Driesell Looks Ahead to NCAA Tournament After Conference Title

It was like old times Saturday for Lefty Driesell.

He talked confidently of the future, even for a 69-year-old whose coaching number seemed to come up twice over the past 15 years.

Driesell’s unheralded and unranked Georgia State Panthers had just beaten Troy State, 79-55, in the final of the Trans America Athletic Conference at Atlanta to gain an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and he wasn’t about to concede anything to the Monsters of March Madness.

“We are not afraid of anyone and I think we deserve a high seed out of this,” said Driesell, whose 28-4 team has more victories than the likes of Stanford, Duke, Michigan State and North Carolina--which occupy the first four spots in the national rankings. “I think we’re going to be tough for anyone to play.”

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A lot of water has gone under the coaching bridge since a brash, thirtysomething Charles “Lefty” Driesell thrust himself into the national spotlight by proclaiming that he would turn Maryland into the “UCLA of the East.”

That was before the 1969-70 season, when the UCLA dynasty was in midstream of a seven-year NCAA championship run.

It turned out Driesell had more than a pocketful of promises. He removed the “Kick Me” sign from Maryland’s back, transforming an Atlantic Coast Conference doormat into a powerhouse.

But “UCLA of the East”?

In 1975, Maryland lost in an NCAA regional final for the second time under Driesell.

UCLA coach John Wooden, meanwhile, performed his wizardry one more time--winning his 10th NCAA championship in 12 years--before retiring.

Driesell was like Old Man River over the next decade, flowing along with teams usually considered national championship contenders but never able to get the brass ring.

After a flood of controversy that followed the death of Terrapin star Len Bias in 1986, Driesell officially became a washout at Maryland.

He managed to get back on his coaching feet two seasons later at James Madison. However, there was no boast of even turning James Madison into the “USC of the East.”--a tip-off that Lefty had lost his edge. After nine modestly successful seasons produced only one NCAA tournament appearance, a beaten-down Driesell announced he had one more tour of coaching duty for the school left in him. A day later, he was Madison shuffled right out the door by the university--and seemingly out of the coaching business for good.

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Driesell climbed off the deck, and did the Lefty shuffle to Georgia State, which before he arrived had had three winning seasons since the program was started in 1963.

In four seasons under Driesell, Georgia State has four winning seasons--something he accomplished with old-school coaching.

“We play defense,” he said. “The key is our defense. If you don’t play good defense, you don’t play for me.”

And an old-school mentality--such as not letting the fashion-conscious basketball player of today wear earrings.

“You look at Fortune magazine, you don’t see anybody wearing them,” Driesell is fond of saying.

Said guard Darryl Cooper, a transfer from Louisiana State who was told to shave his beard before his first Georgia State practice: “Coach is old-fashioned, strict with the rules. He’s old in age, but you can relate to him. I always feel comfortable around him.”

Driesell wasn’t feeling too comfortable earlier this season. On Dec. 19--the day before Georgia State would leave to play in a tournament in Hawaii--he underwent surgery for bone spurs in his neck and to fuse two vertebrae. From his hospital bed, Driesell drew up game plans and had them faxed to assistant Mike Perry before each game in Hawaii and followed the team by radio broadcasts. Georgia State won the tournament.

In all, Driesell missed six games, but it doesn’t look as if anything else will keep him down now that Georgia State has reached the NCAA tournament.

“I’m not looking at the rear-view mirror,” he said. “I’m looking at the front windshield.”

Lefty-stones: Driesell became only the second coach to reach the NCAA tournament with four schools, having done it in his first Division I stop at Davidson in the 1960s before Maryland, James Madison and Georgia State. Eddie Sutton accomplished the feat with Arkansas, Creighton, Kentucky and Oklahoma State.

During the TAAC tournament, Driesell also moved into sixth place on the all-time Division I coaching victories list. With 761 victories, he is three behind the next coach on the list, Bob Knight.

Weaving a theme: Driesell’s “UCLA of the East” Maryland teams played Wooden’s “UCLA of Westwood” twice, losing by one and six points. Maryland appeared to be on a collision course with UCLA in the 1975 NCAA tournament but was stopped in the regional final by Louisville, coached by Denny Crum--a former Wooden player and assistant.