Today is Coach John Wooden’s 108th Birthday. I was called in to “pinch hit’ for this post due to a last minute cancellation. No worries, “having” to write about Coach to me is sort of like having to take someone’s front row seats to a game that they can’t make. A “sacrifice,” I will gladly volunteer for.
In the past when I have done these posts, I have looked through one of my many books on Wooden for stories to a theme. The only bad part of pinch hitting is the lack of time to do research. Thus I decided to wing it and for a theme the topic of biggest interest for Bruins Nation basketball fans, can Jaylen Hands play point?
No, I am not going to breakdown how Coach would deal with Hands per se. I am going to tell the story of another great prospect that I think may have been Wooden’s greatest individual coaching job, Sidney Wicks. I am then going to apply the Wicks lessons to Hands. Wicks was likely the third best talent and player during the Wooden era, but the, how should I say it, most difficult personality. (And yes more so then hippy prankster Bill Walton).
First, even though Wicks was arguably the third best player in UCLA history, Coach benched him his first year at UCLA. Here is one version I found online:
Coach Wooden operated a meritocracy that treated every player fairly. He didn’t believe in the star system and told his players, “The star of the team is the team.” Wooden benched Sidney Wicks, one of the nation’s best players, for a season because he wasn’t passing to his open teammates. (The following year, a more selfless Wicks was awarded All-American honors and helped UCLA win a national championship.) No one’s position was safe if Wooden felt another player had proven he could perform better for the team’s sake.
Let’s make this clear. Hands is one of the most talented players on the team if not the most talented. Jaylen Hands last year started but was benched. Originally this was because of injury but he remained on the bench. Coach would have communicated clearly what was expected of Hands and keep him there until he realized it.
Second was the story of Wicks wanted to shoot further out. He hounded Wooden practice after practice. Finally Wooden said okay if you can make 10 in row in practice, then you can take the shot in the game. Wicks made nine in a row and missed the tenth. Wooden would not let him take the shot in the game. But Wooden tells the story he was pleased with Wicks because he knew Wicks was that good. He just insisted Wicks play the team game and do his job.
Which brings me to Jaylen Hands. Yes he was out of control shooting too far away. In isolation, Hands is not a bad player with those shots. He makes 37% and is probably better than anyone else on the team from that deep.
He would just be a better player and, as importantly, the team would be better if he did not take all those shots. Which brings me to the Sidney Wicks without Coach on the sidelines according to his Portland Trailblazers teammate Lionel Hollins:
He was very stat- and image-conscious. I wouldn’t say he was a great teammate. He was about Sidney Wicks, about making sure he was taken care of. Sidney got along with everybody he wanted to get along with. He’d always talk about himself in third person. But I can’t say Sidney’s a bad guy.
Wooden was able to get through to Sidney. If UCLA is to succeed this season, Alford has to get through to Hands. By that I mean it is nice he can do the below but more assists and a better assist to turnover ratio would be better.
There is a punch line to all this as well. It is a two way street. So Coach benched Wicks and would not let him shoot from where he wanted to shoot from but Coach did listen to Wicks. For Wooden said: “Listening is the best way to learn.” Let me use a non-UCLA quote and instead a Jacksonsville University centric article.
When I interviewed him Wednesday about the 1970 NCAA championship game against Jacksonville University, he rattled off four members of JU’s starting five rather quickly. But for the purpose of this column, my interest focused exclusively on one Dolphin - 7-foot-2 center Artis Gilmore.
How in the world did UCLA, the year after its iconic giant, Lew Alcindor, left for the NBA, manage to make Gilmore look so mortal without anyone taller than the 6-9 Steve Patterson in the Bruins’ lineup?
“I did something different, moving Sidney Wicks behind Gilmore to defend him instead of Patterson,” said Wooden. “Sidney was very agile and jumped well. Wicks was much quicker than Patterson. I thought [Wicks] could be more effective. We were ready to change if it wasn’t working.”
Forty years later, as JU begins a celebration tonight of that historic NCAA runner-up finish, one undeniable reason for UCLA prevailing 80-69 was that Wooden didn’t let his ego get in the way. He was smart enough to listen to Wick’s suggestion after Gilmore made three baskets to help the Dolphins jump out to a 14-6 lead.
That is a tough line for a coach but it is part of what makes Wooden the greatest. And Wooden made it happen with Wicks. Wicks loved him for it:
”It was the best of times,” says Wicks, who will be honored along with other members of the Bruins’ 1969 championship team Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. “My experience there as a player, as a student, as a person . . . was unbelievable -- topped by being around the greatest coach in the history of athletics.”
Now to be clear I am not saying that Hands is Wicks and this is going to be a national championship team. I am saying that part of Coach’s greatness is he is still teaching us. Hopefully people will still listen.