Tuesday, January 14, 2014

A very interesting read on Al Skinner

This article on former Boston College Head Coach Al Skinner is a fascinating read. Make your own selection about the best part but this section jumped out at me the most:
Recruiting paradigm

Back in his days at BC, whenever he was laying the groundwork on a recruit, Cooley would tell Skinner not to call the player first. The way he figured it, his top priority as an assistant was to convince the player and his family how great the head coach was.

“I would tell him, ‘Don’t call him yet. Let me build your brand so when you walk in the room, you light the room up,’ ” said Cooley. “I’m going to build up the boss to where everybody thinks they’re meeting Jesus.”

The way Skinner ran things, his assistants never felt as though they worked for him. They worked with him. And because Cooley, Coen, and Pat Duquette were so good at laying that recruiting groundwork, developing relationships with players, the perception was that they were the ones responsible for keeping the shelves stocked with talent, not Skinner. Cooley never understood it. “I don’t know why Al wasn’t given the credit for getting all those players,” he said, “because at the end of the day, they weren’t coming to play for Ed Cooley, they weren’t playing for Tim O’Shea, they weren’t playing for Bill Coen, they weren’t playing for Boston College. They came to play for Al Skinner.”

The irony now is that the branches on the Al Skinner coaching tree are flourishing, even if the trunk is being ignored.

Cooley is in his third season at Providence. Coen’s Northeastern team narrowly missed an NCAA berth last spring. O’Shea has turned Bryant into one of the better teams in the Northeast Conference five years after its jump to Division 1. And Duquette is at the helm of his own Division 1 transition atUMass-Lowell.

“I’m not in the position I’m in, Tim O’Shea’s not in the position that he’s in, Bill Coen’s not in the position he’s in, Pat Duquette’s not in the position he’s in had we not been mentored by Al,” Cooley said. “If he’s that bad of a head coach — or what he’s been stigmatized as — how are we doing what we’re doing?

“It really bothers me because Al did an unbelievable job preparing his assistant coaches. To Al’s fault, he would never take credit for anything and put all the credit on his staff. That’s where all those stories would come from.”
Who wants to work for someone in lieu of with someone? Probably someone you wouldn't want to hire and have on your staff.

The part on Bob Ryan's damning column is also choice. By definition, it's an offering of opinion (what one believes to be true) but where was the specific attribution? Granted, who would go so far as to be quoted publicly dissing Skinner? That's just not done in the coaching ranks.

As for Ryan's defense, his “All it did was reiterate what everybody’s been saying privately. All the heads were nodding because everybody knew the story”

Well, obviously not everybody as the piece details.

By the way, just what constitutes 'least hard-working'?

A fairer and hopefully more informative piece would have been anonymously (if need be) quoting those critical of Skinner side-by-side with those supporting him. Then provide any and all specific evidence pro and con -- not just opinions.

*** Okay, time to dismount from the white horse, being someone who has made his share of errors.

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