Lots of former Duke men’s basketball players have gone on to become good college basketball coaches.
But not great coaches.
Think Jeff Capel, Chris Collins, Tommy Amaker or Johnny Dawkins. Bobby Hurley is barely hanging on and yes, that surprises me. Wojo had some good years. But he got fired. Bob Bender had some good years. But he got fired. Quin Snyder has become an outstanding NBA coach but he was fired as a college coach. Greg Paulus has Niagara around .500. Ditto Kenny Blakeney at Howard.
Jon Scheyer? Way too early to tell. But the trend lines look good.
Which brings me to Charles “Lefty” Driesell.
Did you know his given name was Charles? Did you even know he played for Duke?
Driesell wasn’t a great player at Duke. But he wasn’t nothing either. He averaged 5.1 points and 2.1 rebounds as a senior in 1953-’54, while shooting 46 percent from the field.
That was the ACC’s first season and Duke finished first in the regular season and was ranked as high as eighth in the AP poll.
But NC State defeated Duke 79-75 in the ACC Tournament semifinals and Duke ended its season at 20-8.
Driesell scored three points in his last college game.
The box score listed him as Charlie Driesell.
Fun fact. That team also produced two other successful coaches. Fred Shabel went 72-29 in four seasons at Connecticut before becoming an administrator. As AD at Penn he hired Chuck Daly as head coach.
Joe Belmont was named ABA Coach of the Year in 1970 with the Denver Rockets after taking over at mid-season from John McLendon and going 42-14.
He was fired the next season after a 3-10 start. What have you done for me lately?
Back to Lefty. His demise last week has been much commented on and for good reason. He was in multiple halls-of-fames and for good reason.
But I’m going to focus on Lefty Driesell and his alma mater.
Yes, alma mater. The man graduated from Duke. He liked to say that he talked stupid but wasn’t stupid.
Aw, shucks.
Driesell was a Norfolk native so it was no surprise that he ended up coaching high school ball in nearby Newport News after his playing career ended. His Newport News team once won 57 straight on the way to a state title.
He always said he applied for the Duke job when Harold Bradley left for Texas in the spring of 1959 and Eddie Cameron always said he picked Vic Bubas for that job over more than 200 applicants.
I guess it happened. But Duke wasn’t going to go with a 20-something high-school coach.
Duke ended up with Vic Bubas.
Duke could afford to be particular. Davidson, not so much. Davidson and head coach Tom Scott parted ways after a 5-19 1960 season and the Wildcats took a chance on a fiery and charismatic high school coach.
Davidson was in the Southern Conference in those days but the SC still was a player in college hoops, with West Virginia, Furman and Virginia Tech all respected programs. In fact West Virginia went all the way to the 1959 NCAA title game, losing to California 71-70 despite Jerry West’s 28 points and 11 rebounds.
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