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Think about it. You're sitting in front of your television set to watch a football or basketball game--college, professional, even high school--and the analysts begin to size up the opponents, the players to watch. Then it happens. Inevitably, unavoidably, in an obligatory manner, someone brings up the coaches.
"They are well-coached," he says.
When was the last time you heard a coach or TV or radio analyst or sportswriter refer to a team as being poorly coached? I can't remember. If you had, the criticism would have made headlines like Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder and Al Campanis. Every team is well-coached, right?
Not really.
It doesn't take an expert to recognize a team that isn't well-coached. What are the telltale signs? Lack of discipline and fundamentals, excessive penalties, when teams have talent but don't make necessary adjustments to achieve success.
"It isn't possible to be an elite program in college and be poorly coached unless you are a great recruiter and your talent overcomes everything else," said recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who has been observing high school and college football for 30 years.
The problem is almost every TV and radio analyst is associated with college coaches. They interview them to obtain information. If they are too negative in their evaluations or criticism, they risk losing their access to the coaches and the players.
"I hear it off the record all the time in high school and college," Lemming said. "A college coach will say a high school prospect isn't coached well, that they can team him proper fundamentals that he is lacking when they get him on campus. But they never will go on the record with a comment like that or they would never be welcome at that high school again. It's all part of doing business."
Perhaps the most publicized case of "Is his team well-coached or poorly coached?" involved former King basketball coach Landon Cox. Most critics argued that Cox was a poor coach who simply tossed the basketballs on the floor and let his enormously talented players--Efrem Winters, Marcus Liberty, Jamie Brandon, Rashard Griffith, Leon Smith--overwhelm their opponents.
I begged to differ. Yes, Cox has great talent, more than anyone else in the 1980s and early 1990s. His record proves it. He reached the 500-victory milestone more quickly than any other coach and he produced three state championship teams and one national championship team in a period of eight years.
But examine the circumstances. In an environment of broken homes and gang- and drug-infested neighborhoods, Cox was able to keep his teams together, resurrected the lives of Reggie Woodward and Johnny Selvie and dozens of others, and sent many of them to college. Without him, they never would have left the inner city. Cox had his issues but dedicating himself to his players wasn't one of them.
On top of that, suburban coaches whom I respect were always complimentary of Cox's coaching methods after observing his teams in state-tournament competition. They had direction and they had purpose. With so much individual talent on those teams (particularly 1986, 1990 and 1993), you still got a sense that he was emphasizing and teamwork and the players were buying into the system.
Cell Phone Alerts
LANDON SONNY COX DID MORE THAN JUST ROLL A BALL OUT ON THE COURT, HE COACHED AND HE WON, AND HE SENT HIS PLAYERS TO COLLEGES ALL OVER AMERICA, AND SOME TO THE LEAGUE!
YOU DON'T HAVE THE NUMBER ONE RANKING IN THE COUNTRY WITHOUT COACHING, COACH COX FROM KENTUCKY STATE UNIVERSITY THE JAZZ MAN WAS AN EXCELLENT COACH!
Phil I beg to differ. Cox cheated and poached players from other schools. Also his kids were not as successful in college as their talent dictated. None were college all-americans. None played any significant time in the NBA. Cox was an excellent recruiter not coach. And Imari Sawyer for one was hurt by playing at King. Yes his father was not a help but Cox didn't advance his skills either. Leon Smith? Thomas Hamilton? Rashard Griffith? Jamie Brandon? None of these guys lived up to their potential in college or NBA. Cox should have won more state titles with some of the talent he had.
THAT SHOWS YOU EVEN MORE WHAT A GREAT COACH LANDON SONNY COX WAS, YOU SAID I AM TALKING TO PHIL K, THAT HIS PLAYERS DIDN'T REACH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL AT THE NEXT LEVEL, MAYBE THE COACH COULDN'T BRING OUT OF THESE GUYS WHAT COACH COX WAS ABLE TO DO ON THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL, WE KNOW ABOUT THE FATHERS, THE STREET AGENTS, WE KNOW SOME LEFT EARLY FOR PRO CAREERS, BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH COACH COX, HE WORKED WITH GUYS THAT OTHERS WANTED BUT DIDN'T WANT TO REALLY DEAL WITH, HE FOUND LEON SMITH ON THE STREET, YES HE RECRUITED BUT HIS ASSISTANT COACH BERNIE PAROT COACHED RASHARD GRIFFITH IN GRADE SCHOOL, SAWYER STILL PLAYS PRO BALL BUT ON A LOWER LEVEL, COACH COX IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS YOUNG MAN NOT DOING WHAT HE SHOULD HAVE DONE AT DEPAUL, THIS ISN'T ON COACH COX, JAMIE BRANDON ATTENDED ILLINOIS, AND WASN'T TREATED VERY WELL, HE LEFT AND PLAYED WITH SHAQ AT LSU, I LIKE YOUR LAST LINE, HOW MANY GUYS IN THE CPS HAVE WON STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS, AND YOU SAY COACH COX SHOULD HAVE WON MORE, WHO DO YOU THINK THE GUY WAS HARRY HOUDINI, IT IS AMAZING HE WON WHAT HE DID, ARTHUR AGEE AND MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL WITH COACH BEDFORD DERAILED THEM THE YEAR THEY MIGHT HAVE HAD ANOTHER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM, SONNY COX WAS THE REAL DEAL, AND I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES, YOUR PLAYER'S POTENTIAL ON THE COLLEGE LEVEL AND PRO LEVEL ISN'T ON THE HIGH SCHOOL COACH, IT IS ON THE PLAYER, THEY MUST WANT TO ACHIEVE GREATNESS AFTER HIGH SCHOOL, THE PLAYER, BECAUSE THE HIGH SCHOOL COACH IS STILL AT THE HIGH SCHOOL!
I watched a number of the King teams over the years. Coach Cox could certainly coach. He made adjustments, moved players in and out, got them in the right position and mindset to win. And win they did.
Did he recruit, did good players transfer to his program -- yes they did, but it seemed like he used the rules that were in place. Same thing happens today and Coach Cox didn't invent it either.
Perhaps when his players went to college they were not in the right systems or in the right program to be successful. There are a number of reasons Chicago high school players don't do well in college - maturity being one of those. Also many of those players mentioned were "men against boys" in high school. Perhaps CPS players are over hyped - something I tend to agree with - in college they met their match.
The best public league coaches for me - Bob Hambric when he was at Simeon and Dorothy Gaters at Marshall.
Phil S. I love your comments but that all cap's type is tough to read my friend, smile.
When players uniformly underachieve as every single last major player to come out of King did under Cox's reign...Grubbs, Winters, Liberty, Brandon, Selvie, Griffith, Hamilton, Leon Smith, Sawyer, am I leaving anyone out - that is an indictment on Cox on some level. You have to step back and ask yourself why not one single all-state, all-american that he had went on to achieve at the same or a greater level in college and the pros. As for resurrecting players' lives, how'd Marcus Catchings turn out? For those who don't know, google him. Or better yet just look him up on the Illinois Dept. of Corrections website. Give me Hambric or any one of a dozen other area coaches before Cox, any day, week, month, year, decade or era.
Hey Doug, the same thing could be said of Bob Knight. The only player he coached at Indiana to play in NBA all star game was Isaih Thomas.
Landon Cox? What are you talking about. I can think of 5-6 other coaches who were a thousand times better. Bob Williams, Ron Nitcovech, Jerry Tokars, Jack Fitzgerald, Bob Hambric and so. What about Bennie Lewis and the Peoria Manual coach ? Excuse my spelling off Nitcovech. He was the coach at Lyons Township.
Didn't Sonny Cox lose a Public League Final to a team who didn't have a starter over 6'5 when he had Thomas Hamilton and Rashard Griffth? Also don't forget some of his famous incidents like pulling teams off the court. Ask Taylor Bell about some of them. Statements like Lilly White Tullups speak volumes of the guy.
St.Rita's coach Todd Kuska is overrated. How hard is it to coach against a guy who runs a kid a 165 times in six games? Providence coach Cogalianese was quoted as saying "we watched them on film, and Akui seemed to get the ball all the time". You guys seem to give him and some of the other Catholic coaches to much credit!! How hard is it to coach when you recruit, all the best kids from the city, suburbs, and Indiana? I believe a good coach is a person who can get the maximum out of what he has without all the recruiting, booster's and politics.
There are a lot of definitions of being well coached. Too many times we judge a good coach by what you see on the floor or the field.
There are some amazing coaches who you may never see or know. They may be an assistant who can keep things together, can improve skills, and helps the head coach with scouting, recruting etc... without being the head coach.
A great coach may be a guy who gets his team to play a certain way, wins, but may not be the tradiontal accepted style of what some would perceive as well coached.
A bad coach might be a guy who has a ton of talent but tries to prove to everyone he can coach. So they have a system that looks good but lacks results
Defining a well coached team is complex, however very easy for the average fan to judge whether a team is well or poorly coached.
JACK FITZGERALD WAS MY COACH, GREAT GUY, I SAW HIM AT THE LEO ALUMNI DINNER, THE GUYS YOU NAMED ARE GREAT COACHES, BUT DON'T THROW SONNY COX UNDER THE BUS, HE TOOK GUYS ALOT OF COACHES WOULDN'T HAVE DEALT WITH A MADE WINNERS OUT OF THEM, AS YOU KNOW ALOT OF COACHES RECRUIT, SO WHAT, IF THEY CAN'T WHIP THOSE GUYS INTO A TEAM, IT DOESN'T MATTER ONE BIT, COACH COX GOT THE JOB DONE, AND IN THE CPS, CPS COACHES HAVE IT REALLY ROUGH, IN THE SUBURBS YOU SHOW UP AND COACH YOUR TEAM, IN THE CPS, YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THE GYM IS OKAY, WHO IS GOING TO KEEP SCORE, WHO IS ON THE SCOREBOARD, IS THE FLOOR CLEAN, WHERE ARE THE REFS, DO YOU HAVE THE REFS CHECKS, CROWD CONTROL, TICKET TAKERS, DO YOU SEE WHERE I AM COMING FROM, COACHING IS THE EASY PART AFTER YOU GET BY THE OTHER STUFF, COACH COX IS IN THE IHSA HALL OF FAME, THE CPS HALL OF FAME, ONE OF THE FEW GUYS TO EVER HAVE A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM, WITH TWO 7 FOOTERS, THE BEST GAME I SAW, TRIPLE OVERTIME AT THE JUCO UP NORTH AGAINST MARSHALL AND THEY PULLED IT OUT!
COACH COX WILL ALWAYS BE THOUGHT OF AS A GREAT COACH!
P.S. HE HAS A MEAN JAZZ COLLECTION AS WELL!
Mr. Bell, you failed to mention that some in the newspaper business also have their favorite coaches. Now to the meat of the article, a good coach has to emphasis academics, responsibility, citizenship, career planning and the sport he was hired to coach. Molding and managing students from various backgrounds and aspirations is not an easy task. Coaches also have to deal with parents, administrators and community leaders that want to put their two cents worth in. My hat goes off to all of them on every level. Why some students fail at the collegiate level is beyond my knowledge. However, in the workplace I have seen technician respond positive to one manager and not another. To be very frank we all have our favorites who we would like to be working for us, including who we would like to work for.
@ Jeff - Cox had way more high school all-americans by pct of overall players coached that Knight or most coaches ever did. His players underachieved, and I'd defy anyone to refute that with facts. Not to mention that Knight is a college coach, give me a high school coach with that many high school all-americans that have underperformed 100% of the sample size.