Lefty Driesell Is Back in His Element at James Madison

Fools, fools, all those who thought Lefty Driesell would come back gently to this game. He has all the elements he needs here, a well-lit gym called the Electric Zoo and a shriek-prone student body to fill it up for his basketball team. He has bleachers that rock and a band that swings, and a big mouth that is liable to say anything.

Driesell’s long-running argument with college basketball has begun anew on the tidy stone campus of James Madison, where he has embarked on his first season as the coach. On Tuesday night, the Dukes won his home debut, 94-92, over Virginia Military Institute at the JMU Convocation Center, which fairly trembled with the anticipation of his presence. There he was, stalking down the gangway, a circle of lights and cameras about him, witnesses waiting for a wild gesture or some wonderful mouthful of misspeak. Perhaps he would injure a chair or berate a timekeeper.

Driesell, in a typical fit of contrariness, chose to do nothing of the sort. Instead he took his seat and sedately coached a well-played game.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” he apologized. “There just wasn’t anything to get upset about.” But when the Dukes won on a rebound basket with 2 seconds left, his distinguished pose fled him. He leaped to the court and raised his fist in the air before an assistant hauled him back to the bench.

Driesell, who coached at Maryland for 17 years, had been absent from coaching for two years, after his forced resignation after the death of Len Bias. In that absence, things just didn’t seem quite as loud. “It probably prolonged my career,” he said. He greatly relished his first victory here, which made him the winner of 527 games, careening into his 27th year as a head coach, and afterward he held a grandson in one hand and a cigar in the other.

If Driesell had been, for him, subdued in the onslaught of attention surrounding the James Madison program since he accepted the job on April 6, it is because he has the difficult prospect of turning around a quaint Colonial Athletic Association team that is picked to finish last in the conference. He has taken over a program that was 10-18 last year and lost the bulk of even that team to graduation. Yet he has no intention of quietly enduring a losing season, which would be his first since 1960-61, and only the second of his career.

“I tried being calm one year,” he said. “It didn’t work.”

He has instituted regular 6 a.m. practices and a painful set of endurance drills. Even after the victory over VMI, he summoned the Dukes for a 7:30 a.m. workout. “He gave us a break,” forward Anthony Cooley said, rolling his eyes.

Freshman forward William Davis was still suffering from a sore leg he sustained against VMI, but Driesell didn’t let up: Davis either did pushups or rode a stationary bicycle throughout the two-hour workout. “I’m going to have a back problem, at my age,” Davis said. The coach has kept them on edge with a few characteristic foot slams.

“He really does stomp,” Cooley said. “He must feel the vibration all the way up his leg.”

It may work yet. Driesell’s effect in public-relations value off the floor has been felt immediately, as his name alone has caused a dramatic rise in ticket sales and alumni giving since he accepted the job on April 6. Before his arrival, the athletic fund-raising goal was $450,000. At the end of the fiscal year in July, the Dukes had gathered roughly $700,000. That figure was directly tied to ticket sales, as those who give more are entitled to higher-priority seating.

The JMU Convocation Center has a capacity of 7,612, but the team averaged just 4,500 last season. For Driesell’s debut, however, 6,848 attended. Fans came with pictures of Driesell on a stick and foam-rubber hands in the V-sign, with “Lefty” stenciled on them.

“The expectation level is there,” Athletic Director Dean Ehlers said. “And the team has played better in early games, you can see that change right away. From here on, what happens down there on the floor is the key.”

Driesell’s beginning here has been an easy confluence of needs and wants. He lends the Dukes stature, and they provide him with a forum to win. They have found him to be a slightly off-balance combination of temperamental and comical.

“We think he’s hilarious,” Cooley said. “From his accent to what he says.” For his part, Driesell says, “I’ve worked them harder than any team I’ve ever had,” and is relieved to have the widely observed home opener, in which a loss might have been embarrassing, behind him so he can get on with remedying their record.

“I’m just the guy who hollers and yells at them,” he said.

The roster consists of two freshmen and five sophomores, two juniors and two seniors. Only one returning player averaged in double figures last season, junior forward Ferdinand, with 10.9 a game. Driesell would have had another senior and a promising scorer available in Kennard Winchester, who averaged 16.1 last season, except that he was forced to suspend Winchester for the season when it was revealed that he stole a $14.95 cord for a VCR.

But with apparently not much to work with, the Dukes have proven at least mildly intriguing.

Out of the ragtag roster, a total of six players are now averaging in double figures, including freshman reserve forward Davis, a confident offensive talent who has scored 13.0 a game. Kenny Brooks is an elusive sophomore guard who leads with 18.3. Ferdinand is scoring 15.7; redshirt freshman center Troy Bostic, whose basket beat VMI, and sophomore forward Barry Brown average 13.0 each. Cooley is the lone senior starter, an inelegant but effective forward with 11.3 a game.

Until now, attention had been directed more toward next season, when Driesell’s recruiting will come into play. One of his first acts as coach was to sweep in every discontented player he could think of, including swing man Steve Hood, formerly of Maryland, and Fess Irvin of Louisiana State. They will make a team to be reckoned with. But in the meantime, Driesell suspects he can make something out of this team as well. That is his nature, to wring something out of what little he has. His one previous losing season as a college coach was his very first at Davidson in 1960-61, when he went 9-14.

“I’ve told them, we can’t afford to get too excited if we win, or down if we lose,” Driesell said. “If we put everything into it and we still lose, then I can accept it. But I don’t want them to accept it. We’re just going to outwork people, and see if we can’t win.”

That is exactly what Driesell has told the current version of the Dukes. He also told them to forget the talk about aiming for next year.