As a New Year begins, I think of Hall of Fame and former Cal coach Pete Newell, who was a wonderful friend and mentor. Coach Newell would visit the Bay Area during the Holidays for the annual Pete Newell Challenge.
During my 12-year tenure at Cal, Coach’s visit was always a highlight. Pete and I would spend countless hours at my home in Berkeley watching tape, sharing meals and talking basketball. During his extended stay, Coach would attend all of our practices and film sessions. He also interacted with our coaching staff and provided valuable input as we prepared for the conference season.
I first met Pete in 1986 when he talked to Grant Long, who played center for me at Eastern Michigan, about attending his legendary Big Man Camp. I was struck then by Pete’s enthusiasm for the game and his willingness to help players improve. Coach Newell was very influential in my life and we enjoyed a close relationship until he died in 2008 at the age of 93.
Some of my observations on Coach Newell:
1) Methodology: Pete’s attention to detail and perspective on the game was second to none. He was adamant that as a coach, you not only explain what players should do but, more importantly, why they should do it. It was the why that insured a deeper understanding and consistency. He never set up a drill without taking the time to explain precisely why we did something. This helped players make the connection between what they were asked to accomplish and why. Once players understood what Pete wanted their learning curve went up.
2) Teaching: Pete was a big believer in the concept of teacher-coach. He believed too many coaches were more concerned about their image and status than on what truly mattered, which should always be the development and improvement of players and team. Coach Newell taught all of us so many important basketball and life lessons.
3) Emphasis on Improvement: He would talk to our team about the importance of being a better teammate and a complete player rather than being one-dimensional. He said players who refuse to work on their weaknesses were ultimately selfish and hurting the team.
4) Footwork: He often reminded my players and coaching staff how important footwork was in the game of basketball. He strongly reiterated that, on average, a college player will play 36 minutes of the game without the ball. Therefore, your footwork and ability to play away from the ball was paramount. His grueling Hands Up Drill which incorporated consecutive minutes of defensive slides was legendary and unanimously loathed. Although years later players always credited that drill with helping Newell teams excel on the defensive end.
5) Challenging Players: Pete was not shy about challenging players, especially the really good ones. One of his favorite targets was Sean Lampley, a young man I recruited from my hometown in Chicago. One day, Pete asked Sean if I was being too tough on him. I was always challenging Sean on defense for being too lackadaisical. Sean nodded and thought that he had Pete on his side when Pete suddenly replied “Sean, don’t you let Coach Braun or anyone tell you that you can’t play defense. And you know why…because you never tried!” Then Pete turned to me and said, “Well, you can always tell a freshman but you can’t tell him much.” Sean went on to become Pac-10 Player of the Year.
6) Competitiveness: Pete’s competitive spirit is legendary. Coaching always involves managing relationships and Coach Newell had his share of classic confrontations. One of my bright young assistants Joe Pasternack, now Associate head coach at Arizona, was debating Pete about his offense and how he would be able to take him out of it by trapping him all over the floor especially on ball screens to which Pete’s replied, “yeah if you did that to me in the game, I would have you out of coaching by halftime.”
7) Effective Offense: Pete had specific, innovative ideas about good offenses. He was big on North and South basketball which incorporated basket cuts, screen and rolls and post-ups with splitting actions. He believed in an operational area for reception and worked very hard to get players to establish an inside pivot which made the difference of operating much closer to the basket. Even his flash posts were inside-pivot oriented. He also wanted post players to maintain their position at the rim as opposed to on the block when they had their defender pinned on their back.
8) Positioning: So many of the moves Pete taught both on the perimeter and in the post always had a counter. He felt that players accumulated too many moves and often mastered none. He preferred one or two go-to moves with simple counters. The ball and the defender always indicated what to do. You were to read your man and move accordingly always knowing where the ball was. On defense, you were in constant motion. If the ball moved, you moved. If your man moved, you moved. And if both were moving, you really had to move.
9) Energy: Pete’s energy was infectious. I once did a coaching clinic in Reno with Pete and Tex Winter, who developed the famous triangle offense. We stayed up until 4am talking basketball in the lobby. As much as I enjoyed listening to these two coaching greats go back and forth, I could not keep up. When I decided I had to leave, Pete chided me to “get some rest and we will see you in a few hours for breakfast to continue our discussion.”
Bob Knight refers to Pete as having the greatest basketball mind ever and as having been the best teacher of the game: “Nobody contributed more to this game and it’s history than Pete Newell.” Interestingly, Pete probably contributed more to the game after he stopped coaching than when he was coaching. That’s a great inspiration for all players and coaches after they hang it up. The teaching and learning never ends. In fact, it only gets better.
Thank you Pete. We will always miss you and never forget you.
