Coach Learns From Hoop Giants

If Gregg Popovich were a professor of theology, he might have chosen to spend a sabbatical year in Jerusalem. If he were a professor of archeology, he might have gone to an excavation site in Africa.

But Popovich felt that the best way to improve in his field was to visit the tobacco fields of North Carolina and the wheat fields of Kansas.

The Pomona-Pitzer basketball coach is on sabbatical leave this year and spent the months leading up to the basketball season at the University of North Carolina, studying under Coach Dean Smith. In mid-November, he moved to the University of Kansas, where he has become a temporary member of Larry Brown’s staff.

The visits have allowed Popovich to discover the differences--or lack of same--between coaching at the Division I and Division III levels.

“As far as why teams win or lose basketball games, there is no difference,” Popovich said. “The X’s and O’s are the same at Carolina, Kansas and Pomona. It’s makes you feel good about what you’re doing and you realize there aren’t any great secrets.”

Popovich, 38, said he was intimidated the day he arrived in Chapel Hill and walked into the lobby area of the basketball office. The North Carolina staff includes Smith, three assistant coaches, a graduate assistant, a person who videotapes practices and games and three secretaries.

One by one, Popovich said, all of the assistants and secretaries came out to greet him. Even Phil Ford, a former All-American guard for the Tar Heels who was visiting, came by and said hello. Smith, however, was nowhere to be found.

“I was getting more and more nervous by the minute,” Popovich said. “All of a sudden it was afternoon and I still kept missing Coach Smith. Finally, he appears and says, ‘Pop-oh! I was wondering where you were. C’mon, it’s time to go to practice.’ ”

It didn’t take quite as long for Popovich to cut through the formalities at Kansas. Popovich said when he walked into the office, Brown, seeing him in a necktie, ran up and ripped it off his neck. “That’s when I became comfortable,” Popovich said.

Brown and Popovich had met before. In 1972, Brown was helping at the U.S. Olympic team basketball tryouts, where Popovich--who played at the Air Force Academy--made the alternate team that toured South America with Indiana Coach Bobby Knight.

Brown and Popovich met again in 1975, when Brown was coaching the Denver Nuggets, then in the now-defunct American Basketball Assn. Popovich, who had played on a 1972 AAU-champion armed services team after college, was unsuccessful in his attempt to make the Nuggets as a free agent. Popovich took the setback with humor.

“It was hard for me to believe that Coach Brown would keep (No. 1 draft pick) David Thompson instead of me,” Popovich said. “That may be the only mistake he’s ever made as a coach.”

Popovich had no trouble finding a niche in the two college programs on his sabbatical itinerary. The coaching staffs at North Carolina and Kansas embraced him from the outset.

Each year, between Oct. 15 and Nov. 15, coaches from all over the world visit Chapel Hill to observe Smith’s program. They watch practice and are welcome to use a film and video library overflowing with instructional films on everything from the outlet pass to the four-corners delay game. Popovich, however, is the only visiting coach that Smith has ever allowed to sit in on practice and planning sessions.

For some people, the word sabbatical conjures up images of relaxation and getting away from the daily grind of a teaching assignment. But there was nothing casual or care-free about Popovich’s daily schedule at North Carolina.

Each morning, Popovich would go to the film library and “ravage through it.” At 10:30, he’d attend a coaches’ planning meeting to map out a schedule for that day’s workout. Popovich said that he spent the early afternoon “attacking the assistant coaches” with questions and comments about the films he watched that morning. In the afternoon, he watched the Tar Heels practice and afterward talked with the coaches.

It was in the late evening, however, Popovich said, when he really began to work. Sitting in his room on campus, he’d write for two or three hours, recording his impressions of the day’s activities.

“I’d write down the things I learned and the things I already knew that had been verified,” Popovich said. “I was very specific. It was a good opportunity to get my thoughts organized and to put things into folders. Most coaches just don’t get the time to do that.”

Popovich is getting more of a chance to hone his instructional skills at Kansas, where Brown has allowed him to become a member of the coaching staff. Popovich is on the court during practices and on the bench at both home and away games with the Jayhawks.

“He’s one of our coaches. I don’t treat him as a guy here on sabbatical,” Brown said. “Against Temple, we were struggling in defending that (Tim) Perry kid on the post. Pop made some suggestions in terms of controlling the kid that really made a difference.”

There is quite a difference in the athletic abilities of the players Popovich has worked with this season and the select group of players who qualify academically and financially to play at Pomona. At Kansas, he works with Danny Manning who is one of the best players in the nation.

“The thing that you forget is that these players are all the same age,” Popovich said. “At first, you’re a little in awe of the ability of the kids at this level. They’re bigger and they jump higher, but I found that they need to work on the same things as Division III players.

“The difference in coaching comes in the demands on your time. At Pomona there are very few in terms of the media, alumni and civic organizations. Division I coaches have to do a lot more than coach basketball.”

Popovich was encouraged to take leave by Pomona athletic director Curt Tong, who coached for 20 years at Otterbein College in Ohio and Williams College in Massachusetts. Tong has spent sabbaticals in Ecuador, Japan and the Philippines. He feels time away from the home court is essential for coaches to learn new ideas, gain perspective and become refreshed.

“In the coaching profession, you frequently hear the word burnout ,” Tong said. “You hear about it especially at the Division I level where these guys go after it year after year.

“But what a lot of people don’t understand is that all coaches, by their very nature, want to do well whether it’s at the Division I, II or III levels. The pressure comes from within. Burnout is just as likely to happen at a small school as it is at a big one.”

Popovich, who played basketball and was an assistant coach for six years at the Air Force Academy before coming to Pomona in 1979, has a low-key personality on and off the court. He is a coach who seems to truly enjoy the game as much for the teaching as for the winning.

That may explain why he chose what seems like an inopportune time to take a sabbatical. Four starters were returning from last season’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship team that finished 16-12 overall and 8-2 in conference--the school’s best record in 68 years.

“I wasn’t going to go on sabbatical unless I could go to at least two quality programs,” Popovich said by phone from Kansas. “The opportunity to work with Dean Smith and Larry Brown wasn’t something I could afford to pass up.”

When Popovich returns to Pomona next fall, he will resume his teaching and coaching duties. The roar of the 20,000-plus fans that pack the Dean Smith Activities Center in North Carolina and Allen Field House in Kansas will be replaced by voices of the 200 or so people who come to watch the Sagehens.

“I’ve been spoiled at North Carolina and Kansas,” Popovich said. “When I get back to Pomona, I’m going to have to be careful not to be someone else other than me. I know I’ll be more efficient and I’ll have a computer bank of knowledge that should help my teaching techniques.”

“I’d be fool to say it isn’t a thrill to watch and help players of Division I caliber develop into great players. But I think at this point, the small-college level is the place to be if you want to coach and not have droves of people who want a piece of you. That’s more consistent with my personality.”