COACHES SONNY SMITH AND BRUCE PEARL SWAP BASKETBALL WAR STORIES AT BIG ORANGE TIPOFF CLUB LUNCHEON
TriCitiesSports.Com
Friday, February 17, 2006
Copyrighted All Rights Reserved
By John Mark Hancock
KNOXVILLE - He might have been stating the obvious when he said that Bruce Pearls coaching had made all the difference in the world in this years Tennessee mens basketball team, but when former Auburn Coach Sonny Smith spoke at the Big Orange TipOff Club Wednesday in Knoxville, he gave concrete examples of what he meant by that statement.
Smith, who was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year three times in the 1980s, said that when Pearl came to Knoxville, he identified the role that he wanted each of his players to fill after going over film on all of them. Pearl then, according to Smith, convinced each of those players to perform that role instead of what they had been doing previously.
Two prime examples of Pearls phenomenal coaching are Major Wingate and Dane Bradshaw. Most SEC hoops observers thought that Wingate was a lost cause and that he would never be productive. As Smith stated, Pearl has turned Major into one of the best post players in the league.
With Bradshaw, how many 64 players in America can even be made into a power forward? Dane is going up against bigger, faster, stronger, taller players every night and is beating them both at home and on the road. As Smith related, he is essentially a point guard who has been transformed into the role of power forward, because thats what Pearl designed for him and convinced him he could do it.
Sonny hosts a cable television show weekly, Talkin Hoops, on CSS, with former Alabama Coach Wimp Sanderson. He was very candid in his remarks and his analysis of coaching today.
Smith said some coaches arent very good but they get better players and simply let them play. He said that one of the coaches in the SEC was a good example of that, and he let the large crowd who gathered to hear him speak decide for themselves who that one coach in the conference is.
He said that others, like Jeff Lebo, have very little talent on their teams and very young players, but are great coaches who can change up defenses every time down court. They look for mismatches to exploit. Of course, UTs 105-89 victory over Lebos Auburn Tigers didnt feature much defense Wednesday night in Knoxville.
He also said that Tubby Smith at Kentucky, while a great defensive tactician, lacks the ability to coach offense as well. That is why in Smiths opinion the Wildcats are struggling to win games at home, since they dont seem to be able to score many points.
Speaking of Kentucky, Smith had some choice words for his former foe in those years, Joe B. Hall. He said that Hall simply beat other teams up with physical play and the officials let him get away with it. Halls philosophy, according to Smith, was to have all five players foul at once, since the referees could only call one foul at a time.
Smith talked about how coaches who rotate the ball around the perimeter, as they now do in international play, complain about not getting enough fouls called. He chided such coaches for not spreading the offense like Tennessee does, driving the ball to the basket and then getting fouled, or kicking it out to the three-point arc for a shot at a trey.
Smith was a tough disciplinarian who coached Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, and Chris Morris into NBA stars in his three decades of coaching. He believes that the three-point shot has permanently changed the game of basketball.
Smith said C. J. Watson may be the best point guard in the SEC in a league that is loaded with great point guards. He said C. J. was so quick that he could turn the light off and get it bed before it got dark. He said the post position now is the least valuable on the team, as more teams are searching for perimeter players who can handle and shoot the ball.
Smith, as always, had several tales to tell. A native of Roan Mountain, Tennessee, he talked about how his hometown wasnt the end of the world, but that you could see it from there. He said there were so many shotgun weddings performed in Roan Mountain that the local church was dubbed, Winchester Cathedral.
................................................
Smith had plenty of trying times at Rupp Arena in Lexington with his Auburn team. He told about one game when the Tigers were down by 30 points and he had seen enough. He kept mouthing off to SEC official Reggie Copeland, who later became the Vice Mayor of Mobile, Alabama, and was trying to get thrown out of the game.
Finally, after all of his bellyaching didnt do the trick after having gotten one technical foul called on him, Smith let Copeland have it with a barrage of unflattering comments about his mothers heritage. Copeland, however, didnt flinch.
Instead, the next time he came down court, Copeland went over to Smith and said, Sonny, I know youre trying to get thrown out of this game, but youre just going to have to sit here and watch it like the rest of us!
He told the story of a man who bought a bronze rat at an antique store and started walking down the street with it. Soon, rats had come from everywhere following him and that bronze rat. By the time he got to the river on the edge of town, he was in a gallop in fear for his life. He threw the bronze rat in the river and all the rats jumped in as well and drowned. The next day, he went back to the same antique store and asked the proprietor if he had any bronze Kentucky fans for sale!
................................................
Smith said there was a Tennessee fan, an Alabama fan, and a pig that all were in the waiting room of a hospital maternity ward at the same time, waiting on their babies to be born. All of a sudden, the lights went out. When they came back on, the nurses came out and told the expectant fathers that they had good news and bad news.
The good news was that all three had healthy offspring. The bad news was that since the lights went out during delivery, they couldnt tell which baby belonged to whom. They said they would let the fathers draw straws and the first one to go in could select the one he thought was his.
The Tennessee fan got to go first and after spending 30 minutes in the delivery room, he came out with the pig. When asked by the nurse why on earth he did that, he said, I just couldnt take a chance on getting the Alabama baby!
.................................................
He also told about the Kentucky fan, the Alabama fan, and the Tennessee fan that went to Saudi Arabia and got in trouble for gambling. They were arrested and each given 20 lashes as their punishment.
Each fan was given one wish before his punishment was administered. The Kentucky fan went first. His wish that was a pillow be strapped to his back to soften the blows. After seeing how much pain the Kentucky fan endured even with the pillow, the Alabama fans wish was that he have two pillows strapped to his back while he was flogged.
Finally, it was time for the Tennessee fans punishment. Because the person who was administering the blows had heard of the Big Orange, he granted the UT fan two wishes instead of the customary one. So, the Tennessee fans first wish was that he be given 200 lashes, rather than just 20.
The Saudi was perplexed. He couldnt figure out why someone who wish to endure such pain. He then asked,
Whats your second wish? To which the Tennessee fan replied, Strap that Alabama fan on my back!
...............................................
Coach Pearl, who also spoke to the gathering prior to Coach Smiths address, was given a fan as a gift from the Big Orange Tipoff Club by President Lloyd B. Richardson. On one side it had the thumbs-up symbol and said, Good Call! On the other side, it has the thumbs-down symbol with the inscription, Bad Call!
It was suggested that Bruce use the fan at his son Stevens West High School games for the upcoming tournaments. Pearl, as you may remember, was ejected from one of his sons games this year for questioning some calls by TSSAA official Shane Mynatt, who has since been reassigned as a referee to no longer call any of West Highs games. Mynatt had given Steven Pearl a technical foul earlier this season.
............................................
Pearl, in accepting the gift, couldnt resist a quip of his own. He told about a game when he was at Southern Indiana and he was on the road playing Kentucky Wesleyan in one of those situations where we were playing five on eight, with the officials giving his team the short end of the deal.
Down by 20 points on the road, he called timeout with 30 seconds to go in the game to a chorus of boos. He told his best player when they broke the huddle to go and guard one of the referees. When the player questioned the coachs instructions, an assistant chimed in and said, Just do what Coach Pearl told you to do.
The player followed Pearls orders and came out on the court and started closely guarding the official rather than an opposing player. The referee blew the whistle and came over to Pearl and asked, What are you trying to pull here, Coach?
Pearl told the ref that when he was an assistant to Dr. Tom Davis at Iowa, Davis always taught his coaches that you should put your best player on the guy who is hurting you the most, and as Pearl told him, Youre it, buddy!
TriCitiesSports.Com
Friday, February 17, 2006
Copyrighted All Rights Reserved
By John Mark Hancock
KNOXVILLE - He might have been stating the obvious when he said that Bruce Pearls coaching had made all the difference in the world in this years Tennessee mens basketball team, but when former Auburn Coach Sonny Smith spoke at the Big Orange TipOff Club Wednesday in Knoxville, he gave concrete examples of what he meant by that statement.
Smith, who was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year three times in the 1980s, said that when Pearl came to Knoxville, he identified the role that he wanted each of his players to fill after going over film on all of them. Pearl then, according to Smith, convinced each of those players to perform that role instead of what they had been doing previously.
Two prime examples of Pearls phenomenal coaching are Major Wingate and Dane Bradshaw. Most SEC hoops observers thought that Wingate was a lost cause and that he would never be productive. As Smith stated, Pearl has turned Major into one of the best post players in the league.
With Bradshaw, how many 64 players in America can even be made into a power forward? Dane is going up against bigger, faster, stronger, taller players every night and is beating them both at home and on the road. As Smith related, he is essentially a point guard who has been transformed into the role of power forward, because thats what Pearl designed for him and convinced him he could do it.
Sonny hosts a cable television show weekly, Talkin Hoops, on CSS, with former Alabama Coach Wimp Sanderson. He was very candid in his remarks and his analysis of coaching today.
Smith said some coaches arent very good but they get better players and simply let them play. He said that one of the coaches in the SEC was a good example of that, and he let the large crowd who gathered to hear him speak decide for themselves who that one coach in the conference is.
He said that others, like Jeff Lebo, have very little talent on their teams and very young players, but are great coaches who can change up defenses every time down court. They look for mismatches to exploit. Of course, UTs 105-89 victory over Lebos Auburn Tigers didnt feature much defense Wednesday night in Knoxville.
He also said that Tubby Smith at Kentucky, while a great defensive tactician, lacks the ability to coach offense as well. That is why in Smiths opinion the Wildcats are struggling to win games at home, since they dont seem to be able to score many points.
Speaking of Kentucky, Smith had some choice words for his former foe in those years, Joe B. Hall. He said that Hall simply beat other teams up with physical play and the officials let him get away with it. Halls philosophy, according to Smith, was to have all five players foul at once, since the referees could only call one foul at a time.
Smith talked about how coaches who rotate the ball around the perimeter, as they now do in international play, complain about not getting enough fouls called. He chided such coaches for not spreading the offense like Tennessee does, driving the ball to the basket and then getting fouled, or kicking it out to the three-point arc for a shot at a trey.
Smith was a tough disciplinarian who coached Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, and Chris Morris into NBA stars in his three decades of coaching. He believes that the three-point shot has permanently changed the game of basketball.
Smith said C. J. Watson may be the best point guard in the SEC in a league that is loaded with great point guards. He said C. J. was so quick that he could turn the light off and get it bed before it got dark. He said the post position now is the least valuable on the team, as more teams are searching for perimeter players who can handle and shoot the ball.
Smith, as always, had several tales to tell. A native of Roan Mountain, Tennessee, he talked about how his hometown wasnt the end of the world, but that you could see it from there. He said there were so many shotgun weddings performed in Roan Mountain that the local church was dubbed, Winchester Cathedral.
................................................
Smith had plenty of trying times at Rupp Arena in Lexington with his Auburn team. He told about one game when the Tigers were down by 30 points and he had seen enough. He kept mouthing off to SEC official Reggie Copeland, who later became the Vice Mayor of Mobile, Alabama, and was trying to get thrown out of the game.
Finally, after all of his bellyaching didnt do the trick after having gotten one technical foul called on him, Smith let Copeland have it with a barrage of unflattering comments about his mothers heritage. Copeland, however, didnt flinch.
Instead, the next time he came down court, Copeland went over to Smith and said, Sonny, I know youre trying to get thrown out of this game, but youre just going to have to sit here and watch it like the rest of us!
He told the story of a man who bought a bronze rat at an antique store and started walking down the street with it. Soon, rats had come from everywhere following him and that bronze rat. By the time he got to the river on the edge of town, he was in a gallop in fear for his life. He threw the bronze rat in the river and all the rats jumped in as well and drowned. The next day, he went back to the same antique store and asked the proprietor if he had any bronze Kentucky fans for sale!
................................................
Smith said there was a Tennessee fan, an Alabama fan, and a pig that all were in the waiting room of a hospital maternity ward at the same time, waiting on their babies to be born. All of a sudden, the lights went out. When they came back on, the nurses came out and told the expectant fathers that they had good news and bad news.
The good news was that all three had healthy offspring. The bad news was that since the lights went out during delivery, they couldnt tell which baby belonged to whom. They said they would let the fathers draw straws and the first one to go in could select the one he thought was his.
The Tennessee fan got to go first and after spending 30 minutes in the delivery room, he came out with the pig. When asked by the nurse why on earth he did that, he said, I just couldnt take a chance on getting the Alabama baby!
.................................................
He also told about the Kentucky fan, the Alabama fan, and the Tennessee fan that went to Saudi Arabia and got in trouble for gambling. They were arrested and each given 20 lashes as their punishment.
Each fan was given one wish before his punishment was administered. The Kentucky fan went first. His wish that was a pillow be strapped to his back to soften the blows. After seeing how much pain the Kentucky fan endured even with the pillow, the Alabama fans wish was that he have two pillows strapped to his back while he was flogged.
Finally, it was time for the Tennessee fans punishment. Because the person who was administering the blows had heard of the Big Orange, he granted the UT fan two wishes instead of the customary one. So, the Tennessee fans first wish was that he be given 200 lashes, rather than just 20.
The Saudi was perplexed. He couldnt figure out why someone who wish to endure such pain. He then asked,
Whats your second wish? To which the Tennessee fan replied, Strap that Alabama fan on my back!
...............................................
Coach Pearl, who also spoke to the gathering prior to Coach Smiths address, was given a fan as a gift from the Big Orange Tipoff Club by President Lloyd B. Richardson. On one side it had the thumbs-up symbol and said, Good Call! On the other side, it has the thumbs-down symbol with the inscription, Bad Call!
It was suggested that Bruce use the fan at his son Stevens West High School games for the upcoming tournaments. Pearl, as you may remember, was ejected from one of his sons games this year for questioning some calls by TSSAA official Shane Mynatt, who has since been reassigned as a referee to no longer call any of West Highs games. Mynatt had given Steven Pearl a technical foul earlier this season.
............................................
Pearl, in accepting the gift, couldnt resist a quip of his own. He told about a game when he was at Southern Indiana and he was on the road playing Kentucky Wesleyan in one of those situations where we were playing five on eight, with the officials giving his team the short end of the deal.
Down by 20 points on the road, he called timeout with 30 seconds to go in the game to a chorus of boos. He told his best player when they broke the huddle to go and guard one of the referees. When the player questioned the coachs instructions, an assistant chimed in and said, Just do what Coach Pearl told you to do.
The player followed Pearls orders and came out on the court and started closely guarding the official rather than an opposing player. The referee blew the whistle and came over to Pearl and asked, What are you trying to pull here, Coach?
Pearl told the ref that when he was an assistant to Dr. Tom Davis at Iowa, Davis always taught his coaches that you should put your best player on the guy who is hurting you the most, and as Pearl told him, Youre it, buddy!
