Cremins back in the game at Charleston

Nov. 1, 2006

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -Bobby Cremins sat in his office among the pictures and mementos, wondering if all his successes had grown stale.

"After six years," Cremins says, "people forget. And people were starting to forget, I could see."

Forget what? His shock of white hair? The thick Bronx accent that belies nearly four decades below the Mason-Dixon line?

No, the College of Charleston's new basketball coach worried people wouldn't remember how for 19 seasons at Georgia Tech he took on the biggest teams in the country's best league, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and won more than his share.

"I was really getting bored and I felt like I had something left in me," he said.

So when the Cougars needed someone to revive a slumping program, the 59-year-old coach gave up his morning walks on the beach and endless rounds of golf to get back in the game. Since he took over in July, he's been celebrated as if he had just won the NCAA tournament.

"Honestly, I don't think it could've worked out any better. ... His work ethic, his commitment are just unbelievable." - Jerry Baker, College of Charleston Diretor of Athletics

"Everybody," he says, "thinks I'm Johnny Wooden."

In this seaside city, no one is looking for him to match the UCLA great. Former Cougar great John Kresse is another matter.

Kresse, like Cremins, is a New Yorker who made his name in the South. He coached Charleston to four NCAA tournament trips and remains one of the most popular figures on campus.

Cremins was a star guard at South Carolina, brought South by the late coach Frank McGuire. He got his head coaching start at Appalachian State, leading the Mountaineers to an NCAA tournament berth in 1979. Georgia Tech called in 1981 and Cremins began a run in which the Yellow Jackets became a three-time ACC champion, reached the 1990 Final Four and stood sneaker-to-sneaker with league powers like North Carolina and Duke.

Cremins admits he could have done better handling discipline and personnel issues near the end of his stay at Georgia Tech.

He resigned in 2000 and retired to Hilton Head Island, enjoying its clean white beaches and seemingly endless golf courses. He filled the winter months as a college basketball analyst, staying close to the game through a color monitor. Every so often, Cremins got a call from a school like Oregon State or Massachusetts gauging his coaching interest.

The past few seasons, though, such calls came less frequently and Cremins wondered if he'd ever coach again. It took a serendipitous nod to Cremins' lowest moment to bring him back.

Charleston bought out coach Tom Herrion in June and hired one of Kresse's most popular and successful assistants, Winthrop's Gregg Marshall. But as Cremins did after taking the South Carolina job in 1993, Marshall told the Cougars one day later he would remain with Winthrop.

"He pulled a Bobby Cremins," Cremins joked. "I feel for him. I know what he's going through."

Cremins says reneging on South Carolina devastated him. He needed time away and a psychiatrist's help to move forward.

"I hope to write a book about that someday," he said.

The Cougars play at South Carolina on Dec. 5, Cremins' return to his alma mater.

Charleston athletic director Jerry Baker said Cremins' hiring both calmed and energized the campus.

"Honestly, I don't think it could've worked out any better," he said. "You have to concentrate on where you end up and we have ended up in a great place. ... His work ethic, his commitment are just unbelievable."

Cremins has had much work to do in little time. None of Charleston's recruits followed after the coaching change. There were camps to attend and contacts to make. He also had to make sure players got to class.

"There are some things that are still a pain in the butt," Cremins said.

At one time, Cremins could lure high school stars like Kenny Anderson and Stephon Marbury with the promise of the ACC spotlight. Now his trademark recruiting pitch doesn't always work. Cremins said he lost one prospect to Georgia, another to South Carolina.

Perhaps Cremins' best move so far, his players say, was restoring order. Cremins saw his players' school work and told them, "You don't go to class, you don't play." He laid down rules from the outset.

"We were looking for that," guard Dontaye Draper said. "If you're not doing it, then you're out of here. That's how you roll. If you're not with the game plan, your gone."

The school sold out its 2,000 season tickets for the first time since 1998-99 - the last of Kresse's NCAA appearances. Some fans sported Cremins' white-hair wigs during the school's "Maroon Madness" scrimmage last month.

"His energy level is unbelievable," Baker said. "He does everything with a smile and a top 10 attitude."

Cremins makes his debut when Charleston opens the season Nov. 11 at Georgia State.

For now, Cremins and his staff are meetings in temporary offices - an old bank vault downtown - while the school builds a 5,000-seat, $36 million arena.

Wife Carolyn and their dog, Murphy, drop in to say hi - the Creminses live only blocks away in a condo - along with a steady stream of excited fans.

"When I first went to Appalachian State and Georgia Tech and people said, 'Who's Bobby Cremins?"' he said. "I come here and it's like I was national coach of the year last year."

Cremins hopes he can live up to the expectations, but after six years away from the game he's ready to try.

"You know, I really needed this challenge," he said.