Good read, comparing UNC to UCLA, from those on the West coast

DECLINE? UNC hopes not to repeat UCLA's path
By John Delong, Winston-Salem Journal Reporter


There have been times when North Carolina's basketball program would have happily welcomed any comparisons to UCLA's.

There have been times when North Carolina would have gladly followed UCLA's lead and enjoyed the successes that went along with it.

But as Carolina continues its search for a new head coach, such comparisons are not so flattering. They're downright scary, in fact.

UCLA has gone through seven coaches since John Wooden retired 28 years ago, and earlier this month went through another change when Steve Lavin was fired after a 10-19 season - the school's first losing season in 77 years.

The program had three different head coaches in the first five years after Wooden's retirement.

UCLA is no longer the epitome of college basketball, rather, it's the poster child for how hard it can be to replace a legend.

UNC, similarly, is looking for its third coach since Dean Smith retired in 1997. Matt Doherty resigned amid controversy recently after a 19-16 season in which the Tar Heels finished seventh in the ACC and missed making the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, and the search is starting to drag on.

Those who lived through the post-Wooden days at UCLA see common threads in the two situations, although they're also quick to point out that these are different times, with different rules and different challenges facing all programs.

They generally agree that the events of the coming week could determine whether Carolina rights its ship and sails back into the national limelight - or continues to experience more of the choppy waters that UCLA had to endure.

The job has been offered to Roy Williams, a Carolina grad and assistant under Smith before leaving 15 years ago to take over another tradition-laden program at Kansas - and Williams is expected to make a decision by Monday.

"They are at a crossroads," Marques Johnson, a star at UCLA in the '70s, said recently. "This is a big decision. I think what North Carolina has to do right now is get a coach in there that's going to be there 12 or 13 years and give them some longevity and stability again.

"They need a guy who can come in and get everyone on the same page again, because from what I understand there's division with the players, the media, the alumni, the fans, the students. It's really important for them to get the right guy now. If they get the right guy, they're still North Carolina. Thing is, I thought Matt Doherty was going to be the right guy."

Gene Bartow, the man who succeeded Wooden at UCLA in 1975 but lasted just two seasons, figures that North Carolina can't go wrong with either Williams or Larry Brown.

"A guy like Roy could come right in and get them back to where they want to be," Bartow said. "I think Larry Brown could, too. Roy has been successful, and he knows what the expectations are like there, so all that would be like water off the ducks' back to him. Roy and Larry both would be able to handle all that. If they can find a way to convince Roy to take the job, I think they'll be fine."

Gary Cunningham, a longtime Wooden assistant who succeeded Bartow as UCLA's head coach before also leaving after two years, emphasizes that the focus should be on the positives of the job, not the negatives.

"Coach Wooden was a great coach, and Coach Smith was a great coach, and they set the bar for excellence," Cunningham said. "I can't speak for North Carolina, but I can speak for UCLA and there were a lot of expectations.

"But when I look at UCLA, and when I look at North Carolina, I see great opportunities there. You have all the tradition with the championships. You have All-Americans from the past. You have a lot of things going for you. If you understand college basketball today, there's pressure at all of your high-profile programs. People are paying big salaries, and they're expecting big returns. I'm not convinced that the pressure at UCLA or North Carolina is any greater than it is at Duke or any other high-profile program right now. So you have to look at all the positives the program has to offer."

Cunningham, Bartow and Johnson are all quick to stress that they've followed the North Carolina situation only from a distance. Cunningham is the athletics director at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Bartow is semi-retired and is working as a consultant for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies. Johnson serves as a college basketball analyst for Fox Sports Net, working out of Los Angeles.

The 'nut element'
Bartow and Johnson are also quick to point out that there are factors now that weren't nearly as prevalent in the early post-Wooden years.

The advent of the Internet and the increase in media coverage, particularly in the form of sports-talk radio, has created more scrutiny of programs - along with more criticism.

"There is what I refer to as the nut element that you have to deal with now, with all the message boards on the Internet and the radio talk shows," Bartow said. "It's gotten out of hand, really. Back when I was at UCLA, it was before the Internet, and there was only one sports-talk show in Los Angeles, and it still made me queasy to hear all the things that were being said.

"I can only imagine how tough it is now. Here you think you're doing a pretty good job, and then it gets out that your players are all unhappy, and then you've got the AD meeting with the players to find out what's going on and you're getting it from all different angles. The whole media situation has changed with the nut element."

Johnson, who played his first two seasons under Wooden and his final two for Bartow, figures that the problems between Carolina players and Doherty - which Athletics Director Dick Baddour alluded to when he announced Doherty's resignation - are in a way a by-product of the times, too.

Johnson played in an era when underclassmen paid their dues, worked their way into stardom as upperclassmen, and didn't even think about playing in the NBA until after they had graduated. Today, the process is speeded up greatly with so many players jumping to the NBA well before their college eligibility expires.

"I was a big-time recruit, but when I was at UCLA there was a pecking order, and you came in with the thought that you would blossom over time," Johnson said. "When I got to UCLA, it was Dave Meyers' time, not mine. I remember I got taken out of the starting lineup 10 games into the season. I was disappointed, but it wasn't any real big deal. I knew my day would come.

"You take a kid out of the starting lineup today and there's a big ruckus. These kids come in today and they're looking to showcase their talents so they can go on to the NBA. Let's face it, there are some exceptions, but you're not looking to play four years of college anymore. If a kid's thinking he should be going pro after his sophomore year and things aren't going the way he wants them midway through his freshman year, you've got unhappy players and unhappy families."

Strong resemblance
Up to now, though, the parallels in the early post-Wooden years and the post-Smith years have been striking.

Wooden retired in 1975 after winning 10 NCAA championships, including an unprecedented seven straight from 1966 through '73. He was 620-147 in 27 seasons.

Bartow, who had built a strong program at Memphis State, won the Pac-10 championship and went 28-4 in his first season but lost to Indiana in the Final Four semifinals. He went 24-5 the next year and again won the Pac 10, but lost in the West Regional final to Idaho State. That's a 52-9 record for two seasons - his winning mark of .852 was actually higher than Wooden's career .808 - but it mattered little at the time.

"Coach Bartow had no idea how tough that job was until he got there," Johnson said. "It's a monster that eats its young. He'd had a successful program at Memphis State, and they were the only game in town, and he was never second-guessed or anything. But from the time he got to UCLA, it was constantly 'What's wrong with the Bruins?' It ate him up."

Bartow admitted he wasn't prepared for the scrutiny.

"When I came in, we were winning big, we won the conference championships, we had seven or eight high school All-Americans and recruiting was going well, but there was still just this swirl of unrest and hatred all the time," Bartow said. "I just couldn't understand why all that should be happening. When you won, you didn't win by enough. Or people didn't like the way you won.

"That's not the only reason I left. If the money would have been good, I probably would have hung around until they ran me off, which probably would have been a couple more years. But it wasn't a big-money job back then. John Wooden was still around and he kept the camp business and the radio show, and my job was just horrible financially. So when UAB came and offered the money they offered, it was kind of a no-brainer for me."

That sounds a lot like the situation at Carolina after Smith retired in 1997.

Bill Guthridge, Smith's longtime assistant, went 80-28 in three seasons with two trips to the Final Four, going 34-4 in 1997-98, 24-10 in 1998-99, and 22-14 in his final season.

But Guthridge was widely criticized for a variety of perceived shortcomings -- not being excitable enough on the bench, not recruiting well enough, etc. - and so his tenure ended as abruptly and unceremoniously as Bartow's.

Cunningham stayed only two years as Bartow's successor, and UCLA has gone through Larry Brown, Larry Farmer, Walt Hazzard, Jim Harrick and Lavin since. There has been one national championship in that time, in 1995 under Harrick, and one other trip to the Final Four, in '80 under Brown. But there has also been NCAA probation during the Brown and Farmer eras.

 

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In search of stability
With Guthridge and Doherty each gone after three seasons, Carolina runs a risk of falling into the same pattern.

"There are common threads, and the biggest common threads are the expectations and the pressures," Johnson said. "It can create a vicious cycle. When you have a lot of coaching changes, the program doesn't have stability and continuity. And it can turn into a circus. That's what UCLA had in '88 when it looked like (Jim) Valvano was coming and then Larry Brown was going to come back and then he didn't. You've got to keep it from becoming a circus."

It remains to be seen if Carolina can do that.

"There are only a handful of situations like this," Bartow said. "Alabama football was like that after Coach Bryant retired, although it was a little different because he died two or three years later. I suspect Florida State football will be like that when Bobby Bowden retires, and Penn State when Joe Paterno retires.

"I used to talk to Ray Perkins about that when he was at Alabama. That's just the way it is. At UCLA, people will be comparing the coach to John Wooden for the next 50 years. And they'll be comparing the coach at North Carolina to Dean Smith for a long time, too."

 

It sucks the UNC is going through this but its nothing unique.

Look at what Alabama went through when Bear Bryant left - they've had success but also went through tough times and a bunch of coaches. Same way at Ohio State when Hayes left.

Kentucky has had sucess but also was a team on the outs at times and has run through their share of coaches.

Indiana may still be in the same boat. Mike Davis almost quit but then hung in there. It remains to be seen how long he makes it.

Johnson is right though - the best way to overcome it is to find that next coach that can pull everyone together and stay a long time. Thats why Williams is the best option. Brown can come in and do the job but in 5 or 6 years he'll retire and its time to start all over again. I just hope the fans will stay off Williams back and not be ready to dump him if he hasn't won a title in his first 5 years.

It must scare the shit out of the dookies to know they will be going through this same shit in the next 10 years. Once Kasdasiddgasi is gone the next guy in will be under MEGA scrutiny just like all these other coaches were.