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Apr. 19—In the case of veteran basketball coaches, NCAA Tournament news conferences occasionally turn into story time.
Realizing how much goes into earning these treasured appearances, they look back at the long road traveled and get nostalgic.
Last month, Houston's Kelvin Sampson was sitting at a podium near the start of his 20th NCAA Tournament, on his way to his third Final Four. It was his third straight season as a No. 1 regional seed, proving the 69-year-old was still at the pinnacle of his career.
The majority of the press seated in front of him was raised on the internet and dutifully eager to collect every scrap of judgment and grievance available to feed the insatiable hound of social media.
To them, the story Sampson relayed was incomprehensible — surely a fairy tale borne of false remembrance.
It was about a young coach in his third year of leading a team in a major conference, who lost 18 consecutive games, including the first game in the conference tournament.
That streak dropped the coach's record at the school to 23-57.
The most unbelievable part of the tale: The coach wasn't fired. In fact, his athletic director professed a deep faith in his ability to get things turned around.
The coach was Sampson. The school, Washington State. The year, 1990.
The forbearing athletic director? Jim Livengood.
"(That) guy saved me," Sampson said at the Midwest Regional at Wichita, Kansas. "In this day and age, I would have been fired."
Actually, he probably would have been long gone, his career as a head coach in serious doubt. Except for Livengood's patience and insight into the qualities that ultimately shape a successful coach.
Freshly turned 80 and living in Tucson, Arizona, Livengood heard Sampson's comments, and fully verifies the improbable scenario.
"In this day and age, I don't know if anybody could have withstood this, but there was never a question in my mind about making a change," Livengood said. "There's a great fan base in Pullman, many great Cougars, but there were a lot of (questions) why a change wasn't made."
Livengood said he and Sampson have stayed close through the years, and each time they talk, Sampson asks Livengood if he remembers that career-saving decision.
Of course he does, in fact, when contacted last week, he quickly listed the three factors he relied on to make the risky move, which might have been a career-killer for Livengood, too, if it hadn't work out.
"One, I knew how he was recruiting, and the quality of men he was talking to," Livengood said. "Two, I knew what he was doing in practices and what he was trying to develop, and how much the kids were responding."
The final, and perhaps overarching factor, was personal.
"Three, I just liked him," Livengood said. "I really liked him as a human being. And it just turned out to be a great decision."
The following season, Sampson was named Pacific-10 Coach of the Year, and despite a 46-69 record over four years, was given a raise and a seven-year contract extension.
In 1994, Sampson had the Cougars in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since George Raveling was coaching in 1983.
It was Raveling who first saw certain qualities in Livengood and found work for him at WSU in 1980.
Livengood had been a football teammate of eventual Cougars head coach Mike Price at Everett Junior College. Starting out coaching at Moses Lake, Oroville and Ephrata high schools, Livengood would help out in summers at Raveling's popular Cougar Cage camp.
Raveling eventually created a job in which Livengood would be director of the basketball camp and also recruiting director for Jim Walden's WSU football team.
A promotion to associate athletic director led to his hiring as AD at Southern Illinois. In 1988, he was invited back to take over WSU sports.
In 1993, Livengood was lured to Arizona to replace the venerable Cedric Dempsey (executive director of the NCAA, who died two weeks ago at age 92).
"We didn't leave because we didn't love Pullman," Livengood said. "We went to Arizona because it was another opportunity and we always thought about living in the Southwest."
The following year, at the Final Four in Charlotte, North Carolina, Livengood's Arizona Wildcats were competing in the national semifinals, and Sampson was in town for the annual coaches' meetings.
Sampson called and asked Livengood to join him on a walk — he needed advice.
"He said, 'I've been offered the head job at Oklahoma,' " Livengood said, recalling his advice: This was one of those opportunities a coach just has to take.
Sampson's progression through Oklahoma, Indiana and the past 11 seasons at Houston have proven the wisdom of Livengood's faith in his abilities.
"It's not just Kelvin's coaching, but he's just a really good human being," Livengood said.
The NCAA didn't always share Livengood's high esteem of Sampson, leading to investigations at both Oklahoma and Indiana. These caused Sampson to spend six years as an NBA assistant.
Since taking over the Houston Cougars in 2014, Sampson has built a juggernaut based on rabid defense, powerful rebounding and an unrelenting toughness of play.
A span of success worth noting: Sampson has won nearly 700 Division I games since he was granted a stay of execution by Livengood in 1990.
While at Arizona, Livengood was named Division I Athletic Director of the Year in 2006. He retired from UA after 16 years, but came back for four more years at UNLV, retiring in 2013.
When you have someone with that experience on the line, it's required to poll his views on the unsettled status of contemporary collegiate sports.
First, he concedes, that after spending more than two decades at Washington State and Arizona, he shed tears at the destruction of the Pacific-12 Conference.
"It was such a great conference that meant so much to so many people in this part of the country," Livengood said. "The sad part was that it could never be reconstructed, it's done. Such a sad outcome. Not trying to throw blame, but why couldn't somebody have the ability to say, timeout, do we really know what we're doing and what it means for the future?"
Livengood sees the need for some manner of contractual considerations, and thinks the athletes and universities "are probably closer than ever to looking at a (collective-bargaining agreement) with athletes. I'm not sure that's bad."
He speaks regularly with old friend Dave Hart, former AD at Tennessee. "Part of the discussion is, 'I don't think I could do it now; how do ADs go to bed at night? Everything is going to change before you wake up.' It's such a crazy world."
Livengood used to think that the athletic director's job was roughly 40% political. "Now, I think it's closer to 90%. We didn't have to deal with social media, but there were boosters and high-end donors suggesting who should be hired or fired, but in this day, everybody wants to be in the know."
A chat with Livengood makes one wonder if he'd be even more successful now, that these circumstances need someone with his advanced personal skills.
An interview expected to last in the 20-minute range went more than twice that. And by the end, he had coaxed as many personal stories out of the interviewer than the interviewer got from him.
He shared tales of old friends, and the rewards of long road trips on country roads, games won and games lost, and even the glories of grandparenthood.
And he was particularly nostalgic for a time in the long-gone past when a young administrator could succeed just by showing faith in a friend he truly believed in.
Continue reading...
Realizing how much goes into earning these treasured appearances, they look back at the long road traveled and get nostalgic.
Last month, Houston's Kelvin Sampson was sitting at a podium near the start of his 20th NCAA Tournament, on his way to his third Final Four. It was his third straight season as a No. 1 regional seed, proving the 69-year-old was still at the pinnacle of his career.
The majority of the press seated in front of him was raised on the internet and dutifully eager to collect every scrap of judgment and grievance available to feed the insatiable hound of social media.
To them, the story Sampson relayed was incomprehensible — surely a fairy tale borne of false remembrance.
It was about a young coach in his third year of leading a team in a major conference, who lost 18 consecutive games, including the first game in the conference tournament.
That streak dropped the coach's record at the school to 23-57.
The most unbelievable part of the tale: The coach wasn't fired. In fact, his athletic director professed a deep faith in his ability to get things turned around.
The coach was Sampson. The school, Washington State. The year, 1990.
The forbearing athletic director? Jim Livengood.
"(That) guy saved me," Sampson said at the Midwest Regional at Wichita, Kansas. "In this day and age, I would have been fired."
Actually, he probably would have been long gone, his career as a head coach in serious doubt. Except for Livengood's patience and insight into the qualities that ultimately shape a successful coach.
Freshly turned 80 and living in Tucson, Arizona, Livengood heard Sampson's comments, and fully verifies the improbable scenario.
"In this day and age, I don't know if anybody could have withstood this, but there was never a question in my mind about making a change," Livengood said. "There's a great fan base in Pullman, many great Cougars, but there were a lot of (questions) why a change wasn't made."
Livengood said he and Sampson have stayed close through the years, and each time they talk, Sampson asks Livengood if he remembers that career-saving decision.
Of course he does, in fact, when contacted last week, he quickly listed the three factors he relied on to make the risky move, which might have been a career-killer for Livengood, too, if it hadn't work out.
"One, I knew how he was recruiting, and the quality of men he was talking to," Livengood said. "Two, I knew what he was doing in practices and what he was trying to develop, and how much the kids were responding."
The final, and perhaps overarching factor, was personal.
"Three, I just liked him," Livengood said. "I really liked him as a human being. And it just turned out to be a great decision."
The following season, Sampson was named Pacific-10 Coach of the Year, and despite a 46-69 record over four years, was given a raise and a seven-year contract extension.
In 1994, Sampson had the Cougars in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since George Raveling was coaching in 1983.
It was Raveling who first saw certain qualities in Livengood and found work for him at WSU in 1980.
Livengood had been a football teammate of eventual Cougars head coach Mike Price at Everett Junior College. Starting out coaching at Moses Lake, Oroville and Ephrata high schools, Livengood would help out in summers at Raveling's popular Cougar Cage camp.
Raveling eventually created a job in which Livengood would be director of the basketball camp and also recruiting director for Jim Walden's WSU football team.
A promotion to associate athletic director led to his hiring as AD at Southern Illinois. In 1988, he was invited back to take over WSU sports.
In 1993, Livengood was lured to Arizona to replace the venerable Cedric Dempsey (executive director of the NCAA, who died two weeks ago at age 92).
"We didn't leave because we didn't love Pullman," Livengood said. "We went to Arizona because it was another opportunity and we always thought about living in the Southwest."
The following year, at the Final Four in Charlotte, North Carolina, Livengood's Arizona Wildcats were competing in the national semifinals, and Sampson was in town for the annual coaches' meetings.
Sampson called and asked Livengood to join him on a walk — he needed advice.
"He said, 'I've been offered the head job at Oklahoma,' " Livengood said, recalling his advice: This was one of those opportunities a coach just has to take.
Sampson's progression through Oklahoma, Indiana and the past 11 seasons at Houston have proven the wisdom of Livengood's faith in his abilities.
"It's not just Kelvin's coaching, but he's just a really good human being," Livengood said.
The NCAA didn't always share Livengood's high esteem of Sampson, leading to investigations at both Oklahoma and Indiana. These caused Sampson to spend six years as an NBA assistant.
Since taking over the Houston Cougars in 2014, Sampson has built a juggernaut based on rabid defense, powerful rebounding and an unrelenting toughness of play.
A span of success worth noting: Sampson has won nearly 700 Division I games since he was granted a stay of execution by Livengood in 1990.
While at Arizona, Livengood was named Division I Athletic Director of the Year in 2006. He retired from UA after 16 years, but came back for four more years at UNLV, retiring in 2013.
When you have someone with that experience on the line, it's required to poll his views on the unsettled status of contemporary collegiate sports.
First, he concedes, that after spending more than two decades at Washington State and Arizona, he shed tears at the destruction of the Pacific-12 Conference.
"It was such a great conference that meant so much to so many people in this part of the country," Livengood said. "The sad part was that it could never be reconstructed, it's done. Such a sad outcome. Not trying to throw blame, but why couldn't somebody have the ability to say, timeout, do we really know what we're doing and what it means for the future?"
Livengood sees the need for some manner of contractual considerations, and thinks the athletes and universities "are probably closer than ever to looking at a (collective-bargaining agreement) with athletes. I'm not sure that's bad."
He speaks regularly with old friend Dave Hart, former AD at Tennessee. "Part of the discussion is, 'I don't think I could do it now; how do ADs go to bed at night? Everything is going to change before you wake up.' It's such a crazy world."
Livengood used to think that the athletic director's job was roughly 40% political. "Now, I think it's closer to 90%. We didn't have to deal with social media, but there were boosters and high-end donors suggesting who should be hired or fired, but in this day, everybody wants to be in the know."
A chat with Livengood makes one wonder if he'd be even more successful now, that these circumstances need someone with his advanced personal skills.
An interview expected to last in the 20-minute range went more than twice that. And by the end, he had coaxed as many personal stories out of the interviewer than the interviewer got from him.
He shared tales of old friends, and the rewards of long road trips on country roads, games won and games lost, and even the glories of grandparenthood.
And he was particularly nostalgic for a time in the long-gone past when a young administrator could succeed just by showing faith in a friend he truly believed in.
Continue reading...
