Meet Marty Levinson

Marty Levinson exudes it. Pose any hoops-related query to the Las Positas College assistant coach and his response is inflected with excitement and joy. His life, like anyone else's, is not always champagne and roses but he has found his bliss in basketball.

Just check his resume:

* won a state championship in 2000 as a player at Nebraska's Bellevue West High

* played at Augustana College along his brother Cody, then Southeast Community College where he earned all Nebraska Community College first team honors

* transferred to University of Nebraska Kearney on a basketball scholarship

* head coach of seventh, eighth and sophomore teams at Central Catholic High in Grand Island after college graduation

* University of the Pacific video coordinator 2006-07

* West Valley College assistant coach 2007-2008

* San Jose City College assistant coach 2008-2009

* grad assistant at Nebraska-Kearney 2009-2011

* three years at Central Community College in Nebraska where his second season squad reached the Elite Eight in the national junior college tournament and placed third in the nation the next year -- "one of my players, Tyron Criswell, was NJCAA D2 National Player of the Year last season and he is now at Nevada," Levinson explained.

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He picked up a very important lesson way back in seventh grade. Due to a shortcoming in Levinson's classroom effort, "my mother wouldn't let me go to a basketball tournament. I didn't enjoy putting time into academics but missing a tournament was rock bottom. I learned not to separate athletics and academics, that they go hand in hand."

Now he holds a master's degree as a Master Teacher of Physical Education.

So why was basketball so important in his life?

"Basketball fits my personality, it's so high energy," he explained. "I played other sports but the speed of the game gets my heart rate up and adrenaline going. It eventually becomes a lifestyle."

It was the same for Levinson's sibling. "My two-year older brother Cody was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Nebraska high school basketball in 1998." That same year was when three Cornhusker prep basketball talents were recruited to Pacific -- "Cody played with them [in high school]."

All in all, it was a total of four Nebraskans making their way to Pacific on basketball scholarships:

* 6-foot-9 Mike Preston, 1998-2002  
* 6-foot-7 Mike Hahn 1998-2002 
* 6-foot-7 Dan Masters 1998-2001  
* 5-foot-5 Tom Cockle 2000-2004

This aided Levinson in making connections with the Tiger coaching staff which he eventually joined in 2006-07.

He credits a number of his coaches as contributing to his basketball philosophy. There was Doug Woodard who is still patrolling the coaching box at Bellevue West High, Tom Kropp, owner of close to 500 wins at Nebraska-Kearney, the now retired Bob Thomason who helmed the program at Pacific for 25 years and also Percy Carr with 700+ victories in his on-going San Jose City College tenure. 

Here's Levinson musing on various aspects of coaching: "Getting to the NBA or the DI level is a dream but my life success doesn't depend on getting there. I would be very content graduating kids ... every kid is different and every situation is different, coaching is understanding personalities and moods ... you sometimes have to let kids go even if everyone says we're a family -- that's the toughest part of coaching -- I take it hard because you go into the living rooms of these kids but sometimes you have to hold people accountable and move forward ... [with recruiting] getting to know a kid requires spending as much time as possible doing so. It's getting to know as many people in their lives as you can, getting to know the family. You can learn a lot by watching them in practice ... the hardest things to teach are IQ and toughness. I recommend playing with guys better than you,   structuring workouts to challenge yourself and emulating fatigue."

Very few people know Levinson is a Laker fan. "I plan to get to Oracle Arena to see Kobe Bryant before he retires. I haven't seen him in person."

We'll try not to hold that against him.