've learned to stick to a style and organizational concepts that work," Richardson told me. "When I become a head coach, I will have a philosophy of basketball and of developing young men."

Miller is one of the brightest young coaches around, and it's encouraging to see him nurture his staff like this. The coaching world would look a lot better with a few more Sean Millers.

Ultimately, preparing to learn all of the aspects of head coaching takes time and experience. The worst thing that could happen to a young head coach is to get the job and not be fully prepared. It may be the only chance he gets.




Fran Fraschilla is a college basketball analyst for ESPN and a regular contributor to ESPN Insider.

Follow Fran Fraschilla on Twitter: @franfraschilla