ChipperF1
06-14-2002, 07:42 PM
After an assignment in the canyons of Manhattan (the New York Manhattan), I returned to my flat after a long day, to find out the news.
I will admit, I had a Tamika Williams moment.
"JUBILATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!"
The initial response was shock followed by joy. Paul Sanderford resigns as head womens basketball coach at Nebraska. Our long national nightmare is over....perhaps.
Unfortunately, the joy wore off as quickly as it came, because of the realities of what is and of what was
The first reality is Paul Sanderford's reason for leaving. We may not never know about his health problems in full, but what I do know is that his wife has had serious health issues for quite some time. The one thing Sanderford loves more than the game or coaching is his wife. Her struggles over the years and the team's struggles this year had to wear on him.
I have no reason to speculate on his health nor will I try. I do take him at his word. I will also say, that perhaps some of his heart trouble has to do as much with breakage and possible blockage. Paul's sold Nebraska fans on his championship dream. He sold me on it.
He sold me on it, because you could tell he believed in it. That is what most likely saddened him the most today.
I first saw coach up close in 1997. Not the pallid, saddened man who spoke to the press Thursday, but a man of accomplishment and fire.
It was controversial hire in Spring 1997. Nebraska was divided between people who were wavering towards making a serious committment to womens basketball, those who were insisting on that committment, and those who liked to committment but also engaged in gender politics. Needless to say, some weren't happy and seeing Paul Sanderford hired. Some felt he wasn't enough of name. Others felt a loyalty to previous coach. Even with three Final Four trips, there would be a question among the few who cared.
My own questions got some answers at the first practice of the new year, on a Saturday morning. Paul was rockin' and rollin' and flying around. His booming voice deflecting off the wall of Devaney Center. His shout where calling for effort, and praise. He had the energy. He had the fire...and he had a sense of humor.
The practice was crisp and fun for a first day. Smiles everywhere, and laughter. Surely they are not the same basketball team that collapsed the season before.
They were the same team, but Paul gave them a new spirit. That spirit carried on from the day into the opening games of the season.
It also carried throughout Lincoln and across the Nebraska plains. Paul was annoyed about the tepid early response from the Husker faithful still stuck on football's fortunes. To his credit, the man decided rather than deferring, he would try to win hearts and minds, just as he was doing with his players. See the Paul, the Salesman. See him on billboards! See him at grade schools! See him doing bad hee-haw hip-hop to hype the Cablevision Classic! (I will miss Heavy P http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif)
Paul was one part b-ball, one part vaudeville, and sometimes dressed like Herb Tarlek, but he was slowly getting the team together. He was tough, rough-hewn and animated on a sideline.
He also surprised us, with a team that even he felt was down on talented. Coach often said it wasn't his type of team. He decried the what the team lacked in his private moments, but as he often said, "We're here to make something happen here. I came to Nebraska because we can win here."
Nebraska in the preseason WNIT field was greeted with a "that's nice..Where's the football team ranked?"
Then came that night against Alabama. A sizable crowd, a ranked opponent. Surely nobody can match up with a Tausha Mills or a Dominique Canty.
Everywhere a Canty went, a Jami Kubik was sure to follow. Players like Emily Thompson and Cori McDill, both uninspired the year before, rolled over "Roll Tide".
That night, Paul found a skinny sophomore, put his hand on her shoulder and said, "you have to be the boss."
7 assists I guess made Nicole Kubik a good manager.
Nebraska won by 8. Nebraska won a trip to Storrs.
The contrast between then and now is striking. Then Nebraska was a team that really undertalented. The athletes Paul would get in later years would surpass that first team.
But Paul never taught quite the way he did that year. And no Husker team since had those fighting hearts,
It was Charlie Rogers running for dear life to beat Amy Duran to a loose ball. LaToya Doage off the bench marking UConn's dangerous backcourt people. Anna DeForge was fighting through double teams as Nicole Kubik run a deliberate. determined offense.
Jami Kubik was supposed to be another hapless patsy in Nykesha Sales' way. She instead was in the Husky superstar's shirt.
Nebraska scratched, clawed, and yeah, held a little bit to stay even in the first half. Eventually, the superior Connecticut team wore the lasses down, but a 10-point loss was no shame. The Husker did themselves and their head coach proud.
I was proud to root for this team that night. If they fight that hard all year, they'd be something to see.
They were something to see, and so was he. Paul was always in the contest. The fury he launched at the team we they needed to pick it up. That wide-angle lens smile as Nebraska was drilling long-time rival Colorado at home. The hugs from Paul to each player when his girls ended a long-time drought versus Kansas, after KU came in with bulletin board material and mouths running.
That first season ended in Virginia that march. Again, the gritty team fell to superior enemy in ODU. They lost by 15, but the score was misleading. They fought them all the way. After the game, the coach summed it up best. "We made a statement for Nebraska womens basketball today and all season. We plan on doing it some more."
Paul also made a statement for girls basketball. He fostered links with high school coaches. He helped bring the loose cadres of AAU coaches in-state together. Paul made the statement that fans in Nebraska wanted, but never really got from Angela Beck. They got a belief in local talent from the head coach of Big Red.
The next year, 22 wins, and in the NCAA tournament again. A first round loss, but still a fine season. However the coach was still confident. "Just wait until the talent gets here," he said.
Unfortunately 1998-1999 would be a last hurrah. 1999-2000 started out wonderfully, then came the hard times. A High-School All-American blows a knee out doing something Paul's teams did that first magic season. Stephanie Jones, then young and full of passion, dove for a loose ball and ended up gone for her freshman year.
Then came the first of many questionable transfer acquisitions. Will anyone remember the indifferent Monique Whitfield, the poisonous Melody Peterson, or the hopelessly lazy Casey Leonhardt?
Paul would like to forget the way the Huskers blew apart in dissension in 2000. He'd like to forget the poor cohension and lack of disicipline. Four starters fouling out against UCSB. The team having Colorado on the ropes in Boulder, and coughing up a 7-point lead in the final 4 minutes, and leaving nothing but pitiful excuses afterward. The blowouts against Iowa State at the Big 12 tournament and the total failure against Boston College in the NCAA tourney that year. Two games that were a sign of the hopeless quagmire that would be the next two seasons.
From that day in Kansas City, the path downhill began, and with each passing failure, Sanderford continued to sell the product. Still insisting the talent was there, when it wasn't. By the Big 12 campaign of 2001 and the seemingly endless cycle of defeat, Paul began to mimic William Westmoreland in claiming body counts that were no where near the actual number.
12-18. Many of losses were ugly blowouts. One could never forget the look of shock on the head coach's face whether it was the carpet bombing at Ames or merciless beatings at Boulder, or any of the endless stinkbombs the team put up that year.
And of course there was this year. Don't let the 14-16 "improvement" fool you. The values of 1997 were nowhere to be found in 2002. Not even in the head coach.
By this year, Sanderford's sale was stale. He was starting to become like the used-car lookie-loos on the very late-night movie. The product was a lemon, and somewhere deep down he knew it.
This is why the jubilation wore off. True, I have been one of those who have cried "Pale Sanderfraud". I plead guilty to "General William Westmorelanderford", "Coach Catatonic" and every slam about Paul Sanderford I've written this season. Guilty as charged.
But I am also saddened because it wasn't all his fault. Coach has spent the last two years among some of worst quitters, crybabies, and ne'erdowells I've ever seen wear a Nebraska uniformed. Some of these kids were so uninspired, selfish and lazy, that you'd think they were coached by Danny Nee.
Ms. Burnett, Mr. Collen, or whomever takes the Nebraska job next will be saddled with a number of kids who don't have the urgency and will never have it. Our long national nightmare is not over. Perhaps its in measurable distance of its end. But any hope for miracles will most like have to wait until 2003-2004.
A coach takes the fall. Even when the kid you got to hit the big outside shots can't hit them. Even when two All-American Mustangs turn out to be Pintos. Even when the kid that made you the happiest when she signed, got frustrated, tuned on then walked out.
Paul Sanderford over the last three seasons lost the magic, lost the fire in the belly, lost the good strategic sense, and lost the pulse of the team.
Too often Paul was more concerned with the gate than the game. Fretting more over who saw the show rather than the nuts and bolts of the show itself.
The last things many of us remember of Paul Sanderford will be the losing, but to remember that alone isn't totally fair. The losing and the transfers do not diminsh a fine record in the game. Granted I have said that "that was then, this is now,", but he did go to 3 Final Fours. He did make 18 NCAA tourney trips. He did get a team to the championship game. Even in a biased Big Red heart such as mine, I tip my hat to Sanderford career, even if his final season was the basketball equilvalent of the fall of Saigon.
He did get Nebraska looking at womens basketball. No coach ever got Bob Devaney Sports Center fans in the nosebleed from the women, until Paul Sanderford got there. Now more little girls are looking at basketball, and Paul had something to do with that.
I will remember how coach said he could make a living in the rap business after his hip-hop TV commericial (Well I would have bought his album.)
I will remember how coach said that I was full of it once after a press conference.
I will remember introducing myself to coach that first day, then a few week later after a preseason game, he came up to me, said, "Chip, how are you doing..and thanks for your coverage of this team."
I will remember him doing that again...4 years later at the Final Four.
I will remember that 1997-1998 season, when Paul took a team no one believed in, and did something magical.
I will remember talking to Paul in between games at an AAU tourney in '98. Paul flew down to do some recruiting, but he never missed Team Nebraska's games at the tourney, and he wasn't quietly assessing talent. In a very close game in the tourney. He was leading the cheers.
I will remember how he beams when speaking of his wife, his children and grandchildren. Paul, may God grant you many more years with them.
[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 06-14-2002).]
[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 06-14-2002).]
[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 06-14-2002).]
I will admit, I had a Tamika Williams moment.
"JUBILATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!"
The initial response was shock followed by joy. Paul Sanderford resigns as head womens basketball coach at Nebraska. Our long national nightmare is over....perhaps.
Unfortunately, the joy wore off as quickly as it came, because of the realities of what is and of what was
The first reality is Paul Sanderford's reason for leaving. We may not never know about his health problems in full, but what I do know is that his wife has had serious health issues for quite some time. The one thing Sanderford loves more than the game or coaching is his wife. Her struggles over the years and the team's struggles this year had to wear on him.
I have no reason to speculate on his health nor will I try. I do take him at his word. I will also say, that perhaps some of his heart trouble has to do as much with breakage and possible blockage. Paul's sold Nebraska fans on his championship dream. He sold me on it.
He sold me on it, because you could tell he believed in it. That is what most likely saddened him the most today.
I first saw coach up close in 1997. Not the pallid, saddened man who spoke to the press Thursday, but a man of accomplishment and fire.
It was controversial hire in Spring 1997. Nebraska was divided between people who were wavering towards making a serious committment to womens basketball, those who were insisting on that committment, and those who liked to committment but also engaged in gender politics. Needless to say, some weren't happy and seeing Paul Sanderford hired. Some felt he wasn't enough of name. Others felt a loyalty to previous coach. Even with three Final Four trips, there would be a question among the few who cared.
My own questions got some answers at the first practice of the new year, on a Saturday morning. Paul was rockin' and rollin' and flying around. His booming voice deflecting off the wall of Devaney Center. His shout where calling for effort, and praise. He had the energy. He had the fire...and he had a sense of humor.
The practice was crisp and fun for a first day. Smiles everywhere, and laughter. Surely they are not the same basketball team that collapsed the season before.
They were the same team, but Paul gave them a new spirit. That spirit carried on from the day into the opening games of the season.
It also carried throughout Lincoln and across the Nebraska plains. Paul was annoyed about the tepid early response from the Husker faithful still stuck on football's fortunes. To his credit, the man decided rather than deferring, he would try to win hearts and minds, just as he was doing with his players. See the Paul, the Salesman. See him on billboards! See him at grade schools! See him doing bad hee-haw hip-hop to hype the Cablevision Classic! (I will miss Heavy P http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif)
Paul was one part b-ball, one part vaudeville, and sometimes dressed like Herb Tarlek, but he was slowly getting the team together. He was tough, rough-hewn and animated on a sideline.
He also surprised us, with a team that even he felt was down on talented. Coach often said it wasn't his type of team. He decried the what the team lacked in his private moments, but as he often said, "We're here to make something happen here. I came to Nebraska because we can win here."
Nebraska in the preseason WNIT field was greeted with a "that's nice..Where's the football team ranked?"
Then came that night against Alabama. A sizable crowd, a ranked opponent. Surely nobody can match up with a Tausha Mills or a Dominique Canty.
Everywhere a Canty went, a Jami Kubik was sure to follow. Players like Emily Thompson and Cori McDill, both uninspired the year before, rolled over "Roll Tide".
That night, Paul found a skinny sophomore, put his hand on her shoulder and said, "you have to be the boss."
7 assists I guess made Nicole Kubik a good manager.
Nebraska won by 8. Nebraska won a trip to Storrs.
The contrast between then and now is striking. Then Nebraska was a team that really undertalented. The athletes Paul would get in later years would surpass that first team.
But Paul never taught quite the way he did that year. And no Husker team since had those fighting hearts,
It was Charlie Rogers running for dear life to beat Amy Duran to a loose ball. LaToya Doage off the bench marking UConn's dangerous backcourt people. Anna DeForge was fighting through double teams as Nicole Kubik run a deliberate. determined offense.
Jami Kubik was supposed to be another hapless patsy in Nykesha Sales' way. She instead was in the Husky superstar's shirt.
Nebraska scratched, clawed, and yeah, held a little bit to stay even in the first half. Eventually, the superior Connecticut team wore the lasses down, but a 10-point loss was no shame. The Husker did themselves and their head coach proud.
I was proud to root for this team that night. If they fight that hard all year, they'd be something to see.
They were something to see, and so was he. Paul was always in the contest. The fury he launched at the team we they needed to pick it up. That wide-angle lens smile as Nebraska was drilling long-time rival Colorado at home. The hugs from Paul to each player when his girls ended a long-time drought versus Kansas, after KU came in with bulletin board material and mouths running.
That first season ended in Virginia that march. Again, the gritty team fell to superior enemy in ODU. They lost by 15, but the score was misleading. They fought them all the way. After the game, the coach summed it up best. "We made a statement for Nebraska womens basketball today and all season. We plan on doing it some more."
Paul also made a statement for girls basketball. He fostered links with high school coaches. He helped bring the loose cadres of AAU coaches in-state together. Paul made the statement that fans in Nebraska wanted, but never really got from Angela Beck. They got a belief in local talent from the head coach of Big Red.
The next year, 22 wins, and in the NCAA tournament again. A first round loss, but still a fine season. However the coach was still confident. "Just wait until the talent gets here," he said.
Unfortunately 1998-1999 would be a last hurrah. 1999-2000 started out wonderfully, then came the hard times. A High-School All-American blows a knee out doing something Paul's teams did that first magic season. Stephanie Jones, then young and full of passion, dove for a loose ball and ended up gone for her freshman year.
Then came the first of many questionable transfer acquisitions. Will anyone remember the indifferent Monique Whitfield, the poisonous Melody Peterson, or the hopelessly lazy Casey Leonhardt?
Paul would like to forget the way the Huskers blew apart in dissension in 2000. He'd like to forget the poor cohension and lack of disicipline. Four starters fouling out against UCSB. The team having Colorado on the ropes in Boulder, and coughing up a 7-point lead in the final 4 minutes, and leaving nothing but pitiful excuses afterward. The blowouts against Iowa State at the Big 12 tournament and the total failure against Boston College in the NCAA tourney that year. Two games that were a sign of the hopeless quagmire that would be the next two seasons.
From that day in Kansas City, the path downhill began, and with each passing failure, Sanderford continued to sell the product. Still insisting the talent was there, when it wasn't. By the Big 12 campaign of 2001 and the seemingly endless cycle of defeat, Paul began to mimic William Westmoreland in claiming body counts that were no where near the actual number.
12-18. Many of losses were ugly blowouts. One could never forget the look of shock on the head coach's face whether it was the carpet bombing at Ames or merciless beatings at Boulder, or any of the endless stinkbombs the team put up that year.
And of course there was this year. Don't let the 14-16 "improvement" fool you. The values of 1997 were nowhere to be found in 2002. Not even in the head coach.
By this year, Sanderford's sale was stale. He was starting to become like the used-car lookie-loos on the very late-night movie. The product was a lemon, and somewhere deep down he knew it.
This is why the jubilation wore off. True, I have been one of those who have cried "Pale Sanderfraud". I plead guilty to "General William Westmorelanderford", "Coach Catatonic" and every slam about Paul Sanderford I've written this season. Guilty as charged.
But I am also saddened because it wasn't all his fault. Coach has spent the last two years among some of worst quitters, crybabies, and ne'erdowells I've ever seen wear a Nebraska uniformed. Some of these kids were so uninspired, selfish and lazy, that you'd think they were coached by Danny Nee.
Ms. Burnett, Mr. Collen, or whomever takes the Nebraska job next will be saddled with a number of kids who don't have the urgency and will never have it. Our long national nightmare is not over. Perhaps its in measurable distance of its end. But any hope for miracles will most like have to wait until 2003-2004.
A coach takes the fall. Even when the kid you got to hit the big outside shots can't hit them. Even when two All-American Mustangs turn out to be Pintos. Even when the kid that made you the happiest when she signed, got frustrated, tuned on then walked out.
Paul Sanderford over the last three seasons lost the magic, lost the fire in the belly, lost the good strategic sense, and lost the pulse of the team.
Too often Paul was more concerned with the gate than the game. Fretting more over who saw the show rather than the nuts and bolts of the show itself.
The last things many of us remember of Paul Sanderford will be the losing, but to remember that alone isn't totally fair. The losing and the transfers do not diminsh a fine record in the game. Granted I have said that "that was then, this is now,", but he did go to 3 Final Fours. He did make 18 NCAA tourney trips. He did get a team to the championship game. Even in a biased Big Red heart such as mine, I tip my hat to Sanderford career, even if his final season was the basketball equilvalent of the fall of Saigon.
He did get Nebraska looking at womens basketball. No coach ever got Bob Devaney Sports Center fans in the nosebleed from the women, until Paul Sanderford got there. Now more little girls are looking at basketball, and Paul had something to do with that.
I will remember how coach said he could make a living in the rap business after his hip-hop TV commericial (Well I would have bought his album.)
I will remember how coach said that I was full of it once after a press conference.
I will remember introducing myself to coach that first day, then a few week later after a preseason game, he came up to me, said, "Chip, how are you doing..and thanks for your coverage of this team."
I will remember him doing that again...4 years later at the Final Four.
I will remember that 1997-1998 season, when Paul took a team no one believed in, and did something magical.
I will remember talking to Paul in between games at an AAU tourney in '98. Paul flew down to do some recruiting, but he never missed Team Nebraska's games at the tourney, and he wasn't quietly assessing talent. In a very close game in the tourney. He was leading the cheers.
I will remember how he beams when speaking of his wife, his children and grandchildren. Paul, may God grant you many more years with them.
[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 06-14-2002).]
[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 06-14-2002).]
[This message has been edited by ChipperF1 (edited 06-14-2002).]