Warrior Success Formula: D-E-F-E-N-S-E

What do you get for the basketball coach who has everything?

Apparently more of the same in the case of Paul Landreaux of El Camino College, whose team opened in community college playoffs Tuesday in quest of the state championship.

That’s hardly an idle dream at El Camino, which is going for its second straight title and third in six years. In his six previous seasons at El Camino Landreaux had the Warriors in the state finals three times. His record there is 193-42, a winning percentage of .821. As a colleague puts it, “If you want to win the state title, you know you’ll have to tangle with Landreaux and El Camino. They’ll be there.”

Landreaux’s office is covered in coach-of-the-year awards and team photos of the perennial Metropolitan Conference champions. His teams have led the nation several times in defensive average. Landreaux has about as much to prove at El Camino as John Wooden at UCLA.

Outside Looking In

Yet Landreaux remains on the outside looking in at the college game most of the fans see--the four-year, major college level that makes coaches like Wooden celebrities.

Landreaux has had his hat in the ring regularly; he was considered at Long Beach State and at Loyola Marymount. He probably would have been a candidate at Cal State Fullerton but George McQuarn changed his mind and decided to “unresign.” And Landreaux has reached a Catch-22 position: At age 42 and with his coaching credentials, an assistant’s position is no longer attractive, and the El Camino job is good enough that Landreaux says a four-year post now would have to be a Godfather job--an offer-you-can’t-refuse.

“I’m very, very surprised somebody has not selected him,” said Torrance High Coach Carl Strong, a former assistant to Landreaux and later to Ed Goorjian at Loyola. “I find it hard to believe. I find it inconceivable.”

Landreaux once lamented about his lack of attractiveness to four-year schools, “I guess they want somebody to score 100 points a game. All we do is win.”

Challenges, Compensation

These days Landreaux is not only resigned to staying at El Camino for the foreseeable future but says there are new challenges coming next season in the forms of a new conference and the new NCAA grades ruling that may see more major college recruits heading to junior colleges to work on their eligibility.

“How can you not be happy with this situation?” he said. “I couldn’t ask for a better junior college situation. It’s ideal. I have great facilities, we’re in a great location.

“We’re one of the few junior colleges in Southern California that offers cable television (El Camino games are shown on a delayed basis by Group W). The pay is excellent, the people are excellent. The only thing that would necessarily draw me to a four-year situation would be a package that would have to be twice what I have at El Camino. I would have to look long and hard at any four-year job.

“I’ve turned down so many assistant coaching jobs . . . . I’ve been an assistant coach at the university level and sort of paid my dues, and I certainly know enough about dealing with the youth of today to coach at any level. I don’t think an assistant job would appeal at this time. There isn’t that much more for me to prove.”

Big Problem: Turnover

The big challenge in maintaining consistency at the junior college level is in integrating the yearly turnover of talent. El Camino rarely has a problem attracting talented players. The dilemma for Landreaux and his junior college counterparts is that he has a player for no longer than two years--less time to put together a team than even many high school coaches.

“That’s a trying process at the juco level to be as consistently successful as we’ve been,” Landreaux said. “We think we do a good job of getting the maximum out of the kids.”

Landreaux’s base of operation is always defense, starting with his 1-2-2 match-up zone on which he has written a book. Then he formulates a plan based on the talent on hand.

When he had 6-8 star Ed Catchings, Landreaux won by pounding the ball inside. Last year he had standout guards Mark Wade and Greg Hill and gave the team more latitude to run. The Warriors ran all the way to a 34-1 record and the state title--belying the charge heard sometimes that Landreaux’s teams ignore offense.

Praised by Coach, Player

“When one understands defense, one can attack an offense,” Strong said. “I’ve seen him do some innovative things, spur of the moment, on offense. He understands the game. Another mark of a quality coach is he recognizes the talent and adjusts to the players on hand--but not in his basic approach.”

Camino star Roland H’Orvath, a big scorer at Redondo High, agreed: “He lets you know the defense is what you’re going to work on when you’re there. On the offensive end he comes up with some things that surprise me. He knows defense so well that he knows how to pick it apart, too. Sometimes it’s amazing to me what he comes up with (to counter defenses). He knows a lot about offense.”

Defense has been Landreaux’s hallmark since he began coaching by accident in the 1960s while in the service.

“I wanted to be an administrator in education, a principal or vice principal. Somehow I got sidetracked in this business,” he said.

Aided Tarkanian

After the service, Landreaux began assisting Jerry Tarkanian at Long Beach State, teaching elementary school in the day. “I got a small offer from Tark. That’s how I got hooked,” he recalled.

After a season at Trade Tech, he came to El Camino in 1979. By then he had devised his tenacious defense, and now he had a program with the talent to implement it.

“The defense thing interests me because you watch most athletic contests, it seems like it always comes down to defense,” Landreaux said. “I knew if I was going to get into this business I was going to have to convince the young people (that) if you want to be a constant winner, you’ve got to stop people from scoring. I adopted that philosophy. On the court, in a game or in practice, you’ve got to stop the man from scoring.”

This year Landreaux added a new wrinkle, a full-court zone to force the pace of opponents. Ironically, many of Landreaux’s more offense-minded opponents are forced out of their game plan in the face of his tenacious defense. His best defensive team, which won the state title in 1981, held two teams scoreless for a half. This year El Camino held Long Beach City scoreless for a 13-minute stretch.

Follow Rules or Vanish

“Teams won’t challenge our defense. What we try to do with the press is up-tempo the game, create some turnovers,” Landreaux explained. “It’s the first year I’ve ever pressed. Basically I’m not a gambling-type coach. Lately, I’ve had to (press) out of necessity because teams will not come out and play.”

Landreaux takes the same non-gambling approach off the court. His players go to class, have an academic counselor, Armando Ruiz, and graduate. The ones who don’t play by Landreaux’s rules are gone. This season he dismissed a 7-foot center of major college playing ability. Eight players from his 1984 team are playing for major colleges, including Wade at Nevada-Las Vegas and Hill at Washington State.

“We educate our ballplayers here,” Landreaux said. “I’ve had 33 kids graduate. I’ve had two make the pros--that’s not a large percentage. So academics is one area we have stressed, along with character development and sportsmanship.”

H’Orvath remembered of his recruiting, “When he came to my house he brought a list of names, year by year, whom he’s gotten into (four-year) schools. It’s impressive. He tells you, depending on how hard you want to work, he can get you into school. He makes sure you know where he’s coming from and what the expects for the program.”

He Sells Defense

Landreaux said the selling of defense is the hard part with new players. “Sometimes when the kids adopt it quickly, the transition is great, like in 1981,” he said. “Some years you get kids . . . they accept it but they don’t play as hard. Once a team makes the adjustment (to his philosophy) they usually take most teams right out of it.”

For this year’s 25-4 team to repeat as state champion, he said, “It will have to do a little better job.”

Landreaux will have point guard Otis Livingston and shooting guard Larry Lockley to rebuild around next year, when the Warriors will join the South Coast Conference.

Whatever shape the team takes, it’s safe to assume it will play tough defense and contend for the title under Landreaux. Unless some four-year school makes him a surprise offer.