There have been three new NCAA Division I head coaches named so far this spring who have no experience coaching in the college ranks, but varying degrees of experience doing so in the NBA.
At one end of the spectrum, there is new St. John’s coach Chris Mullin. A Hall of Fame player who spent 16 seasons in the NBA, Mullin has never coached.
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Not high school, not college, not the D-League, not overseas, not in the NBA—seriously, dude has never coached. But he’s going back to school, just the same.
He replaces Steve Lavin at St. John’s, his alma mater and a place where he is a revered figure—a Brooklyn native who led the then-Redmen to their most recent Final Four appearance in 1985, when he was the John Wooden Award winner.
Unfortunately for St. John’s and Mullin, the history of Hall of Fame players with no coaching experience returning to their alma maters is spotty at best.
The most recent example was Clyde Drexler, who went back to the University of Houston in 1998, immediately upon his retirement from the NBA. Drexler coached the Cougars for two seasons and the program was 19-39 during that time.
It’s been a tough time for Houston in all since the retirement of Guy Lewis in 1986, however; the Cougars have only been to the NCAA tournament four times in the last 29 seasons after making five Final Four appearances under Lewis, including three in a row from 1982-84.
In the middle is Mark Price, a longtime NBA assistant coach and former All-Star with the Cleveland Cavaliers who is taking over the program at Charlotte.
Price goes to the 49ers with one season as a high school head coach, one season as a college assistant at Georgia Tech in 1999-2000 and five games with the South Dragons in Australia in 2006.
Price also has eight years on an NBA bench, most recently spending two seasons as an assistant with the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets.
Finally, there is Avery Johnson, hired at Alabama with no college coaching experience, but an NBA Coach of the Year trophy on his mantle.
Johnson was 194-70 in parts of four seasons coaching the Dallas Mavericks from 2005-08, earning NBA Coach of the Year honors in 2005-06, when he led the Mavs to the NBA Finals in his first full season. However, he also engineered the biggest flop (by record) in NBA history when his 67-win Dallas squad lost in the first round of the 2007 playoffs to the 42-win Golden State Warriors.
He was also 60-116 in parts of three seasons with the New Jersey and Brooklyn Nets, fired around Christmas in 2012.
Johnson has been in television since his firing in Brooklyn.
There have been star NBA players and coaches who have had some success in the college ranks.
Bob Cousy was a Hall of Famer with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s and 1960s and was 114-38 in six seasons at Boston College after his playing career ended, taking the Eagles to two NCAA tournament appearances as an independent. He left BC to take over as coach of the Cincinnati Royals of the NBA.
Another potential parallel for Johnson could be Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, but Alabama has to hope this isn’t the case.
Brown was one of several players banned from the NBA as part of point-shaving allegations—later found to be unsubstantiated—in the early 1960s and consequently, Brown was already 27 when he made his professional debut as a player with the ABA’s New Orleans Buccaneers in 1967.
Brown was a three-time All-Star in the ABA and retired after the 1971-72 season because of chronic hip problems.
At 32, Brown jumped straight to the lead chair on the bench, hired as the Carolina Cougars as head coach. He was the ABA Coach of the Year as a rookie, leading Carolina to 57 wins and a division title.
But after two years, he jumped to the Denver Nuggets and after resigning from his post in 1979, he went to the college ranks.
Brown was 42-17 in two seasons and led UCLA to the NCAA title game in 1980, but that appearance was vacated because of NCAA violations that Brown didn’t stick around for, returning to the NBA with the New Jersey Nets in 1981.
But soon thereafter, Brown was back in school, this time at Kansas. The Jayhawks were 134-55 in Brown’s five seasons and won the 1988 NCAA title. They were unable to defend that title in 1989, however, because of NCAA violations that Brown didn’t stick around for, returning to the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs in 1988.
Brown is currently 69-34 in three seasons at SMU, leading the Mustangs this season to the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 1993. But shockingly enough, the school is currently under NCAA investigation for possible violations.
Mullin takes over a program at St. John’s that was good but never seemed quite able to get over the hump under Steve Lavin, going 92-72 in Lavin’s five seasons and making the NCAA tournament in 2011 and 2015.
Mullin did make one smart move right out of the gate, hiring highly regarded Matt Abdelmassih as an assistant coach. Abdelmassih was Fred Hoiberg’s top recruiter at Iowa State and is a St. John’s alumnus.
Price’s job at Charlotte is to revive a program that is a decade removed from its last NCAA tournament appearance in 2005.
At Alabama, Johnson has the unenviable task of making basketball relevant at an institution that is all about football, all the time. The last time Alabama made the tourney was in 2012 and the Crimson Tide has only made the NCAAs once since Mark Gottfried took them to five straight tournaments from 2002-06, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2004.
The good news for Johnson is that SEC basketball—outside of Kentucky and possibly Florida—is an afterthought next to football, so if he’s able to come in with a plan and is able to recruit well, Alabama could be back among the top programs in the conference rather quickly.
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