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Coaches' Corner
NABC JUCO Reports
February 21, 2001 By Tony Jimenez Three Rivers' Bess may be best ever When he attempts to comprehend what has transpired during his 31-year run at Three Rivers, Mo., Coach Gene Bess, in typical Gene Bess fashion, retreats. Bess doesn't like thinking about Bess. Bess doesn't like verbalizing about Bess. Bess doesn't like the spotlight on Bess. But the plain and simple truth of the matter is, Bess is No. 1 at his craft. No brag, just fact. All Bess did on the night of Feb. 10 in the obscure town of Poplar Bluff was coax another win out of his Raiders, this time at the expense of State Fair, Mo., 81-52, to become the all-time winningest coach at the national junior college level; he has 880 career wins, more than any other juco coach ever and, it is believed, more than any coach at any collegiate level. How good is Bess? He's won more games than the Dean of the major college ranks; Dean Smith coached his teams to 879 games at North Carolina before he retired. "It's quite a feat no matter where you're at," said Jerry Mullen of Mullen's Roundball Review, the nation's foremost JC talent scout. "A record like that, given the way coaches come and go so much in today's game, will be hard to break. But it couldn't happen to a better guy. Gene is really the best of the juco world." How consistent has Bess been? His teams - over three decades - have an average season record of about 28-7. He has never had a losing season at Three Rivers. "I have been very, very fortunate to get where I am at today," said Bess. "It's not been an individual thing, that's for sure. We've taken a company-type approach to things here." Bess, who turns 66 on March 3, is a life-long Missourian. He was eligible for retirement four years, but is still going about his tasks with the vigor of a 30-year-old, the discipline of a 40-year-old and the experience of, well, Dean Smith. "When it's time to go (leave coaching) I think most people know it and I will too," said Bess. "No matter how I long I coach, I think I can walk away and not look back. And I sure don't have any regrets. I can't think of anything else I'd rather do." Along his illustrious journey, Bess' efforts have netted him a dozen National JC Athletic Association tournament appearances, including national championships in 1979 with a short-handed team - there were only 10 players on that roster - that won with a slow down game and in 1992 with an uptempo team that won on a late three-pointer by Anthony Beane. Bess has been around so long that his players' kids are coming back to play for him, among them Brian Foster, a member of last year's team; his father Danny played on the 1977-78 team. His most prominent former player is Latrell Sprewell, who played for Three Rivders,1988-90. "He had only played high school basketball for a year when he came here," said Bess. "If he had a downside it was that he came from the big city (Milwaukee, Wisc.), where he roamed free. He had a tough time adjusting to this lifestyle." So, if Bess hadn't gone into coaching what would he have done? "Probably forestry or journalism," he said. "I was in farming so I know the outdoors. And I always enjoyed reading the newspaper, particularly the sports section, when I was growing up in Oak Ridge. I could have been a sports writer. I always had respect for that profession." And what kind of headline would Bess the writer have put on a story about Bess the coach now that he's reached such a major milestone? "Ah...I'd leave that one to someone else," said Bess. Tip-ins While Bess' achievement is most noteworthy, let's not forget Coach Bob Kirk at Allegany, Md. In early February he reached the 20-win mark for the 23rd successive season at Allegany... The newest inductees into the National JC Athletic Association Hall of Fame - they will be honored in ceremonies March 19, the day before the five-day tournament begins in Hutchinson, Kans. - include: Hartnell, Calif., Coach Frank Carbajal got the 600th win of his career when his team defeated Galivan, 69-50, in late January. "Our guys have played well in spite of injuries, illnesses and every other obstacle imaginable this season," said Carbajal. "That tells me I stayed in it long enough for everything possible to happen to me. I have no complaints, though. Too many good things have happened to me in my career."... When doctors told Coach Verties Sails of Southwest, Tenn., (formerly Shelby State) he would need a hip replacement, he went to another set of d octors and they told him he had to have his spine straightened. Sails underwent two months of therapy last summer and must now watch his diet, exercise more and have periodic medical checkups... First-year Louisiana Tech assistant and former Barton County, Kans., juco coach Steve Forbes: "It's a lot harder moving up to an NCAA Division I school than people think. It's a good 'ole boy network when it comes to hiring."... Gene Keady, the long-time Purdue coach who coached at Hutchinson, Kans., (1966-74) JC doesn't understand why there is periodic talk of cutting summer time recruiting. "The camps," he said, "give the players hope and inspiration." Keady, by the way, worked as a hail adjustor and umpired baseball games during his summers at Hutchinson juco. "When you don't make money, you figure out a way to make it," he said... While Monte Towe may be forever known for being the guy who fed skywalking David Thompson on North Carolina State's 1974 NCAA championship team, Towe is making a name for himself in the JC ranks. In his first season as the coach at Santa Fe juco in Gainesville, Fla., Towe's team was 20-13 in 1999-2000; his current team is 19-7 as of early February. "The biggest change I have seen since then is the three-point shot," said Towe. "It's affected the game, I think, in a positive way."... What does Coach Enid Drake, who has been at Louisburg, N.C., for 35 seasons, see as the biggest change? "Shooting and ball handling," he said. "Now everybody's into three-pointers and slam dunks."... Coach Mark Osina has been at Weatherford, Texas for 10 years, but the turnover in juco coaches in Texas coming into this season, he says, "was the highest he has seen in the last decade." "I think coaches here are thinking getting a head coaching job at a (NCAA) Division I school might be easier if you become an assistant at a four-year school first," said Osina. "It's really been unusual." Among those who exited Texas for greener pastures was Shawn Scanlan, who went from South Plains to the head coaching job at Eastern New Mexico. Other Texas coaches who left for assistant coaching jobs were Blake Brown (Frank Phillips to Midwestern, Texas), Greg Young (Hill to Southwest Texas State), Steve Shields (McLennan to Arkansas-Little Rock) and Rennie Bailey (Panola to Stephen F. Austin, Texas). Bailey was a teammate of Karl Malone's when they played at Louisana Tech... Coach Trace Bevell, who has a 16-8 record in his first season at Western Nebraska after replacing the popular Dave Campbell - he became an assistant at coach at Nebraska - had already won a game for the Cougars before he became the head coach at Western Nebraska. In the Region IX juco tournament last March, Campbell, who didn't have an assistant coach at Western Nebraska, went to Pittsburgh, Pa., to care for his ailing mother and Bevell filled in for him. Bevell coached the Cougars to a win in a 1 p.m. game, but his McCook, Neb., team lost in an 8 p.m. game. "It was different," said Bevell, who was at McCook for nine seasons, posting an impressive 105-23 mark the last four years. "It's nice to be 1-0 before you start your first game of your first season."... Kelvin Sampson (Oklahoma), Nolan Richardson (Arkansas) and Lefty Driesell (Georgia State) may be where every JC coach in America wishes they were - at a DI school - but those coaches respect the jobs two-year school coaches do. After landing first-team All Americans Aaron McGhee of Vincennes, Ind., and Daryan Selvy of Carl Albert, Okla., Sampson said: "All of our guys come from outstanding programs. I've always been a fan of Dan Sparks (Vincennes, Ind.) and Ron Murphree (Carl Albert, Okla.) and a lot of the other junior college coaches. Junior Colleges have good coaches. Nobody does it better than those guys. They can coach with anybody anywhere. Those guys are professional coaches who happen to be in the junior college ranks." Says Richardson: "There is no question there are a lot of good coaches there. Some of them have great backgrounds. I don't see that much difference between juco coaches and and major college coaches. It's about how to get people to play. The saddest part is that I've seen some guys who should have had a job at a four-year school by now years ago and they are still at a juco." Driesell says the vast majority of two-year schools know their purpose: to graduate players. "The coaches there are good, some of the best in the country," he said. "There is no junior college program that I would say, 'I'm not taking a player out of there because they're a bad student.' They're all good."... Richardson, who has a Middle School and a recreation center named after him in El Paso, Texas, says the key for a JC coach hoping to move up the coaching ladder is to "get to a program that is flat, a grave yard, and turn it around. Tulsa's a big-time program, but 20 years ago it was a grave yard. Once you get to that grave yard, though, you have to win." |
