Des Moines Register
03/22/06
Keeler: McDermott's tallest order is recruiting far reaches
SEAN KEELER
REGISTER COLUMNIST
Ames, Ia. — You can scheme and scheme until your marker runs dry. A scheme
is not going to turn John Neal into Brandon Rush.
A scheme is not going to matter against Kansas when the Jayhawks trot four
McDonald's all-Americans out on the floor at one time. A scheme is not going to
keep Texas and its frontcourt of NFL defensive ends from clubbing you into
submission.
Greg McDermott will run circles around the guy holding the other clipboard. But
in the Big 12 Conference, X's and O's will only get you so far. Talent prevails.
"Personally, I think he has the coaching ability," recruiting expert Bob Gibbons
said of McDermott, the new men's basketball coach at Iowa State. "A lot of it
will depend on his staff. He'll need to add to his staff an assistant coach who has
some connections to urban areas and be able to attract inner-city kids."
Somebody who can open doors. Make introductions. McDermott will take care of
the rest.
The man is a champion closer. A closet ham. You should have seen him at Hilton
Coliseum on Tuesday night. On cue, the former Northern Iowa coach emerged
from the basketball offices and bounded through the heart of Section 40, where
almost 100 students, resplendent in Cyclone Alley red, were waiting.
The new coach shook hands. He slapped high-five with row after row. He was
grinning like he just won the Powerball.
If not for the $650,000 per year investment and that shiny suit, McDermott might
have tossed that 6-foot-9 body into the crowd and body-surfed to the stage
below.
"The marketing staff needs to take 100 percent credit," athletic director Jamie
Pollard would say later. "The Hilton staff did an awesome job. I had a vision and
I said, 'Guys, go do it.' "
If the pep rally-slash-news conference was Pollard's vision, then hiring
McDermott was his masterstroke. This wasn't simply a good hire that might turn
out to be a spectacular one. It was a coup. A statement.
Pollard didn't just nab the best basketball coach in the state, he did it before Iowa
could. While the Hawkeyes remain in Steve Alford limbo, McDermott is out
pounding the pavement.
All this for $875,000 less than it would have cost them to buy out the contract of
UW-Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter. Why chase a mid-major star in another state
when somebody just as good was waiting right up the road?
McDermott is the complete package. His inbounds plays could hang from a
gallery. His teams are as fundamentally sound as the Appalachians. They
screen. They rotate. They box out. They play defense. They grind.
He finds diamonds where others saw only rough. Ben Jacobson. Grant Stout.
John Little.
He's a bulldog with a whistle. He's a fun-loving kid from Cascade. A devoted
husband and father. The tallest guy in the pew. Your neighbor. Your friend.
He relates. To players. To soccer moms in Ankeny and Clive. To farmers in Alta
and Slater.
"He's a family guy," former Cyclone Jake Sullivan said. "I think that goes into his
program as well, that family atmosphere. That's why guys want to play for him."
It's why a couple of players from Sullivan's old high school - guard Erik Crawford,
an outgoing senior, and sophomore center Eric Coleman - did just that.
"He's (another) Bo Ryan to me," Tartan coach Mark Klingsporn said. "He hasn't
forgotten about the value of having good people around you."
McDermott should find one of those people on his staff, and quickly. The pipeline
to Minnesota and Milwaukee is up and running and the in-state bridges are open
again for business, but the new coach must find an assistant who'll build new
ones. Chicago. Detroit. Kansas City. St. Louis.
"Mac's been around long enough," said Van Coleman, an Iowa-based recruiting
analyst. "Now it's going about recruiting against the best in the country."
McDermott: "We will recruit nationally if we have to. The Iowa high school
basketball coaches . . . will know that Iowa State is an option for their players.
And it will be the No. 1 choice for high school students that are capable of
competing at this level. We can't have them going to Iowa."
But to consistently compete in the Big 12, compete for conference
championships, you'll need more. A Wayne Simien or Keith Langford to
complement your Collisons and Hinrichs.
"(McDermott) hasn't won at every level because he doesn't understand those
things," Klingsporn said. "I still think there's a small margin of difference (between
the Missouri Valley and the Big 12). Sometimes you can make up those margins
(with) intelligence, teamwork, chemistry and execution."
And sometimes you can't. In Cedar Falls, homegrown talent makes for a cute
little story. In Ames, it adds up to a first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament.