One measure of how comfortable a boss is in his own skin can be found in what type of people he chooses to work for him.
If he surrounds himself with bootlickers, consider him insecure. If those around him are confident enough they don’t feel the need to kiss up to their boss, consider the boss a secure individual.
Joe Dooley, Tim Jankovich and Kurtis Townsend, Bill Self’s three full-time assistant coaches, are nobody’s valets.
“The thing I tell all our guys is, they have every right to disagree with me,” Self said. “I don’t want any yes men. I want guys to stimulate thought. If we’re not doing something right, I think they will the majority of the time say, ‘Coach, we need to do this.’ And I might say, ‘No we don’t. We’re fine.’ Or, it might be, ‘You’ve got a point. You’re right. Let’s try that.'”
Self does not rank his assistants, as some coaches do. They share equally in scouting and recruiting responsibilities, and all have head-coaching experience.
Kansas University is a national program, and Self has assembled a national staff.
Dooley, born in West Orange, N.J., was a Division I head coach for four seasons at East Carolina. Jankovich, a native of Gary, Ind., was a Division I head coach at North Texas after working with Self under Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma State. Townsend, from San Jose, Calif., was a head coach at two San Jose high schools, before moving to the college ranks as an assistant.
They come from different parts of the country and tend to recruit those regions well. Dooley has more recruiting contacts in the east and southeast, Townsend in the west and Midwest, Jankovich in the Midwest and Texas.
In Jankovich, Self in many ways has a replica in terms of work ethic, energy, and communication skills, and in other ways a polar opposite.
“Jank gives me an innovative offensive mind, more so than anybody I’ve ever worked with, as far as thinking outside the box, coming up with something that wouldn’t be your typical easy-to-scout, easy-to-guard stuff,” Self said. “I’m kind of a boring guy offensively.”
Jankovich, whose name is sure to surface as a candidate now that his alma mater, Kansas State, needs a coach after firing Jim Wooldridge, doesn’t hesitate when asked to identify the area he had learned most about from Self.
“He is a tremendous defensive coach,” Jankovich said. “He has a great eye for the defensive end and a concentration in that, and I’ve picked up a lot of that from him. By nature, by total subconscious nature, when he’s watching basketball, he’s watching defense. My entire life, including my coaching life, subconsciously when I’m watching basketball, I’m thinking offense and I’m watching offense. I can’t watch a game on TV, at any level, without quickly going to, ‘OK, what are they running, what are they doing, what’s their spacing, what’s their purpose?’ I can’t help it.
Nor can Bill help to watch games and when he sees something being run he’s thinking, ‘How would I guard that?’ And that’s what mostly I will take from him is to shut off my subconscious way more often and to concentrate more on that. And I also know his answers to how he would guard what they’re doing. I know how Bill would guard 98 percent of what’s out there. We’ve been together long enough.”
Jankovich’s strength as a recruiter, according to Self, is that he is “rock solid. People trust him and can identify with him. Another thing he’s good at is he’s a good evaluator.”
Of Dooley, Self said: “He loves to recruit. He’s a hard-working cat. He loves it, and Joe takes his work home as much as anybody I’ve ever been around. I’m glad that Joe’s married and has a young child. If he wasn’t married and didn’t have a child, he would live here in the office.”
Self said Dooley especially was skilled at identifying prospects early, such as Mario Chalmers, before it became obvious they were big-time recruits.
Townsend, who recruited a number of name players for Cal, Michigan and Southern California, is, according to Self, “a very good talent evaluator, and that’s not a strength of mine.”
“Of all the guys I’ve had had work for me, Kurtis is the best at getting along with everybody in every situation,” Self said. “People really want to help him.”
Townsend sits in the seat next to players and brings them back to life when their confidence is in danger of bleeding to death from benchings.
“Usually when a guy gets taken out, unless they’re tired, they’re getting taken out for a reason,” Townsend said. “I always try to tell them, ‘This is why you were taken out. Do you know how to guard it or do you know what we’re doing with this?’ I try to give them that, but also encouragement: ‘You’re going right back in, so be ready to go.'”
Townsend said he would like a shot at heading a Division I program, but not just any program.
“I think being an assistant here is a better job than being a head coach at some of the D-I’s,” Townsend said. “I’m not in any hurry, but if the right opportunity comes along then I would try, but I would definitely depend on coach Self to help me make the decision.”
A typical day for the coaches starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m., though, Self said, “We don’t have office hours. I’ve always believed in you stay until you get the job done.”
Said Jankovich: “It’s a demanding job in time. At the same time, so much of it doesn’t feel like work.”
