Back in Black and Gold
There was a time when I would watch pretty much every college basketball game that was televised. Of course it was a better product then. I even kept a notebook on personnel and tendencies to which I would refer when making out my brackets for the office NCAA Tournament pool. Then my bride Tybee would come behind me and make out her’s according to the teams’ mascots or colors. And she trounced me year after year after year.
These Days, to steal a line from Jackson Browne, I don’t watch so much college basketball on TV, unless it’s ACC. The older I get the more diverse my interest become. The music thing takes up a lot of my time, of which I don’t regret one second. And I’ve always loved to read. I’m on about my fourth or fifth pass through the tale of a young man from the mountains of North Carolina going to the state university to make good. I don’t know how much good I’ve made, but I’ve always related to Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward Angel. But I’m always more than ready to set down my Gibson or my book whenever my newest favorite college team, the Missouri Tigers, is playing on TV.
What a fabulous story to see four former coaches and staff members at Wake Forest leading the Tigers to a 22-2 record and No. 4 ranking in the nation. I’m sure there are others in the Macadamia Nut Gallery who also knew Frank Haith, Ernie Nestor, Tim Fuller and Tony Hanson during their time at Wake and can attest to what special people they are.
Frank was at Wake twice, but the first stay was for only a year. Dave Odom, in one of his first acts after taking over as coach in 1989-90, hired Haith as graduate assistant. Haith left the next season to become a full-fledged coach at UNC Wilmington, but returned in 1998 when assistant Ricky Stokes left to return to Virginia. Haith remained until Odom left for South Carolina after the 2001 season, and was briefly on Odom’s Gamecocks staff before heading west to join Rick Barnes at Texas. I got to know his wife Pam, a fetching, vivacious woman who some may remember as assistant director of the Deacon Club, as well as their son Corey. As unfathomable as it seems, Corey is 17 now. My how they grow up. I didn’t know their daughter Brianna, who is six.
I had the extended pleasure of covering Haith as head coach at Miami and it was always good to run into him and catch up on things.
Ernie Nestor is probably as good a friend as I have in coaching. Most in the business are what I consider coaches who might be interesting people. I always consider Nestor to be an interesting person who happens to be a coach. Many hours were spent in his office talking about everything under the sun, and I always came away smarter and better informed for my trouble. Thankfully I had plenty of opportunity to hang out with Nestor because no assistant—not even Jeff Battle—has ever been at Wake longer. Nestor, who has been a head coach at George Mason and Elon, spent 14 seasons on the Wake bench. Like Haith, he made two stops. He was on Carl Tacy’s staff from 1980 through 1985, and Odom’s right-hand man from 1994 through 2001.
Nestor is from Philippi, West Va., so he was the one who tipped me off about the Highway 19 shortcut that connects Interstate 77 to Interstate 79 in his home state, thus staying clear of Charleston. Our family took that trip about a dozen times when Nate was an undergraduate at Eastman in Rochester, and we always called 19 the Ernie Nestor Highway.
Fuller was a walk-on at Wake, and was later an assistant coach across town at West Forsyth High School when a budding star named Chris Paul was playing for the Titans. He returned to his alma mater in 2005 to spend two seasons at director of basketball operations under Skip Prosser.
And Hanson was video coordinator for five seasons under Prosser. Like me, he went to North Carolina, though neither of us said much about it to anyone else in the Deacons’ program. You probably can guess why.
Even without the strong Wake connections, it would be hard not to like the Missouri Tigers. I’ve been lucky enough to see recent victories over Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, and all were great games. They’re maybe the smallest elite team in the nation, with three small guards, 5-8 Phil Pressey, 6-2 Matt Pressey and 6-1 Michael Dixon and a frontcourt of 6-6 Kim English and 6-8 Ricardo Ratliffe. The guy who has been hot for them recently is Marcus Denmon, a 6-3 guard who scored 29 against Kansas and 25 last night against the Sooners.
They have a big game at home against Baylor Saturday.
They’re small but they will fight you tooth and nail and they have big hearts. They’re not a bit afraid of anyone. I love the abandon with which they play, and they’re always, of course, impeccably well-coached.
I’ve been to Mizzou Arena, to cover Wake’s 73-65 victory there in Tim Duncan’s senior season of 1997. So that gives me a frame of reference in these televised games, because I remember how hard the place can rock.
Besides being small, their terribly thin in numbers. They need to stay healthy and they need to keep playing as hard as they’re playing these days. And if so, maybe we’ll all be watching them on television come time for the Final Four. I can’t think of much I would like better.