Notes from Media Day at the NIT Final Four
by Ray Floriani
NEW YORK – Gary Williams has coached over three decades. He has seen success in the Big Ten, Big East and ACC. He has a national championship on his resume. Still, the veteran mentor recalls his first NIT experience as a coach as it was last week.
“I was an assistant to Dr. Tom Davis at Lafayette in 1973,” Williams recalled. “We played Virginia, who had been as high as number five that year. We wound up winning that game on two Jay Mattola free throws in the final seconds.” Such is the lure of the nation’s oldest post season tournament.
Williams has been in the tournament with several schools. He made the finals in ’88, but lost to a UConn team that was just starting to turn the corner under Jim Calhoun. “They had Cliff Robinson,” Williams said, “who today is still in the NBA.” At Maryland, the recent tradition has seen the Terrapins go to the NCAA – eleven straight to be exact, highlighted by the 2002 National Championship. Make no mistake though, Maryland and Williams are proud to be here.
“You shoot for the NCAA,” Williams said, “but once we received the NIT bid we played through everything. We have one senior who doesn’t play a lot so this is a young club. This experience can only help us next year but to win this tournament would be great.” Interestingly, the champion of that 1972 NIT Williams alluded to? Maryland, with Lefty Dreisell on the sidelines.
The season didn’t start too kindly for St. Joe’s. As the new year rolled around the Hawks were 3-6. The only tournament, some felt, St. Joe’s might see was the Atlantic Ten post season one in March. Following New Year’s Day, the Hawks regrouped and are one of five teams to win twenty games past January first. “We are 20-5 since the New Year,” St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli said. “A lot of the credit goes to the intestinal fortitude and determination of these kids.” Martelli was speaking at the NIT Final Four media day at New York’s Marriot Marquis. “I have to credit our seniors,” Martelli added. “Pat Carroll has shot the ball extremely well and John Bryant has been our spiritual leader.”
While Martelli credited his kids, especially the seniors, Carroll himself had a different opinion. “It (the turnaround) was definitely due to the coaching staff,” Carroll said. “We started 3-6 and were playing like last year.” Specifically, full court pressure from the opening tap and a read and react offense which afforded more spontaneous creativity. “We lost two pros (guards Jameer Nelson and Delonte West) so the coaches decided to make some changes.”
For one, the Hawks no longer opened up in full court pressure. They will press but use it more like a blitz in football, as an element of surprise. St.Joe’s also went to more structure on offense. “We had a lot of sets put in,” Carroll said. “So we work each possession more with a lot of structured sets.” Specifically the type that can free the sharpshooting Carroll who leads the Hawks with an 18.2 ppg average.
Against Memphis in the NIT semis, Carroll feels tempo is crucial. “They (Memphis) like to get up and down and get in transition,” Carroll said. “We have to dictate tempo and keep it more of a halfcourt game.”
Maryland’s Gary Williams will face a familiar coaching foe, with a little change. Before he moved to south Carolina a few years ago, Dave Odom paced the sidelines at Wake Forest and had some memorable meetings with Williams and Maryland. “If he looks at the old Wake tapes he’s be shocked,” Odom said with a laugh. “Back then we were big (don’t forget Tim Duncan played here) and rugged inside. At South Carolina we rely more on quickness and pressure.”
While Williams will notice a change, Odom expects much of the same – vintage Gary Williams basketball. “They still play you full court,” Odom said. “But the thing that is most impressive is whether they are in transition or half court, they do it well and are hard to stop.” No matter what the tempo, race horse or walk it up, Odom feels they key to winning will be decided in “the ten feet closest to the basket. We have to win the game in that area ten feet out right to the basket. Control that and we’re fine.”
For John Calipari and Memphis, the NIT is a second chance. The well-chronicled Conference USA final loss to Louisville left the Tigers out of the NCAA. In that game freshman Darius Washington missed the free throws that could have won it. Memphis, however, has rebounded in admirable fashion. “Right after that (final), Darius (Washington) and Arthur Barlclay were really down,” Calipari said. “As they started to come around and bounce back the rest of the team followed.” For Memphis, the NIT has given them a second season. And Calipari mirroers the enthusiasm. “I feel great about this,” he said. “We have young kids to coach and the, more games and chances to coach them the better. If (NIT Director) Jack (Powers) said let’s go another week, I would be all for it.”
Memphis faces St. Joe’s in Tuesday’s semifinal at 7 followed by Maryland-South Carolina at 9:30. The final is Thursday at 7 with no consolation. The third place game was eliminated last season. “A lot of the more veteran or older coaches didn’t care for it,” Jack Powers said. “And The Garden determined not having the third place game would not hurt the overall attendance and revenue.”
ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla was on hand with a few opinions on last weekend’s NCAA action. Fraschilla feels Rick Pitino is, “the best coach in America when it comes to preparing a team for a one-game situation. No one is better.” Fraschilla was also impressed with the job John Beilein did at West Virginia. “I coached against him when I was at Manhattan and he was at Canisius,” Fraschilla said. “And you know what? He ran exactly the same offense and things you saw during the tournament.”
St. Joe’s last trip to the NIT Final Four was 1996. The Hawks defeated Alabama in the semis before losing to Nebraska in the finals. Mark Bass, a member of Martelli’s staff, played for the Hawks back then. “He’s (Bass) told the kids about the experience,” Martelli said. “But we’ve reminded him he didn’t have a very good game against Nebraska,” the coach added with a spice of humor.
Dave Odom, conservative in appearance and demeanor, showed some humor of his own. After Calipari and Martelli recalled their A-10 battles when the former was at UMass, Odom remarked, “These Italians are something with their memory. I’m a Southern Baptist and lucky if I remember what went on at this morning’s practice.”
Gary Williams began his coaching career at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden in the early Seventies. He was pleased to learn the Wilson girls team recently won the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title last week. “That’s great for them,” Williams gushed. “Camden is a tough community , there are obstacles and for them to reach an achievement like that is truly wonderful for them and the city.”
