• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Newsday, Melville, N.Y., Sports Columnist Column: Jim, Say Hello to Fame

Posted on: Monday, 27 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Shaun Powell, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Mar. 27--WASHINGTON

When his first Final Four date in 22 years of coaching became official, he found his wife, and that moment felt like a first date, too. Jim and Liz Larranaga, who were high school seniors from the Bronx when they met, exchanged a soft kiss at midcourt yesterday in the middle of all the hysteria. And you can believe this kiss, like their first one, will not be forgotten.

"He said he often wondered what it would be like to go to the Final Four as a head coach," said Liz, wiping a tear. "He wondered if it would ever happen."

Well, it has. A 56-year-old who never landed the big job just landed his big dream. If a trip to the college basketball promised land seems unreal for a small school like George Mason, then that goes double for a guy like Larranaga.

In a sense, it's neat that they'll escort each other to Indianapolis next weekend. A school nobody ever heard of. A coach no one knows.

Oh, but they will warm up to Larranaga very quickly. He may not win a national championship - although, at this point, who knows? - but he will steal the show in the coming days.

He will bring his folksy humor, if a personality honed in New York City can be described as folksy, and hold the college basketball world in his palm. He will win admirers, develop followers and gain even more respect for pulling off one of the all-time coaching jobs in recent NCAA Tournament history. He finally will get what he never thought would come to him.

"Incredible" is how Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun described Larranaga's work. "One of the best."

Larranaga took a team filled with players who couldn't get big-time scholarship offers and beat up a handful of big-time schools. If a coaching performance is judged by how often the coach beats superior teams, then Larranaga's performance was historic. Other unlikely schools have reached the Final Four - take Penn, the Ivy Leaguer with no athletic scholarships, in 1979 - but not many beat three premier programs along the way.

That's what Larranaga did when he notched his belt with Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn.

Funny, this was a guy who left Bowling Green in 1997 for a step-up at Mason - Mason! A year ago, he was 16-13. Three weeks ago, he lost to Hofstra for the second time in 11 days and didn't make the CAA Tournament final. But that was the last time Larranaga failed this season. Since then, it's been nothing but bliss, a fairy-tale run mid-major coaches can only imagine.

This is a coach who knew how to loosen up his unlikely group of giant-killers. Late in the game against UConn yesterday, with the score too close for comfort, Larranaga broke up a timeout huddle by yelling, "Am I the only one here having fun?"

His players didn't think he was crazy. They've seen that attitude all season. They looked at him like he was Coach L, rose from the bench and proceeded to beat UConn. "There hasn't been a game in this tournament where we were too tight," Tony Skinn said. "That's because he won't let us. All along, we felt like we belonged."

Larranaga began his coaching career at American International. Then came Bowling Green, which he never took to the NCAA Tournament or established as a consistent winner. Therefore, his number was never on the speed dial of big-time athletic directors. But there was something about him that sold him on Mason. And suddenly, Larranaga began to win. His only losing season was his first. From there, the Patriots became a respectable mid-major program, and before this season they reached the NCAA Tournament twice.

And now this.

"There's so many people who watch college basketball who identify with us," he said. "We've touched more people than those who are around us. One of the thoughts of the day is from William Jennings Bryant, who wrote, 'Destiny is not a matter of chance, it's a matter of choice.' It's not something that's given to you. It's something you earn."

Larranaga, you might say, has earned. "I can't explain it," his wife said. "It's such a beautiful story, so well deserved. I know he's having more fun than any other coach." Actually, more fun is about to come.

Shaun Powell can be reached at shaun.powell@newsday.com.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

More News in this Category