Sports: These four coaches have history on their sides

Four coaches. Four alums.

No matter where Matt Painter worked—or LaVall Jordan, or Mike Woodson, or Matt Crenshaw—they’d be all in to succeed. But when a man has come home to lead his old program, that’s something special.

Forty-four schools in Division I this season are coached by former players, and central Indiana has somehow ended up the epicenter of the trend. Nine percent of those 44 are here, and to listen to each is to understand what it means.

For Painter, in his 17th season at Purdue …

“People always think you want to do it for yourself. In a way I do, because I’m a Purdue fan. When my time’s up here, whether I get fired or however that happens, I’m still going to be a Purdue fan.”

For Jordan, in his fifth year at Butler …

“Obviously, it’s a weighty responsibility because you’ve got a high-care level about the place that meant so much in your life. You text former players after the game because it’s all part of the family. Whether you played with them or not, it’s a big family. It’s bigger than me. You just want to make those guys proud. You realize the shoulders you stand on.”

For Woodson, in his first year at IU …

“It’s like a dream come true—I can’t say it any other way. I’ve got a lot on my hands in terms of trying to get 17 guys to play on a high level and win basketball games. But I’ve always accepted challenges. As a player, I was very competitive, and as a coach, I’ve always been competitive, so I’m not going to run from the challenge; that’s just not my nature. So here I am.”

For Crenshaw, the new man at IUPUI …

“Sometimes it’s hard to put into words, being able to coach where I walked the halls. Looking back, I wasn’t thinking about being a head coach. My coach here, Ron Hunter, once said to me, ‘You’re going to be a great head coach. One day, you’ll be the coach here.’ I have to always thank Ron for making me have that mindset.”

Looking ahead

Four coaches, four different situations.

Purdue hovers near the top of the polls and is thinking Final Four. Painter has been intent on trying to polish a program he already considered a mecca.

“I always tell our guys they should be really grateful for the opportunity to be a player at Purdue. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not grateful, and I walk out and look at Mackey Arena and I think it’s unbelievable these people hired me. Don’t take that for granted. I also tell them if [Athletic Director] Mike Bobinski walks in here and says I’m done, I promise you they’re still going to play Northwestern on Sunday. The show goes on with or without you and without or without me.”

Butler is struggling to stay above .500 and has been hammered by some big fish—Villanova by 40, Purdue by 29, Michigan State by 21, Houston by 18. The Butler Way has taken a few recent knocks. But to Jordan, it is still the only way.

“The one adjustment I didn’t have to make coming back here to coach is, who fits and who we’re after and what the place values. You go elsewhere, you’re trying to learn the place—what’s important and what’s a fit in the community and in the classroom and on campus and in the program? Those questions I didn’t have to ask coming back here.”

Woodson wants Indiana to return to the truly elite. That’s the IU he knows.

“In my wildest dreams, all the years I’ve traveled in my profession as a player and as a coach in the NBA, I never thought I’d circle back here as the coach. I always came back, quietly. People just didn’t know it. For 40 years, I’ve always come back, so that circle is a lot easier for me than somebody who’s on the outside line looking in that took this job and trying to find his way. I’m home, man.”

IUPUI started 1-14. Crenshaw understood he had a hard rebuilding job ahead. The Jaguars will have many painful nights. The fact that he served in the Navy after high school, delaying his college career until his mid-20s, is a help now.

“I had been in the Navy and gotten married and divorced. I already had two kids. It was hard for me, and I look back and think, ‘If I was 22 or 23 or 24 or 25 and it was hard for me for different reasons, I can only imagine how hard it is at times for a 17-year-old.’ I use that to always keep me centered and grounded in coaching.”

Looking back

Four coaches. Four former players with memories of their college youth. The question to each: What moment from those days to always cherish, and which moment to always want back in regret?

During Painter’s era as a Purdue point guard, the Boilermakers played in three NCAA Tournaments. His final game was a six-point first-round loss to Rhode Island.

“I cherished the opportunity to play to go to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament. Just to be in that moment. But losing, that was a heartbreaker, so I’d like to have that one back, too. It’s probably the same answer for both, because that’s the breaks of the game.

“I wanted to be an assistant here [after the loss], but I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t mature enough to go from a player to a coach at Purdue. That wouldn’t have been good for anybody.”

Jordan was a two-time all-conference player who helped the Bulldogs to three NCAA Tournaments. That included 2000 when Florida beat Butler 69-68 with a shot at the overtime buzzer, after a Bulldog—LaVall Jordan—missed two free throws with 8.1 seconds left. In the locker room afterward, he wept. “Maybe God,” his coach, Barry Collier, said that day, “wants to make him tougher.”

“I cherished a lot of things, and I don’t even know how many of them are on the court,” Jordan said. “I remember kissing the bulldog on Senior Day. And winning a game in the NCAA Tournament. You just felt like you left the program better than you found it and you were part of moving it forward.

“I’d love to have the Florida game back, for certain. People bring it up to me, so you can’t forget it. I wasn’t a senior that year, and you felt like you let the seniors down. Certainly, I think about all the things that happened that summer, the investment put in and losing my great aunt and then coming back with a huge chip on my shoulder.”

Woodson missed much of his senior season with a herniated disc in his back but was such a force upon his return, he was amazingly named Big Ten Player of the Year, despite appearing in only six league games. Those Hoosiers advanced to the Sweet 16 but were upset by Purdue.

“Winning the Big Ten title is something that I always will cherish because the doctors somewhat wrote me off. They thought, ‘Here’s a guy who’s in his last year, he’s never been hurt, and he has to go in for back surgery and I don’t know if he can come back. It’s a 50-50 chance.’ Those odds aren’t good enough for most athletes. But I took it in stride.”

“Going out like that [against Purdue], it was just like I had pretty much run my course. I didn’t have much left in the tank. I knew it. Physically, I knew I was running on fumes. If I could have something back, that would be the game.”

Crenshaw, his No. 21 jersey now retired by IUPUI, hit the last-second jumper that beat Valparaiso for the 2003 Mid-Continent Conference tournament title, giving the Jaguars their first—and still only—NCAA Tournament berth.

“Me and [teammate] Odell Bradley talk about this to this day: At the pre-game meal, he said, ‘If I get the ball late, I’m going to take the shot and win the game.’ I was like, ‘No, if I have the ball late, I’m not going to pass it. I’m going to take the shot and win.’ That morning, Scott Drew [Valpo’s coach then and destined to win the national title at Baylor] and I ended up sitting at a table together. You very seldom see an opposing coach and opposing player at breakfast. I was getting treatment and icing my wrists. He was reading his paper and I was reading my paper. We just sat and talked a little bit about life and wished each other good luck. I felt a calmness the rest of the day.

“The next year, we lost in the tournament finals [to Valparaiso]. I’ve never watched that game yet. I’ve never watched my last college game. That’s the one I’d love to get back.”

Four guys who as young men once helped their schools soar—and now seek to do it again as coaches. Who understands how each feels? The other three, for sure.•

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Lopresti is a lifelong resident of Richmond and a graduate of Ball State University. He was a columnist for USA Today and Gannett newspapers for 31 years; he covered 34 Final Fours, 30 Super Bowls, 32 World Series and 16 Olympics. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mjl5853@aol.com.