Personality plus: SEC expects boost from new coaches
New Tennessee coach Rick Barnes shook hands with Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey on his way out of the hotel in downtown Charlotte.
“Long media day, really long,” Barnes said with smile.
The SEC got a huge infusion of personality in firstyear conference coaches Barnes, Alabama’s Avery Johnson and Mississippi State’s Ben Howland. The trio add spice to a league with high-profile coaches capable of making an impact on the court — and on YouTube.
There was Barnes earlier this month, slapping a cream pie into the face of Vols sophomore guard Detrick Mostella on his birthday while teammates cackled and cheered.
When Howland was asked about the change in lifestyle going from Pittsburgh and UCLA to Starkville, Mississippi, the self-professed smalltown guy cracked, “I didn’t make many operas in LA.”
Johnson was the San Antonio Spurs’ all-time assists leader who spent six years as an NBA coach with Dallas and Brooklyn. To his players, Johnson’s the target of comedian Kevin Hart, who does a short, dead-on impersonation of the high-pitched coach.
And while they have the personalities to go toe-totoe with the gregarious John Calipari, their goal is to challenge his Kentucky Wildcats for conference supremacy. The SEC is counting on the three, plus new Florida coach Mike White, to increase the league profile and presence in the NCAA tournament.
Barnes reached the tournament 22 times in 27 combined seasons at Providence, Clemson and Texas, which he led to the Final Four in 2003. Howland has had 10 NCAA tournament trips, including three straight Final Fours at UCLA. Along with his NBA playing and coaching career, Johnson was an ESPN analyst on TV almost every night.
Top-notch showman Bruce Pearl returned to the SEC as Auburn’s coach last year after serving an NCAA show-cause order for infractions while at Tennessee, including excessive text messages to recruits.
Pearl, who famously painted himself in orange for a Lady Vols game, has done his part at Auburn to fire up the campus. He took over a marketing class last fall to promote the Tigers’ first practice, dubbed “Pearl Jam.”
There is no question the SEC has upped its personality quotient in the past decade. And if the new coaches can compete with Calipari on the court, they’ll up the league’s profile.
Calipari has led Kentucky to four Final Fours and the 2012 championship in his seven seasons with the Wildcats. His team was selected as SEC preseason favorites again this year in the league media poll released Wednesday.
The Kentucky coach said SEC schools have worked to improve all aspects of men’s basketball, from facilities to scheduling to recruiting. A main piece of the puzzle, he said, is attracting talented, successful coaches to league schools.
“We’re doing that across the board,” he said.
DEVELOPMENT
Richard Pitino defends dad: Minnesota coach Richard Pitino defended his embattled father Wednesday, saying Rick Pitino had no knowledge of a former staffer allegedly paying escorts to have sex with recruits and players in a Louisville dorm.
Richard Pitino was asked about a scandal that surfaced after Katina Powell wrote a book that alleges former Louisville staffer Andre McGee paid her and several other women to strip for and have sex with recruits and players from 20102014. Richard Pitino, who is about to begin his third season as head coach at Minnesota, was the associate head coach for the Cardinals in 2011-12 before leaving to become the head coach at Florida International.
Rick Pitino has denied knowledge of the activities that Powell alleges, and Richard called the allegations “very surprising.”
“I never ever heard any of that, saw any of that,” Richard Pitino said.