Filed under: WNBAWASHINGTON -- Time and circumstance have changed the meaning of "40 minutes of hell" for Nolan Richardson.
When the concept originated over 20 years ago when he was the biggest name in Arkansas -- save for a certain future president -- Richardson could sit back and watch his Razorbacks harass opponents seemingly from the time their bus arrived in Fayetteville to the time they boarded to slink home, usually with a loss.
For the past three months, however, the idea of 40 minutes of hell was the nightmare Richardson lived over and over again -- 28 losses in 34 games to be precise -- as head coach and general manager of the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA.
For a proud man like Richardson, 68, who came out of retirement to write a new final chapter for his basketball biography, this foray into women's basketball and the losing that came with it were eye-opening experiences.
"I just feel disappointed that I haven't done a better job at getting us a little better equipped to play," said Richardson before a game at Washington earlier this month.
"Then I looked and saw Atlanta go 4-30 with an expansion team and Seattle goes 6-26. I'm saying, 'Well, that's kind of par for the course.' It's a team right now trying to put all its pieces together. And that's what we're doing."
Richardson, the only coach to win junior college, NIT and NCAA championships, was as big a figure as any in college basketball in the 1990s.
He built the Arkansas program from the ground floor, taking the Razorbacks to three Final Fours, two national title games and the championship in 1994.
However, after reaching the Sweet 16 or better for four straight years, Richardson's teams couldn't get past the second round of the NCAA tournament for five straight seasons.
Then, in 2001-02, Arkansas had a 14-15 season, only the second sub-.500 campaign of Richardson's 22-year collegiate coaching career. He might have survived had he not hit Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles with discrimination accusations.
tweetcount_src = 'RT @FanHouse:'; tweetcount_via = false; tweetcount_size = 'small'; tweetcount_background = 'FFFFFF'; tweetcount_border = 'CCCCCC'; tweetcount_api_key = '1cf4e3b7f7f20406a9dd9d1b1edc0e41b4fc20d1b21cb19a6f169387c696d333'; Broyles fired Richardson, who, in turn, filed a discrimination suit against the school and the athletic department. The suit was dismissed in 2004, but the controversy made Richardson radioactive in hiring circles.
He took stints coaching the Panamanian and Mexican national teams, but he had not coached in this country until friends in the Tulsa ownership group convinced him to take over their team for three years.
The Shock, while in Detroit, were a proud franchise, with three league titles, and a reputation for toughness under former Piston "Bad Boy" Bill Laimbeer.
However, a confluence of events -- the death of owner William Davidson, Laimbeer's departure early last season and the sale of the team by the Davidson family -- landed the Shock in Tulsa.
Guard Katie Smith opted to go to Washington, where she has led the Mystics to their best season in franchise history, while forward Taj McWilliams-Franklin went to New York, the No. 2 seed in the East. Center Cheryl Ford stayed out this season, presumably to rest her ailing knee, and speedy guard Deanna Nolan elected to stay in Europe to play.
Eventually, though, Richardson cleaned the roster of every remnant of the Detroit era, essentially turning the Shock into a de facto expansion team.
"If you look at our team, it's not an expansion team where you can go pick some players. We have players that were not on teams. We're a cut below an expansion team."
-- Nolan Richardson He even took a highly publicized flier on Marion Jones, the disgraced former sprinter, who had not played organized basketball since her junior year at North Carolina 13 years before.
"It's been a transformation from trying to get a team that will eventually be the kind of team that I want on the floor all the time," Richardson said. "That, to me, is the hardest thing. If you look at our team, it's not an expansion team where you can go pick some players. We have players that were not on teams. We're a cut below an expansion team."
Of course, Richardson's decision to attempt to implement a defensive style that was completely foreign to his players was no insignificant factor in the free fall the Shock went through.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment