LONG BEACH STATE / JASON REID : Basketball Program Gets Money’s Worth From This Assistant

They arrive early with numerous questions, many things they must improve on and relatively little time to work. But they are eager, and that is all John Welch asks.

So no matter how much work Welch, a Long Beach State assistant basketball coach, has in front of him, or how little time he has to complete it, he always makes time to tutor the 49ers. The individual sessions last only a couple of hours at most, but what Welch conveys is invaluable, the players believe.

“You can go into Coach Welch’s office at any time and say, ‘I want to work,’ and he’ll beat you into the gym,” Long Beach guard Rasul Salahuddin said. “He’s helped me a whole lot with my confidence.

“He’s a great teacher and he’s a big part of why we’re winning.”

Welch, 32, is in his second season at Long Beach. He works primarily with the guards, teaching the finer points of man-to-man defense and ballhandling. But he also helps the big guys--especially in the weight room.

“He puts the time in with you to get you stronger,” said forward Brian Yankelevitz. “He’s in it to make everybody a better player.”

Long Beach (17-9, 13-5 in the Big West Conference) finished the regular season tied for second place in the conference. Welch’s ability to teach defense has much to do with the 49ers’ success.

When not instructing, Welch spends hours analyzing tapes of opponents’ games to help Coach Seth Greenberg devise game plans. He is skilled on that front too, Greenberg said.

“The reason I coach is I love to teach,” Welch said. “I work individually with them because I think that makes them feel better about themselves, and if you help the players improve, you’re going to be a better team.

“I like to be in the gym and I like to be in the weight room. I’d rather watch a game tape than a sitcom. If you’re excited and enthusiastic, it makes it fun for the players to be involved. The favorite part of basketball for me was working on my game by myself in the gym, so I like helping players improve.”

New York Knick point guard Greg Anthony is among those Welch has helped.

Welch was a senior at Nevada Las Vegas when Anthony was a high school standout in Las Vegas. They worked out together often, each pushing the other in usually exhausting one-on-one sessions.

“Johnny is probably responsible for me achieving the heights I did at the collegiate level,” said Anthony, one of the nation’s elite point guards while at UNLV.

“Johnny has a real intuitive basketball mind, and going one-on-one for hours with him helped me with my confidence.”

Welch was quite a player.

Also a point guard, Welch received a scholarship to Nevada after graduating from Rancho High in Las Vegas. He played three years for the Wolf Pack before transferring to UNLV.

He knew he wanted to coach, and he figured Jerry Tarkanian knew a little something about the business. Welch told Tarkanian, former coach of Long Beach State and UNLV, of his interest and Tarkanian said he could help.

After redshirting one season, Welch backed up starting point guard Mark Wade during his senior year. He became a graduate assistant in 1986 and remained with the Rebel program until 1989. UNLV advanced to the Final Four in the 1986-87 season.

“My first year as a (graduate assistant) at Las Vegas and we go to the Final Four,” Welch said. “I got spoiled. I thought every year would be that fun and I’d go to 30 Final Fours.

“That whole time was a great experience. All my thoughts and ideas about coaching basically came out of that foundation.”

Tarkanian said Welch learned well.

“I hired a lot of my players to coach for me, and John is probably the best coach of them all,” Tarkanian said. “He jumped in just like he was a full-time assistant. A lot of players understand the whole concept, but John understood all the little things.

“He said to me, ‘Coach, I just want to learn and be a coach,’ and he has.”

Welch played professionally in New Zealand four years and coached at two Las Vegas high schools before coming to Long Beach. Although he enjoys being part of the 49er program, Welch said he won’t be back next season.

He is the 49ers’ restricted-earnings coach, meaning he can earn no more than $16,000 a year. Welch supplements his income with money he saved while playing professionally, but he can’t do that forever.

“This isn’t a part-time job for me,” Welch said. “I can’t excel and get to where I want to be by looking at this as a part-time job. I feel that I’m making the sacrifices now and, hopefully, the rewards will come later.”

Long Beach assistants Clyde Vaughan and Matt Hart know Welch’s contributions are just as important as theirs, but that doesn’t faze the NCAA.

“It’s criminal that someone can work as hard as John works and is only allowed to be paid $16,000,” Greenberg said. “Every restricted-earnings coach in the country is probably the hardest working or one of the hardest-working coaches on their staffs.”

Greenberg hired Hart over Welch when a position opened before this season. Welch said he has no hard feelings.

“I was glad for Matt,” he said. “Matt went to school at Long Beach, he was the manager there and he was the restricted-earnings coach, so for Matt it was a dream come true. But I believe my dream will come true too.”

49er Notes

The Big West selected senior center Melissa Gower its player of the week for the third time this season. Gower--a player of the year candidate--had 40 points and 17 rebounds in a 65-60 loss to New Mexico State on Thursday and 36 points and 16 rebounds in a 73-71 loss to Nevada Las Vegas on Saturday. . . . Sophomore Heather Hofmans, starting setter for the women’s volleyball team, will transfer to Cal State Northridge, Coach Brian Gimmillaro said. Hofmans, a walk-on at Long Beach, will receive a scholarship from Northridge.