Interesting how the winning is affecting people.
- Thread starter Cougatron
- Start date
Because some people didn't want us to succeed and get out of the gutter. They wanted us to stay down in misery land with them.
It's like the local pool....all it is one person who takes a dump everyone has to get out.
In miy opinion Raveling was a great recruiter but a bad coach. At this point,it does not matter,he can take the bows and it does not have any impact on today. He is history and Kent is today
Don't disagree. He could recruit and that was a huge asset. He took a bow on Saturday and it was nice to see.
Probably belongs on the hoops board, but that's pretty harsh to say he was a bad coach. He was a very inexperienced coach when he started but grew into a very good motivator and "x's and o's" coach, IMO. I personally saw him outcoach the likes of Ralph Miller & Marv Harshman a few times. 7 of his last 8 Cougar teams had winning records overall....in his 11 years at WSU, his teams finished over .500 in conference play 6 times. You don't have that kind of success in Pullman by recruiting alone...you need to be a an overall good coach.
A good man, great coach, and very deserving of the recognition.
Glad Cougar
He was a great recruiter, He deserves recognition for he did bring recognition to the Palous Yes it belongs on the basketball board.He had James Donaldson Stuart House and Collins on the same team. He had a mediocre team which under the right coach should have been a tremendous team.He had great talent which was unusual prior to his coming to the Palouse.
He was also a highly creative recruiter and teams played hard for him. He was a phenom in giving talks to Cougar Clubs. Fans loved his stories and his out of nowhere one-liners. On the other hand, I am good with Coach Leach but would not walk across the street to listen to him. Not even if I was paid. But that's just me.
Funny you should bring up James Donaldson. He was the definition of a project when he came to WSU and even played on the JV team as a frosh. It wasn't like he was a recruiting coup. But Raveling and his assistants...along with a tremendous work ethic by Donaldson...transformed him into an NBA player. I've never seen any basketball player at WSU improve as much as James. Raveling deserves some credit for "coaching" him up.
The job he did to take WSU to the NCAAs despite losing Guy Williams to injury was tremendous. With a 6'7" center in Ricky Brown, the Cougars almost pulled off the upset against Ralph Sampson and the #1 Virginia Cavaliers. Don't know if you were around back then but that was some pretty special coaching to get that far without the team's best player.
I think most knowledgeable Cougar fans don't consider George a "bad coach" as you put it.
Glad Cougar
Agree with Glad and the others. Describing James Donaldson as a project is an understatement. He was a project with a capital P. I might be wrong but I seem to remember that he had played only one year of basketball in high school. He had one attribute- he was huge. James came to Pullman so clumsy that Raveling turned him over to Chaplin, the track coach, to teach him how to run. After four years of Raveling and some time as a pro in Europe, he finally made the NBA. Credit to James for his determination but also credit to Raveling for his development of the big guy.
George got the job on his recruiting skills but developed into a pretty fair Xs and Os guy over time. One may criticize him as an inexperienced or weak or even "bad" coach early in his tenure but George is not stupid and learned his profession, OJT if you will, and ended as a good, if not great, one by the end of his career.
Not mentioned yet but we need to remember that he was the first black man to head a D1 program and that entitles him to our respect too. He led the way for Ernie Kent and others on their climb up the career ladder. So hats off to him for that and hats off to Wazzu for having the cajones to look beyond the color of his skin and hire him on his merit and promise. Nice story all around.
George got the job on his recruiting skills but developed into a pretty fair Xs and Os guy over time. One may criticize him as an inexperienced or weak or even "bad" coach early in his tenure but George is not stupid and learned his profession, OJT if you will, and ended as a good, if not great, one by the end of his career.
Not mentioned yet but we need to remember that he was the first black man to head a D1 program and that entitles him to our respect too. He led the way for Ernie Kent and others on their climb up the career ladder. So hats off to him for that and hats off to Wazzu for having the cajones to look beyond the color of his skin and hire him on his merit and promise. Nice story all around.
