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Men's Basketball
JUCO Coaching Report
March 13, 2003
By Tony Jimenez Vincennes, Ind., coach Dan Sparks will be in Hutchinson, Kan., for the 16-team, 26-game, double-elimination National Junior College Athletic Association tournament March 18-22, but if he had his way his team would be with him. But because Vincennes was ousted in regional play, Sparks will spend a good part of his time in Kansas pressing the flesh as the President of the NJCAA Coaches Association and his players will be back home. "It's disappointing to not be playing at this time of the year," said Sparks. Sparks, 57, has made his mark in a big way in the juco ranks, having spent 24 years at Vincennes. "At some places it (longevity) works and at others it doesn't," he said. "I know this, the game has changed since I got into it. Some of the players today are watching too much TV. They do that chest beating and stuff like that after a big play. They want to draw attention to themselves rather than their team. It seems to have become less of a team game today, which is unfortunate." Sparks planted the seeds for his long run in Indiana by playing at Vincennes (1964-66) - he was a member of a NJCAA tournament title team in his freshman season, when he manned the center position, and later becoming an assistant coach there before returning after a four-year run with the then Kansas City Kings pro team. Sparks' prize product is Shawn Marion of the Phoenix Suns, although Sparks also coached Eric Williams of the Boston Celtics and Tyrone Nesby, who played with the Washington Wizards last season and now hoops it up in Spain. Tip-Ins Weiberg had guided Northern Oklahoma to a 23-6 record as of March 1 in his 16th season at Tonkawa. He started his JC coaching career with a four-year stint at Connors State - during a time when there was a big money crunch - and then spent seven seasons at Carl Albert, where he in essence had no scholarship money and no meals and housing for his players, which makes his feat all that more remarkable. "We did the Carl Albert thing more or less off the cuff," said Weiberg. "Me getting 500 wins means that I had a lot of players who put out a lot of extra effort. We've not always had the resources where we have been so that makes getting there (to 500 wins) a little nicer." And, yes, for the zillionth time, Mick's brother Kevin is the Commissioner of the Big 12 Conference... Pratt is but a small dot on the map near the middle of Kansas, but first-year Coach Jan Handley hopes to change that despite being only one of two teams from the Kansas Jayhawk Conference to not make the Region VI playoffs this season. Handley had a unique season, having lived in the school's dorms, while his family resided in Blue Springs, Mo. He stayed with baseball players - not his basketball players - around him. "It's like being in college again, since I eat in the cafeteria, too," said Handley. "It's a typical dorm. With a bunch of 17, 18 and 19 year olds there is a lot of late night activity going on. Sometimes at 3 or 4 in the morning it's not unusual to hear doors banging and loud voices. I get up and tell them to go to bed."... Pete Norman isn't the kind of guy to blow his own horn, but he scored big when his Highland, Ill., team whipped Illinois Valley, 111-72, at about mid-season. It was his 200th win in nine seasons at Highland, astounding given his first team was 9-22. That means Norman has averaged 24 wins in the eight other teams he has coached. "It's a sign of good players," said Norman, whose team was 28-4 as of early March.. "The thing we are most proud of here is our graduation rate." Ninety percent of his sophomores have graduated, including eight of nine sophomores of a year ago. "That's very important," he said. "It's what we are all about." Norman was speaking of junior colleges in general and Highland in particular... In the Division II ranks, sixth-year coach Paul Bryant of Sinclair, Ohio - yes, he has the same name as the late Alabama football coach - just put the lid on his first losing record as a head coach at the Dayton-based school, and it wasn't much fun. "It was tough, but us guys in juco rebuild every year and so it won't be anything new for me to do it next season," said Bryant, who has a 102-58 mark at Sinclair, 12-14 on the just concluded campaign. "If anything, it motivates me to do better next season." Bryant lost two players to injuries and two to academic problems - all four players were starters - and so he went into 2003 minus some 60 points and 25 rebounds. Bryant says - in jest - that on the recruiting trail this time around he's shooting to get smarter players who won't get hurt next season... Former JC coaches of NJCAA Division I tournament champions in the 1990s include: Bob Marlin of Pensacola, Fla. in 1990 (Sam Houston State, Texas) and Steve McClain of Hutchinson, Kans., in 1994 (Wyoming)... A tip of the derby to Joe O'Brien of Southeastern, Burlington, Iowa (29-1) and Vance Walberg of Fresno City (33-1), whose teams finished No. 1 in the final NJCAA and California regular season polls. Winning is old hat for O'Brien, who coached SE Iowa to a 2000 NJCAA tournament title, while Walberg is in his first season at Fresno.... Elsewhere in California, coach Frank Carbajal of Hartnell coached his 1,000th game at season's end when his team lost to San Jose. Ironically, coach Percy Carr of San Jose won his 600th game spanning 27 years last season by beating, you guessed it, Hartnell. "We have been friends for 30 years but he has two landmark wins over me," said Carbajal. "That is taking friendship too far."... John Chambers is in icon in west coast juco coaching circles and rightly so. But he hopes to retire in June of 2004, saying he may stay in the athletic director's position next season and not coach. Chambers has posted a hefty 701-353 record in just over three decades at Mt. San Jacinto - including a 23-11 going into this year's state tournament - and two at Barstow. Most notable among Chambers' alumni is Jamaal Tinsley, ex-Iowa State star and now with the Indiana Pacers. "John Chambers symbolizes what a California Community College coach should be," said Carbajal. "He has not only won on the floor, but has been, for a very long period of time, instrumental in all the policies of the California Community College Men's Basketball Coaches Association. As a member of the CCCMBCA Board he has been through all the tough battles which the Board has fought to make the men's playoff system the crown jewel of all sports in the state. He has been very unselfish with his time for the good of all the coaches in the state." Countless of Chambers' colleagues would, no doubt, agree... Among recent retirees or retiring after this campaign are Pete Pontacq of Skyline, Bill Treglown of Redwoods (500-485 in 33 years despite being in a remote part of the state and having a small recruiting base) and Ed Boyle of Mendocino... More often than not, coaches move from an assistant coaching position to a head coaching spot, but not Tandy Gillis. Gillis stepped down as the head coach at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, in 1991-92 after fashioning a 244-228 record in 15 seasons - his Pirates won the school's lone state championship in 1979 with a 27-5 team that included Steve Timmons, a USA Olymic volleyball team star - and became an assistant coach at Irvine Valley, where he just completed his seventh season. Orange Coast and Irvine Valley are both in the Orange Empire Conference... And lest we forget, from the NBA: new Los Angeles Clippers coach Dennis Johnson played at Los Angeles Harbor College JC.
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