Friday, February 29, 2008

Mayer

Mayer: Leopard, kitty, antelope

By Bill Mayer

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Didn't catch the name of the television throat who said it, but it's a classic sports quote, colorful and incisive.

Announcers were discussing why most basketball superstars don't prove to be highly successful coaches while so many unsung spear-carriers register win after win.

They noted that ultra-talented people like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird get impatient and short-tempered when more ordinary humans don't do things as easily as they did with guile and grace. Big-timers rely so much on bare ability that they don't study the game and its nuances as a lower-echelon performer must do just to get playing time. The icons can look to big money as professionals. Others decide to make a living as coaches.

Then came this gem from one of the ex-jocks at the microphone: "It's this simple: A leopard can't teach a house cat how to catch an antelope."

You needn't spend hours watching Animal Planet to get that drift.

One icon who defies the big star-marginal coach notion is John Wooden. He won 10 NCAA titles in 12 years at UCLA after making All-America three times as a Purdue guard. He retired with a 664-172 record. John was an incomparable leopard who brilliantly upgraded a lot of house cats to nail antelopes.

Bob Knight, who recently retired after 902 victories and three NCAA titles, never was a starter at Ohio State in 1959-61. However, Tennessee's Pat Summitt, Knight's female counterpart, was a highly notable player who fits into the Wooden niche.

Take Dean Smith (879 wins, two NCAAs) at North Carolina and Adolph Rupp (876 victories, four crowns). Both were scrubs as collegians - where else but at Kansas under Phog Allen, the father of basketball coaching? Doc (746 victories, three national crowns) was like Wooden and Summitt - a brilliant athlete in several sports who became an osteopathic genius and worked countless miracles.

Roy Williams was a low-hope walk-on at North Carolina, under Smith, but now has an NCAA title and is near 500 victories. Arch-rival Mike Krzyzewski at Duke is nearing 800 wins to go with his three college titles. He was a solid but not spectacular guard under Bob Knight at Army.

Hank Iba was a good athlete and won two titles and 764 games, mainly at Oklahoma State. A prize pupil, Eddie Sutton, just topped 800 victories (no NCAA title) and was a top-notch player under Hank, helping to spring an upset of Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain in 1957.

Two "local" guys who unfairly are overlooked as terrific coaches AND outstanding athletes are Chanute native Ralph Miller and Norm Stewart, the hard-nosed all-league guard at Missouri. Miller was one of the greatest high school athletes in Kansas history, then brilliant as a football and basketball star at KU. He won 657 games at Wichita, Iowa and Oregon State. Stewart bagged 728 at Northern Iowa and Missouri. Miller started for KU's 1940 NCAA finalists.

Larry Brown, John Chaney, Lute Olson, Jim Boeheim, Jerry Tarkanian, Jim Calhoun and Denny Crum displayed varying degrees of excellence as players and became many-win coaches. Unheralded John McLendon hurdled countless obstacles to win 496 games at five schools. He interned at Kansas under Phog Allen and James Naismith when blacks could not compete. We'll never know how good he was as a player.

Sure, there have been player leopards like Wooden and Phog. Yet more often than not, sharp, wily and imaginative house cats like Knight, Smith, Rupp and Williams have hamstrung more antelopes.

Comments

jaybate (anonymous) says...

Here's a thought, Bill.

Maybe the reason fewer leopards than house cats have taught house cats to catch antelopes is because there are fewer leopards than house cats.

Here's another thought, Bill.

Because there are so few leopards and so many housecats, regardless of their coaching abilities, maybe the percentage of total leopards that have actually taught house cats to catch antelopes is actually much higher than the percentage of total house cats that have taught house cats to catch antelopes.

Or wait, Bill. maybe it has to do with the fact that there are a lot more antelopes in the wilderrnesses where leopards live than in the cities where house cats live.

The more I think about this, Bill, the crappier I think the analogy is.

February 29, 2008 at 7:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

tis4tim (anonymous) says...

So, can housecats teach leopards to catch mice?

February 29, 2008 at 7:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KUbsee69 (anonymous) says...

The day before KU/KSU and we're seeing an article on "coaches as players" vs success?

The only cats I'm thinking about is the Mildcats and how I hope the "Hawks eat them alive.

BUT, OK ... can a Mildcat teach a thug to act as a human?

February 29, 2008 at 8:22 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

meremy (anonymous) says...

Jaybate-
You're right that this analogy is pretty thin, but I think that the most glaring problem is that NOTHING can teach a house cat to catch an antelope. The funny thing is that Bill's Animal Planet quote of the day actually does make sense when flipped around:
"A house cat can't teach a leopard how to catch an antelope."
Well, clearly this is the opposite of Bill's point.

Bill, cute title, ill-conceived concept.

February 29, 2008 at 8:54 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

kuelguapo (anonymous) says...

wow, jaybate... kinda being a d-bag on that one, huh? i think it's a great analogy, even if "those who can't, teach" is probably a little more succinct...

February 29, 2008 at 8:55 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

meremy (anonymous) says...

Man, after reading this again, I just can't let it drop. Bill, I guess I do need to watch some Animal Planet so that I can understand this "gem". I suppose tonight's program "Kitties teaching other Kitties how to catch Antelope" will be just the thing. They must accomplish this amazing feat in some sort of pack of hyenas, overwhelming numbers syle. 500 cats descend on one poor antelope and bring it down. Move over Michael Jordan.

February 29, 2008 at 9:12 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

Kirk (anonymous) says...

It is highly unlikely for someone to be extraordinary at two different skill sets.

It could be as simple as that. I don't follow the antelope thing.

February 29, 2008 at 9:14 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

JayCeph (anonymous) says...

Both Mangino and Rick Majerus are pretty solid coaches that were neither house cats nor leopards. I think they could be classified as water buffalo. However, I don't think water buffalo would try to catch an antelope.

Maybe if they were running from an alligator or a something...

February 29, 2008 at 9:41 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

jayhawkstacey (anonymous) says...

thanks kuelguapo, i almost said the same thing this morning but decided against it. definitely needed to be said though.

February 29, 2008 at 10:21 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

meremy (anonymous) says...

I, personally, have never like the "those who can't, teach" mantra. I think it underestimates the amazing skill set that the profession requires for success.

Kirk hit the nail on the head. Successful coach and successful player both require an uncommon set of talents, with some overlap, but not enough overlap that one neccessarily spawns the other.

February 29, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

robot (Robin Smith) says...

personally, I loathe the idea that "those who can't, teach" because it is not true. It seems to say that teaching is a fall back option for those without skills.

Those who can ball, ball
Those who can teach, teach

Those who can ball, can't always teach
and those who can teach, can't always ball

Great teachers are as rare and brilliant as great athletes. It just happens that one's skill set manifests itself in amazing and obvious physical abilities and the other's in sublety of thought, depth of insight and the ability to communicate affectively. Only one of these skill sets overlaps into the other's arena.

So really it should be, "Those who can teach sometimes do otherwise as well, and those who can't teach are limited to doing what they can do without having the option of teaching."

February 29, 2008 at 11:35 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

robot (Robin Smith) says...

I'm in agreement with what meremy and kirk said, I just felt compelled to elaborate.

February 29, 2008 at 11:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

lance1jhawk (anonymous) says...

Coachs coach
Ballers ball
players play
but the porta-john man really knows his S#!T!

February 29, 2008 at 12:33 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

coloradojayhawk (anonymous) says...

Why no mention of Danny Manning? I mean, he's someone who definitely could, and now he's trying to coach (and by the accounts here is doing a solid job with the bigs). That is one other KU tie and I'm puzzled why Bill didn't say anything.

February 29, 2008 at 7:44 p.m. ( | suggest removal )