As the NCAA basketball season peaks, by proving a team’s worthiness in the March Madness national tournament, coaching leadership shows up…or…doesn’t.
Coaching is an important part of leadership in sports, business, government and life. Those who lead well, coach well. Those who fail to lead well bump up against the glass ceiling.
What’s important in leading a winning basketball team is known by those coaches who are successful on the court. However, such exceptional coaches may or may not be able to teach their leadership skills through mentoring their assistant coaches. Rick Pitino, now coaching at Louisville, is one of the best mentor coaches. His proteges, like Billy Donovan (Florida), Tubby Smith (Kentucky) and Jeff Van Gundy (Houston Rockets), have moved on to be successful head coaches. Mike Krzyzewski, who learned his leadership skills from Bob Knight, is a bad mentor of his assistant coaches: Tommy Amaker (ex-Michigan), Mike Brey (Notre Dame) and Quin Snyder (ex-Missouri).
Coach Krzyzewski, Duke's Hall of Fame coach, knows how to coach but not how to teach others to coach. Like Larry King who is a great interviewer but doesn't know how to replicate his skills in others, Coach K's proteges continue to struggle. On paper, Tommy Amaker looked to Seton Hall and Bill Martin, University of Michigan's athletic director, like an ideal head coach candidate. Amaker learned the ropes at Duke under Coach K who has won three NCAA titles. But in 10 years as a head coach--four at Seton Hall and six at Michigan--Amaker, a former star guard, has made the postseason NCAA tournament only once. Yesterday, Amaker was removed from his Michigan head coaching job by Martin--who finally admitted he hired a good actor rather than a good coach.
Bob Bender, Quin Snyder and Tim O'Toole--all former Krzyzewski assistants--have lost or resigned their posts in recent years. Mike Brey of Notre Dame, another of Krzyzewski's former assistants, had a renaissance season this year, winning the Big East's coach of the year award and reaching the NCAA tournament, but only after missing it the previous three seasons.
One reason some of these "coachless coaches" don't perform like their masters, according to athletic directors and others, is that basketball assistants don't always get the depth of training and mentoring that their counterparts in other sports get. In football, for example, it isn't uncommon to see head coaches who delegate much of the game strategy to their subordinates. Those apprenticeships tend to be deep and long--it can be years before a football assistant gets his first head coaching job.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2007