Egan Finds Life at USD a Perfect Fit

So many leaders in the world of sports live life on the bubble, their jobs fragile and their bosses fickle.

That is not the case with one Hank Egan, who earns his pay as the head basketball coach at the University of San Diego. If anything, Egan lives life in a rather comfortable bubble.

Egan is a comfortable man at a comfortable university with a comfortable administration.

Indeed, of the men leading major collegiate or professional programs in San Diego, Egan might be the most secure.

In his position, as the coach at a small private university with a cozy gymnasium, he is able to maintain the profile he prefers.

Low.

“I certainly hope so,” he said. “I think of myself more as a teacher. I’m not comfortable in the spotlight. It’s partly the nature of the program and the school and where it fits in the community and partly personal lifestyle and personality.”

It is appropriate that Egan should prefer to consider himself a teacher first and a coach second. That is the nature of his university, which does not pay lip service to the notion that academics come before athletics.

That is the way it has been throughout his career. It was the same at the Air Force Academy, where he was an assistant and then head coach for 18 years. Ignore the fact that one is a military academy in the Rockies and the other is a Catholic university overlooking Mission Bay, and the institutions could be one and the same in terms of philosophy.

“If every school in the country conducted itself like these two,” Egan said, “you wouldn’t need the NCAA.”

Hank Egan is beginning his eighth year as head coach at USD, where his winning percentage is the best in the history of the university. The season begins tonight against San Diego State, against whom Egan is 4-2 despite playing all games on SDSU’s home court at the Sports Arena.

Egan goes into this eighth year unsure of what to expect. It might seem incongruous, but he also goes into this season comfortable with the nature of his team.

A year ago, for example, everyone was picking USD to win the West Coast Conference championship.

“I went on record saying I wasn’t sure how we’d do,” Egan said. “That wasn’t like me. The year we won it (1986-87), I thought we should and I said so.”

The Toreros did not win that championship last year. They were good, 17-12 overall and 8-6 in conference, but not good enough.

Perhaps the chemistry was not quite right?

“Chemistry?” Egan mused. “That means it didn’t fit together? I flunked chemistry but, if that’s what it means, it didn’t. The kids played hard, but it didn’t quite work.”

That team did not play into Egan’s strength as a coach . . . the teaching part. He is a man known for his approach to the tactical, technical approach to the game. Those are the parts he loves.

“I got away from that last year,” he said. “We had better athletes and we played a lot more physical game. We had better athletes, but they weren’t quite as skilled. This year, we’re less athletic but more skilled.”

Huh?

“Athletes run and jump,” he said, “and skilled players run and shoot and dribble and handle the ball. Even our post people can handle the ball this year. We can move the players around and move the ball around and do the subtle things it takes to be successful.”

This year’s team would appear to be a blend of what the coach does best with players who fit the philosophy.

“These players have the mental discipline and skills,” he said, “to turn it into a chess game.”

Chess?

“I’m not smart enough to play chess,” Egan said, “but I’m saying this game is really fascinating when it’s played well. It’s chess with a lot of movement and variations. It presents a lot of problems . . . and they have to be solved on the fly. It isn’t like football, where they come to a stop and have a meeting and wait for stuff to be flashed down from the press box.”

To execute such an approach, Egan needs disciplined players who are intelligent and unselfish. It is not an approach that creates stars. It stresses accomplishment as a team.

In a sense, it is a low-profile and comfortable style of basketball. It is not flash and dash. It is not showtime.

This is Hank Egan.

He might have flunked mathematics as well, because he would be one to insist that 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 can equal 8 or 9 or 10. The only thing is that he goes out and, in his way, proves he is right.

It might seem harder this way, but this is the way he likes it.

“It’s more in my comfort zone,” he said, “because this is the way I’ve had the most experience.”

No big deal, he might add. Please.