Coaches Chalk Up Debuts to Players

This time last year, Utah Coach Rick Majerus was making dinner plans and scheduling pickup games with coaching buddies for his weekend at the Final Four.

North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge was there on business with the Tar Heels, but his duties were a little different.

“This week, I would have been working on the hotel room list,” he said.

It’s “rookie weekend” at the Final Four, and just watch the North Carolina players’ heads swivel every time somebody says “Coach Smith.”

That would be Kentucky’s Tubby Smith.

There’s no Robert Montgomery Knight, but there is Mike Montgomery, who has Stanford in the Final Four for the first time since 1942, five years before Montgomery was born.

Not since 1959, when West Virginia’s Fred Schaus, Louisville’s Peck Hickman, Cincinnati’s George Smith and Cal’s Pete Newell made their debuts, have all four coaches been making their first Final Four appearances as head coaches.

Don’t be misled, though. This is a veteran group of sharp strategists who are well respected, and extraordinarily well liked.

“Rick’s probably the most popular coach, among coaches, in the country,” said Guthridge, a rookie at 60, even suggesting he might go jogging with the man he calls a “basketball junkie.”

“He’s good company,” Guthridge said. “A lot of fun to be with. He’s been back here, and we’ve taken him to get barbecue.”

Think of it, the Final Four coaches, and not one of them slick, not one of them with NCAA investigators in tow. Not even one who just plain moved into the place for a while, the way Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski did.

There’s no smug mug like Lute Olson, no Jerry Tarkanian to be branded the villain. No Eddie Sutton, who left Kentucky with trouble in his wake.

Who’s a fan to pull against?

Every one of this year’s coaches is gracious and humble, and perhaps most remarkably, they all insist the players got them there.

“I’m learning a lot from these guys, because they’ve been there before,” said Smith, 46, the first-year coach of a Kentucky team making its third consecutive trip to the Final Four.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many. For me. Our seniors have been through this before, and they’ll be a big help to all the newcomers--like myself--as we prepare for this Final Four.”

Smith stepped into the fray at one of the most demanding programs in the country when practice began in October, and came out in the Final Four. So did Guthridge, but at least he had been a longtime assistant at North Carolina.

The other two coaches have arrived via a different path.

Montgomery, 51, has stayed put for 12 years, and Majerus, 50 for nine.

Now, despite having lost players as good as Brevin Knight and Keith Van Horn, they have taken their programs to heights not many people thought Stanford and Utah could reach.

“This is really something,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think anybody had any idea that, No. 1, this could happen, or, No. 2, the magnitude of it, all the peripheral stuff.”

Stanford, as mentioned, hasn’t been to the Final Four since 1942, and Utah not since 1966.

“I thought Rick should have gone to another school,” admitted Al McGuire, the CBS analyst and former Marquette coach. “I didn’t think the Utes could get to the Final Four.”

Majerus’ only other trips to the Final Four were as an assistant to McGuire at Marquette, runner-up in 1974 and national champion in 1977.

“I thought a team from the [Western Athletic Conference] couldn’t do it, that he’d have to go to the [Pacific 10], the Atlantic Coast or the Big East,” McGuire said.

Now Majerus is going to San Antonio--and with his own game to coach this time.

Most coaches go to the Final Four every year, because of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches’ convention that accompanies the games. Since that 1977 trip, Majerus has gone only to attend the coaches’ meetings, play ball, go out to eat, and help Kevin Costner find girls, he joked.

“It was just always fun, but there was always disappointment,” he said. “I’d look at it wistfully and wonder if I’d ever be a part of it again.

“This time, these five guys, I rode ‘em in. It’s so nice to be able to prepare and practice and have a chance at a national championship. All that other stuff is out. I’m going to jog, eat a lot and go to only one party. The rest of the time, I’m going to look at film.”

For Smith and Montgomery, participating is a first, and both have sought input from other coaches.

What Montgomery heard was this: “As important as this game is, you’ll feel like you have less time to prepare for it than you do for a game that doesn’t matter half as much.”

Smith called Rick Pitino, who was his boss at Kentucky from 1989-91 and left for the Boston Celtics after last season.

“Some of the things he talked about were just the environment you have to control with the players, to keep them focused on what our goals are,” Smith said. “Make it more businesslike. There’s plenty of time to have fun after the Final Four. You still want to go enjoy the moment, and treasure the time you spend there. I think we’re mature enough, and experienced enough, to understand that.

“I’m very excited. I’m happy. But I also know you have to keep your composure. . . . You cannot get caught up in the hype and distractions of people telling you how good you are, and congratulating you.

“We have a way of bringing them down, but I think it’s even more effective when it comes from teammates like Jeff Sheppard, Allen Edwards and Cameron Mills.”

Guthridge has by far the most experience to draw on. He has been to the Final Four 11 times as an assistant coach and even participated as a player for Kansas State, in 1958.

“My role as a player in the Final Four was to sit on the bench,” he said. “I had no role, actually.”

For advice, of course, he has Dean Smith, who still has an office at the Smith Center.

“I’m trying to be exactly like Dean. Nobody is exactly the same, though,” Guthridge said. “But I always thought that Dean wanted me to think in terms of being a head coach and giving ideas. In most ways, I think Dean would be coaching like I have.”

The Tar Heels have been to the Final Four so often--14 times overall and five in the last eight years--that they have developed their own routine, leaving for the tournament site on Thursdays.

This year under Guthridge, they will depart today.

“Leaving early was Makhtar [Ndiaye] and Shammond’s [Williams] idea,” Guthridge said. “They wanted to leave Monday. I think they wanted to get back there as soon as possible. We’ll get there Wednesday night and do some things Thursday, take a tour and try to get the flavor of San Antonio.

“Once the crowds get there, it will be too much, even Thursday, to walk around in the crowd, unless you’re a short guy.”

Come Saturday afternoon, the coaches will put the Final Four in the players’ hands, where it belongs.

“Really, this is their tournament,” said Majerus, who is waging a losing battle to turn the attention to his players while reporters beg for more one-liners. “I just hope to come out of this with a few more speaking engagements in warm climes.”

San Antonio is rather pleasant this time of year.

“I don’t want Rick to know about the Tex-Mex [restaurants],” McGuire said. “He might not go to the game.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FINAL FOUR

Kentucky (33-4) vs. Stanford (30-4)

2:30 p.m.

North Carolina (34-3) vs. Utah (29-3)

5 p.m (approximate)

MONDAY

Championship Game

6 p.m., Channel 2