Sunday, March 19, 2000
Tulsa's aim: keep coaching talent
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NASHVILLE — Tulsa may be the “Cradle of Coaches,” when it comes to college basketball, but the Golden Hurricane wants to start keeping its kids at home.
In the past 20 years, the school has produced four coaches who won a combined 350 games before leaving. Nolan Richardson (Arkansas) and Tubby Smith (Kentucky) went on win national championships, and Steve Robinson (Florida State) also defected to coach elsewhere. J.D. Barnett left to become a high school athletic director.
Yet athletic director Judy MacLeod has taken steps to keep third-year coach Bill Self around as rumors of his leaving swirl. At 37, Self is on the coaching fast track after being the runner-up to succeed Norm Stewart at Missouri after last season.
Two things in Tulsa's favor are the new $28 million, 8,355-seat Reynolds Center and the fact is Self is an Oklahoma native, factors that were never in the mix with Richardson and Smith.
“We don't want this to be a stepping stone. We want to build this to be a top 25 program every year and we've done things here that haven't been done before,” MacLeod said. “The new arena is huge for us, plus we've done things with the budget and with the coach's compensation package.”
Self seems happy at Tulsa.
“People look at it as a mid-major job, but it's a major job,” Self said. “There's the fan support, enough financial resources and until you had the (move to the Western Athletic Conference), it had the exposure, but that will come. And you've got a state where if you keep the best players at home, they give you a chance to go to the (NCAA) Tournament every year.”
Self has a contract through the 2006 season, but when asked about his future, said, “I just hope I wake up tomorrow. I'm planning on (coming back). There's nothing going on right now.”
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