Expect more zingers from Blair on big stage
COLLEGE STATION — Shelby Metcalf once explained why he had no problem recruiting to a then-all-male military institute in Texas A&M in the early 1960s.
“You just told ’em you were looking for basketball players,” Metcalf said with a shrug, “not lovers.”
Abe Lemons once described the difference between coaching and … most other jobs.
“Finish last in your league, and they call you an idiot,” said Lemons, Texas’ basketball coach from 1976-82. “Finish last in medical school, and they call you a doctor.”
Then-UT baseball coach Augie Garrido had no qualms predicting the NCAA’s intent when determining whether Texas or the University of Houston, the latter of which sported the better record that season, would host a super regional in 2014.
“If it’s about money,” Garrido said with a wry smile, “we’ll play in Austin.”
Post-spoiler alert: The NCAA chose Austin, and the Longhorns advanced to the College World Series. Three years earlier, Garrido had deadpanned why it was important UT had made the CWS in 2011.
“Our fans were getting restless,” he offered in his typical bemused delivery. “We missed last year.”
The eternally quippable Metcalf, Lemons and Garrido all have since passed on to that coaches’ comedy club in the clouds, but there’s at least one old-school coach in the region still owning the fastest facetiousness in Texas.
A&M women’s basketball coach Gary Blair.
The wit and wisdom of Blair, 75, will again be on a national stage starting at 5 p.m. Monday, when the second-seeded Aggies face No. 15th seed Troy in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
A&M (23-2) not only believed it deserved one of the four top seeds as SEC regular-season champion, but the Aggies were mystified they were shoved under the Texas Longhorns’ roof for the opener.
The NCAA Tournament’s first round is being held in San Antonio, San Marcos and Austin because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rest of the tournament in San Antonio. Such amusing (to outsiders) situations are when Blair is at his best.
“What else can they do to us?” Blair wondered Monday night of the selection committee.
Blair, with a slight grin, also realized the game in the Erwin Center offers the chance for a jab at A&M’s (still) biggest rival and new Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer, his former top assistant at A&M.
“We’re playing in a good arena,” Blair said, “and we won in Austin earlier this year.”
That is the trait Blair has most in common with Garrido, the iconic UT baseball coach who died three years ago this month from complications following a stroke: a super sharp wit masking a sharper drive to win.
Garrido won five national titles while leading Cal State Fullerton and Texas, while Blair achieved what few figured possible in inheriting the Big 12’s worst basketball program in 2003: a national title in 2011.
Blair didn’t find it easy upon his arrival from Arkansas nearly two decades ago. Early in his first season, he offered four free tickets to a game during an interview on a local radio station. He even gave out his home address for the lucky first four who showed up. Only two tickets were claimed.
Blair and Homer Norton, who coached football from 1934-47, are the lone two A&M coaches to win national titles in the three “major” sports at the university: football, basketball and baseball.
“There won’t be another one (like him),” A&M men’s basketball coach Buzz Williams said of Blair. “There’s no one in my generation who will ever eclipse his achievements. … He’s a treasure not only on the floor but off the floor.”
Earlier this season. a reporter reminded Blair he had defeated Nebraska in the 2010 Big 12 tournament when the Cornhuskers were 30-0 and ranked No. 3.
“How can you be No. 3 in the country and be 30-0?” responded Blair, before having a little fun at the expense of one of college basketball’s all-time powerhouses. “Who was No. 1 and No. 2, Connecticut?”
The key to keeping a good sense of humor through this long stroll called life?
“Humility. Be humble, or you’ll stumble,” Blair said. “One of my biggest pet peeves is adults who refuse to admit to mistakes. I (also) read three comic strips per day: Peanuts, Blondie and Beetle Bailey. I can get something out of all three of those. I pull for all the older men and women. … I pull for people who’ve had to go through things.
“I’ve got some (players) who can mimic me pretty good, and they’re usually right on. Sometimes you just go with the flow, and don’t take life so seriously in non-serious moments. That’s a long-winded answer — but that’s who I am.”