Pat Flannery, who announced his retirement as head basketball coach at Bucknell Friday, is the only great coach I’ve been friendly with, and gotten to see up close. He is absolutely the most competitive human I’ve ever been around. He was so competitive, in fact, that the game ate at him and threatened his health.
I saw him collapse on the sidelines during a game this winter, recover for a time, and then leave. He was hosptalized that night. It wasn’t the first such incident. Although he didn’t quite say so in his public statement Friday, I believe his health, or at least an unwillingness to continue tying himself in knots, was a factor in his decision to step down. I saw him collapse on the sidelines during a game this winter, recover for a time, and then leave. He was hosptalized that night. It wasn’t the first such incident.
I hope the ferocity, and its after-effects, aren’t what he’s remembered for, because this guy could really coach. He was hired at Lebanon Valley College in August of 1989, and thus had no chance to recruit. With the same players that went 7-18 the year previous, he went 17-9 and won an ECAC post-season tournament. Two years later the Flying Dutchmen were in the Division III NCAA tournament, and a year later, in 1994, they won it.
Then he went to Bucknell, his alma mater, and didn’t pummel the Patriot League the way I thought he might until Bucknell, along with most of the Patriot, started giving basketball scholarships. Then came the back-to-back league titles, and wins in the NCAAs in back-to-back years, including the 2005 upsaet of Kansas that was the absolute best of what the Big Dance is about.
His teams at their best played technically brilliant basketball. His defensive principles, especially as reflected in a “matchup,” look that caused Kansas so much trouble on ‘05, were very cool and more innovative then they’ve been credited for. You weren’t allowed to call that defense a matchup zone in Flannery’s presence (he considered “zone” a swear word) even though it was more literally a zone that traditional zones, with players responsible for areas of the floor and matching up man-to-man within the area.
Anyway: College basketball is just a little worse today.
In other news: Todd O’Brien, a Lancaster County kid, announced this week he was transferring from Bucknell to St. Joseph’s. O’Brien, a 6-11 freshman who can play facing the basket, saw consistent minutes off the bench for Flannery, averaging about five points and five rebounds a game. O’Brien says he wants to play at a higher level. Whether Flannery’s announcement and O’Brien’s are connected is unknown.
