Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman reacts throughout the second half of a Candy 16 sport towards Oral Roberts within the NCAA males’s faculty basketball match at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Saturday, March 27, 2021, in Indianapolis. (AP Photograph/Jeff Roberson)
AP
The matchup between Arkansas’ Eric Musselman and Baylor’s Scott Drew within the South Area last Monday night time options coaches who’ve constructed on their dads’ successes.
Musselman’s late father, Invoice, coached at Minnesota within the early Seventies and made stops on the highest and lowest ranges of professional basketball. Drew’s father, Homer, was coach at Valparaiso for 22 years and went to the NCAA Event seven occasions.
Eric Musselman coached professional ball for practically a quarter-century earlier than he entered the faculty sport 9 years in the past. Drew, who labored for his father at Valpo, took over then-scandal-plagued Baylor 18 years in the past and turned it right into a Huge 12 energy.
The 56-year-old Musselman mentioned there by no means was a query he would get into teaching.
“My father was my idol, my finest buddy,” he mentioned. “For Halloween, I wished to be a coach. After college, once I was in grade college, my mother would drop me off at my dad’s practices, and I’d keep till 10:00 or 11:00 at night time till he’d end breaking down movie or having employees conferences. I simply wished to stroll in his footsteps.”
The subsequent technology of teaching Musselmans is being developed. Michael Musselman is in his second season as Arkansas’ director of recruiting. That adopted his one yr as a graduate assistant for his dad at Nevada.
“I’ve a youthful son in faculty,” Eric mentioned, “and I do know he desires to get into teaching when he graduates from the College of San Diego.”
Musselman mentioned numerous coaches’ sons keep away from the enterprise as a result of they perceive how worrying a life it may be.
“It’s a dialog that my mom and I had a number of, a number of occasions once I determined to get into teaching, simply how troublesome it’s,” he mentioned. “Coaches get fired, and it impacts household. However it’s what I liked. However I used to be warned by my mother, I promise you that.”
The teaching bug additionally bit Scott Drew’s brother. Bryce Drew, 46, is in his first yr at Grand Canyon after head teaching stints at Vanderbilt and Valpo.
“We’ve got an incredible mentor,” Scott mentioned of their dad. “There’s a cause he’s within the Corridor of Fame. Each of us had been blessed to be taught from him. Nearly as good a coach as he’s, he’s a greater father.”
HOOP CITY
Spokane, Washington, already was going to get loads of consideration on this match because of No. 1 general seed Gonzaga.
Stunning Elite Eight group Oregon State additionally has a robust connection to the Lilac Metropolis. The Twelfth-seeded Beavers will face No. 2 seed Houston on Monday within the Midwest Area last, whereas Gonzaga will play within the West Area last on Tuesday.
Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle reminisced Sunday about rising up in Spokane within the Nineteen Eighties when town’s basketball scene started taking off. That is when John Stockton starred at Gonzaga earlier than his Corridor of Fame profession with the Utah Jazz.
Tinkle starred at Ferris Excessive Faculty within the early Nineteen Eighties earlier than taking part in at Montana. Tinkle’s daughter, Elle, performed at Gonzaga.
Tinkle mentioned he shared a birthday textual content with Stockton just lately and had a chat with Gonzaga coach Mark Few once they bumped into one another at Victory Area in Indianapolis.
“There’s numerous good athletes that come out of Spokane, not simply basketball,” Tinkle mentioned. “However it does make me proud that I as soon as had a hand and a part of the historical past there so far as basketball goes.”
HOOSIER CONNECTIONS
There may not be any Indiana groups left within the match. There nonetheless are some Hoosiers.
Two former Indiana coaches, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson and Oregon State affiliate head coach Kerry Rupp, beforehand labored in Bloomington, and Arkansas’ Justin Smith performed three seasons with the Hoosiers earlier than transferring.
Rupp spent two seasons on the employees of Mike Davis, who was Bob Knight’s successor in 2000. Sampson changed Davis in 2006. Smith was recruited by Tom Crean, who changed Sampson in 2008, and performed for the just lately fired Archie Miller.
And if UCLA wins, assistant coach Michael Lewis would be a part of the checklist. He was a captain on Knight’s last Indiana group in 1999-2000 and graduated because the Hoosiers’ profession assists chief with 545. Lewis is now second all-time behind Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell (633).
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AP Sports activities Writers Tim Sales space and Steve Megargee contributed to this report.
