Good Ole Boys' Club

The day before our Monday open gym at Heights, I woke up from my nap to about a dozen texts: "Hey, you gonna be there with all those coaches tomorrow?" "Bill Self at Hts tom?" "Spit on Calipari 4 me...you will b there right?"

I didn't realize our little open gym at Heights had become national recruiting news. But, as Johnny Dawkins of Stanford would tell me later, "If you're a big-time college coach, this is the place to be tonight." Of course, the 13 D-I coaches were there to see Perry, but for everyone involved, it was quite the experience. Eric Bossi of ScoutHoops later wrote that a "murderer's row of coaches" was there. Amen to that, brother.

When I pulled into Heights, behind Gregg Marshall's silver Mercedes, I was pretty nervous. I had helped with our open gyms in the fall, but the feeling never changes. I am always nervous before I step into the gym, but once I do, I'm relaxed. And, being that I was the only unpaid assistant there, I was the only one allowed to run the open gym (per KSHSAA rules).

In the fall, our open gyms drew smaller crowds (7 at most, 3 at least) because we had four of them. But now that there were 13 of these guys (and 3 from JC's and NAIA's), it was like a good ole boys' club. Coaches were joking with each other, talking trash, and reminiscing. It was a fun scene to be a part of.

Some things I overheard or were said to me:

Frank Martin gets ribbed by Bill Self for use of the word "silly" during his halftime speech against Xavier in Sweet 16. "I didn't know 'silly' was in your vocabulary, Frank. It's not a four-letter word."

John Calipari to Bill Self on championship game: "We should've been there, man. The two most-talented teams, man. That should've been us."

Bill Self to WSU commit Evan Wessel: "You know where UNI is?" "Yeah, why?" "Well, we didn't. You better take care of 'em for me while you're at WSU."

Johnny Dawkins to me on Stanford job: "Well, I took the Stanford job because I didn't want to compete with Duke. I went as far away from Duke as possible, 3000 miles away. I mean, I still bleed blue. I don't want to recruit against those guys."

Frank Martin jokingly to MU asst. Matt Zimmerman: "Oh, you're wearin' a Mizzou logo now? It always seems like you're wearing a different logo. How about you go back out to your car, grab your UAB logo, and put that on. I'll probably like you better then."