Stan Van Champion?

Got this email from Chris Earl today:

Tellin’ you, Scott.

Stan Van Gundy will hold the Larry O’Brien Trophy in his hands in 10 days ...

And it will be a glorious day. A glorious day.

Here is my enduring memory of Stan Van Gundy: It's New Year's Eve 1994. My parents had gotten me tickets for the UW-Marquette game, and we're sitting at the Bradley Center watching the Badgers get their asses kicked soundly by MU, with the crowd full of former, current, and future dentists and xylophone players giving me and my fellow Badgers all sorts of hell.

And what comeback did we have? Here we had a future NBA All-Star, Michael Finley; the most highly-recruited player ever to matriculate at Madison, Rashard Griffith; experience in Andy Kilbride and Brian Kelley; and a promising point guard in Darnell Hoskins. And when it was all said and done, Stan Van Gundy had led this crew to a losing record.


How did that happen? How did he get the Magic, minus their All-Star point guard; with a center who previously couldn't shoot free throws; with two soft forwards; with J.J. Redick and Mickael Pietrus playing key minutes at shooting guard; how did he get this team to the Finals, where they have a decent shot at upsetting the Lakers?

Maybe the guy can actually coach. The huddle shots during the Eastern Conference finals showed two different coaches -- Van Gundy feverishly encouraging his team, drawing up plays in one, Mike Brown standing back while his players appeared to run things in the other. Stan drew up some awesome plays; I forget which game it was, but he drew up a halfcourt play that got Rashard Lewis open for a go-ahead 3-pointer that was a thing of beauty.

Maybe he just didn't get a fair shake in Madison. If memory serves, he was retained after Stu Jackson's departure to keep Rashard around and keep the key recruiter on Sam Okey around. But he obviously was lacking at the time in either the X's and O's department (doubtful) or the chemistry-fostering department (more likely). Also, despite the star power on the roster, there was little or no depth, and key players like Kilbride and Kelley had limited games.

It would have been interesting to see what Stan would have done had he been given the chance to lead the Wisconsin program for a few years. The program and roster obviously took a completely different direction with the arrival of Dick Bennett, one which led to more sustained success than the program has ever seen, success which continues today. But given the coaching chops Van Gundy has shown since, it's a decent bet that we would have seen similar success, just in a very different way.

We'll see about your prediction, Chris, but if Stan is holding that trophy in two weeks, I'll be most excited to see the endorsement deals he ends up with. Subway, anyone?

Badgers basketball coaching tree

It's funny: when doing the Wisconsin football coaching tree, I was able to remember dozens of former assistant coaches, even guys who were only with the program for a couple years. But when trying to remember basketball assistants, I drew a blank. Thankfully the media guide materials available for download at uwbadgers.com has a list of all former assistant coaches, just as it did for football.

Writing this before I start the compilation, my gut feeling is that this list might be even more impressive than the football list. Let's see.

-Stu Jackson, executive vice president of basketball operations for the NBA. The man who really got the ball rolling on the Badgers' basketball renaissance is in the news a lot, mostly for suspension and referee-related issues.

-Stan Van Gundy, head coach of the Orlando Magic. Stan Van was the head man during my freshman year, 1994-95, arguably the most underachieving team in UW athletic history. How do you finish with a losing record with Rashard Griffith, Michael Finley, and others? Still, if Pat Riley had an ounce of selflessness in his body, Stan would have won an NBA title with the Heat two years ago, on the heels of the league refs' Dwayne Wade free throw-a-thon. Good for him.

-Tony Bennett, one of the hottest coaches in the nation for the job he's doing at Washington State. Give Dick a lot of credit for his plan, it worked out well for both WSU and his son. My gut says that Tony should move on to a better job after this season, since he'll lose a lot from a veteran team. Maybe he, not Jeter, is Bo's heir apparent.

-Rob Jeter, leading a baffling turnaround at UWM. If he gets some more talented kids who play with the kind of chemistry and fire his current kids are playing, they'll be a force.

-Saul Phillips (left), head coach at North Dakota State. He's an up-and-comer, and has Bo's kid, Will Ryan (right - what a resemblance!), on his staff. Also of note from this staff: Dan Weisse, former UWM and Oshkosh West standout, is Saul's director of basketball operations.

-Brad Soderberg recruited the players who scored 20 points in a game for St. Louis a couple weeks ago, and current coach Rick Majerus is throwing him under the bus. Classy, Rick. (If you haven't, read the SI story about Majerus, it showed a side of him I hadn't heard about before. Interesting guy.)

-Mark Vershaw, head coach at Monmouth (Ill.) College. From the little bit I've seen, his team is struggling.

-Howard Moore returned to UW after Jeter left and is doing a nice job for Bo.

-Tracy Webster has hooked up with Billy Gillispie at Kentucky. They're struggling, last night's win over Tennessee notwithstanding, but even money says Billy has them in the Final four within five years. He just needs time to fix the roster after Tubby Smith left it relatively bare.

-Brian Hecker, scouting information director for the Miami Heat.

-Sean Miller, an assistant for one year under Stu, is the coach at Xavier and one of the real rising stars in the profession.

-Tim Buckley, an assistant under Stu, is back at Marquette after stints at Ball State and Iowa.

-Bob Beyer, the third assistant on the 1993-94 staff, is an assistant at Dayton.

-Dave Bollwinkel, an assistant under Van Gundy, is a part-time scout for the Boston Celtics after serving as St. Mary's coach.

-Ray McCallum is an assistant with Kelvin Sampson at Indiana after being a head coach at Ball State and Houston.

Whew! That's more than I thought there would be. Who am I forgetting?