Dean
Smith passed away on Saturday night, February 7, 2015.
For a huge percentage of today’s basketball
players, that occurrence has little to no meaning.
“Old” guys like me are supposed to mourn such
a passage as the inevitable slipping away of our childhood, and perhaps
there
is an element of that feeling within me at this time, but I hope I can
make a
convincing argument that his passing contains elements that resonate
far more
deeply.
The
plaudits emanating from the sports world, including former players and
friends,
speak far more eloquently to the character of the man than I can, but
as a
young man interested in basketball, I was as influenced in my thinking
by Dean
Smith as I was with those two other giants of the sport (at least in my
mind),
John Wooden and Sam Mandich. Though
many
others have focused on how committed Smith was to his players, his
exceptional
memory, his forward-looking racial policies, or how insightful he was
about
details of the game, I was most impressed by his ability to adapt his
strategy
to the talent he had on his current team.
Over
the years, I watched in
fascination as he changed offensive and defensive strategies to best
utilize
the players he had on his teams. I
am
sure that he had specific recruiting strategies, but it sometimes
seemed as
though any one team was vastly different from what he had had just a
couple of
seasons previous. Regardless,
the teams
were always well-drilled and completely disciplined to carry out the
plan at
that particular time. Far
from being
mechanical, it was a continuing lesson in basketball art. The loss I feel most
greatly at Smith’s
passing is the likelihood that that art is also
slipping away.
As
I have expressed in a previous
journal, neither young players nor their coaches seem very interested
in the art of basketball these days. Too many teams rely on
sheer physical talent
as opposed to developing the skills that the game requires. Athleticism, as it has in
so many other sports,
is taking precedence over skill, which in turn is leading to a decline
in the
game that may be irreversible. Shooting
percentages continue to drop, even though slam dunks are more common at
every
level. In most
cases, this also
propagates a sloppiness that is beginning to render the game nearly
unwatchable
(except by those who know no better).
One
of the flashpoints of criticism
Coach Smith endured was when he installed his famous 4-Corners Offense. Designed to emphasize his
team’s dribbling,
passing, and discipline against opponents who were taller and more
talented, it
was a marvel to watch. The
utter
frustration of other teams’ players and coaches against what was
seemingly a
simple strategy was amazing to see.
How
could something so simple confuse the best athletes in the game and the
smartest coaches in the country? The
standard answer was, “It bored them to death.”
The outcry was loud and anguished until, as one
contemporary put it, “He
forced them to put in the shot clock.”
Having
coached the game for 30
years, I have seen numerous changes in the rules, most of which were
constructed to remove strategies like the 4-Corners from the game. I firmly believe this to
be a shame. One of
the great elements of sports includes
not only the test of physical skills played out by the competitors, but
the test
of mental skills between the coaches.
For the players it is all about the moment – explosive,
intelligent
reaction to the athletes on the other team, albeit within a certain
structure. For the
coaches it goes much deeper –
scouting, planning, practice drills, skill-matching, in-game
adjustments, and
the course of strategy that will make it all come together. Slowly but surely, changes
in the rules have
diminished the coaching side of that equation.
Whether the motivation for those changes can be traced to
fans, media,
players, less competent coaches, or AAU is a debate for another day,
but I
strongly believe that the quality of the game has diminished as a
result, and
is unlikely to recover.
To
me, the passing of Dean Smith is
symbolic of the passing of a great era in the history of the game. Today’s coaches are
certainly intelligent
people, capable of innovations of their own, but hampered by a system
that is
more focused on creating a fast-paced, high-scoring game that
diminishes the
effects of good defense. When
a team
like our current Mountaineers plays an aggressive, full-court pressure,
referees call fouls at a ridiculous rate.
Shot clocks speed up the pace of play to the point that
strategy is
nearly pointless. The
3-point line
results in every team bombing up shots from a range
that is statistically
less productive than the higher-percentage shots offenses used to work
hard
for. Interpretation
of player-control
fouls, traveling violations, 5-second violations, and offensive use of
the
arm-bar have all been liberalized to allow more “flow” (read: scoring)
in the
game. This may
please wags like Jay
Bilas, but those of us who love the entirety of the
game must be
dismayed.