Jimmy V Coaching…Northwestern?

(Expect this to be on Pack Pride and The Wolfpacker’s Message Boards momentarily without a remote mention of us providing the link).

From the Chicago Tribune via Sports Illustrated:

Exceptional Tale: Valvano Wanted to Coach Northwestern

Jim Valvano once expressed a desire to become the head basketball coach at Northwestern.

Brent Musburger, who watched Michigan State knock his alma mater, Northwestern, out of the Big Ten tournament Thursday at the United Center, revealed the previously untold story about his late friend and former broadcast colleague.

“When he came out of coaching, I broke him in as an analyst,” said Musburger, who is handling Friday’s telecasts with Steve Lavin for ESPN. “So he worked with me for the first time.

“He said to me, `You know the administrators at Northwestern?’

“I said, `Well, I certainly know who they are. But as far as having any kind of input or anything, I don’t.’

“Then he said, `That’s the only job that I would go back for.’

“I said, `Excuse me!’

“He said, `They would have to make one concession. They have to allow me every year to have one academic exception. I will make sure he goes to school. I will make sure he goes to class. But they have to waive the requirements for him to get in. If they do that, I’ll go there and coach, because I believe you can win a national championship out of Evanston.’

“Now, what Jimmy saw was the wealth of talent that was starting to come out of the Chicago area,” Musburger said. “But he needed the academic exception. And I’m sure he got that at North Carolina State. I have never told that story to anybody. It was really fascinating.”

The marriage of Valvano and Northwestern might have been a tough sell in Evanston, regardless of his 1983 NCAA title at N.C. State.

Valvano, who died of cancer in 1993 at 47, had coaching stops at Johns Hopkins, Bucknell and Iona before North Carolina State over a 19-year span.

Then Valvano worked for ESPN and ABC with Musburger and Dick Vitale.

Valvano faced accusations of rules violations at N.C. State in 1990, which led to his resignation. The basketball program was placed on probation for two years. Only three of his Wolfpack recruits graduated during his 10-year tenure.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

General NCS Basketball

17 Responses to Jimmy V Coaching…Northwestern?

  1. VaWolf82 03/13/2007 at 6:50 AM #

    (Expect this to be on Pack Pride and The Wolfpacker’s Message Boards momentarily without a remote mention of us providing the link).

    Well you won’t have to worry about me posting it. It appears that I’ve been banned and I can’t get an explanation from a moderator.

  2. kool k 03/13/2007 at 7:03 AM #

    Roy Williams only drinks Coke, and I only read SFN. This is America Damnitt!

  3. PapaJohn 03/13/2007 at 8:24 AM #

    Interesting. I know it’s naive, but I can’t imagine ‘our Coach V’ coaching anyone else.

  4. joe 03/13/2007 at 8:29 AM #

    He talked to Wichita State about their job in 91 or 92 before he got sick. I don’t think a school like Northwestern would be interested in anyone with baggage.

  5. MadWolf92 03/13/2007 at 9:11 AM #

    Sorry VA, this had been on PackPride for more than a week.

  6. MadWolf92 03/13/2007 at 9:18 AM #

    Sorry, actually not more than a week. 4 days. And they did cite their source, *The Chicago Tribune*.

  7. joe 03/13/2007 at 9:22 AM #

    Don’t forget Valvano wanted the UCLA job but did not take it because of his buyout.

  8. noah 03/13/2007 at 9:53 AM #

    In retrospect, V taking the UCLA job would have been the best thing for everyone.

    He agreed to terms with UCLA. Pam was looking at houses…and UCLA pulled the offer. There was some confidentiality clause that got broken.

  9. joe 03/13/2007 at 9:55 AM #

    UCLA hired Jim Harrick from Pepperdine instead – he coached the famous 1st round game in 83 vs. the Pack and he also coached against the Pack to open the RBC Center as coach of UGa.

  10. CarnifeX 03/13/2007 at 11:07 AM #

    So who placed the probation? Was it the NCAA? or the NCSU admin?

    We went with Les to pull our team back into good academic standing?

    I’m a youngster (NCSU ’05) who would love to learn more about this history that has shaped where we are now. Enlighten us young-uns!

  11. foz 03/13/2007 at 11:31 AM #

    Valvano’s version of these events can be found in his 1991 autobiography, Valvano: They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract, and Then They Declared Me Dead.

  12. CarnifeX 03/13/2007 at 12:23 PM #

    ^thanks, I’ll have to check it out.

  13. noah 03/13/2007 at 12:54 PM #

    X – we received NCAA sanctions and the administration also put in place some pretty severe internal sanctions.

    Basically, we de-emphasized basketball for about a decade.

    We went with Les Robinson because he was in the middle of a decent run at E. Tenn. State, he a high-character guy, he was an alum, and he was going to be a quick, easy transition. He wasn’t going to haggle over money or conditions.

    Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet…but he couldn’t coach a cat to purr. Horrible, horrible coach. Basically, the offense was: Run down and jack up the first three pointer as quickly as you can. The defense was: Stand around and don’t get tired, because we’ve got to run back to the other end and jack up a three-pointer!

    He talked about how you didn’t need to shoot as well when you put up so many threes because the average points-per-trip ratio was higher…but he forgot that when you aren’t making as many baskets, you have a tendency to give up a ton of baskets in transition and because your D hasn’t had a chance to set up. It’s also impossible to press.

    His teams were a laughingstock.

    When Coach Voldemort got here, you could here people gasp when they watched us play for the first time. “We’re running screens!!! We just set a pick! And look! Defense!!!”

  14. MadWolf92 03/13/2007 at 1:09 PM #

    Voldemort. Nice.

  15. Trout 03/13/2007 at 1:52 PM #

    V’s version of the UCLA story is that NC State gave him their blessing to go interview. Said if he wanted to go, he could. V asked about the buyout in his contract. NC State said dont worry about it.

    UCLA offers the job, ask V about the buyout. V says its not a problem. UCLA says – we just talked to NC State, and it is. V is upset.

    I wonder how close the V/UCLA story is to the Bielien/NC State story from last year. Worked out good for us in the Beilien case.

  16. noah 03/13/2007 at 2:27 PM #

    I have a friend who refers to our last coach as “Gollum.”

    A little harsh, I think.

  17. westwolf 03/14/2007 at 11:27 AM #

    ^LMAO “Gollum” My brother refers to him as the “mortician”, as in “We need to get someone other than the mortician coaching this team.”

Leave a Reply