Catlett, Chaney Unlikely Pairing
July 09, 2003 09:21 PM | General
February 15, 2002
MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – When thinking of Atlantic 10 basketball in the 1980s and early 1990s there were two names that stood out above the rest: Gale Catlett and John Chaney.
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| West Virginia coach Gale Catlett helped boost the perception of the Atlantic 10 Conference in the early 1980s. (WVU Sports Communications) |
More so than any other two coaches, Catlett and Chaney changed the perception of the Atlantic 10 from a small-time, Big East wannabe into a viable, competitive, and interesting basketball conference.
If Georgetown and Syracuse was the game everyone in the Big East pointed to, then West Virginia-Temple was THE game in the Atlantic 10. It was a heated rivalry that brought out the best in both schools.
At the center of combat were two coaches who couldn’t have been more different. Chaney, a Bethune Cookman graduate in 1955, worked his way through the small college ranks at Cheney State College, turning the Wolves into a Division II power. His teams appeared in eight national tournaments and captured the NCAA Division II title in 1978. He was hired to take over the Temple program in 1982, the Owls’ first season in the newly-formed Atlantic 10.
He preferred a deliberate style emphasizing ball control, shot selection, and a smothering zone defense that has now become nationally known.
Catlett, meanwhile, played basketball at West Virginia in the early 1960s and developed his basketball mind under some of the brightest coaches in the business.
First as a player for Fred Schaus and George King, and then as an assistant for Lew Mills, Lefty Driesell, Ted Owens and Adolph Rupp, Catlett was one of the nation’s hottest young coaching prospects when he took over the Cincinnati job in 1972 at age 31. He led the Bearcats to three straight NCAA tournament appearances from 1974-77 before returning to his alma mater in 1978.
Catlett took a struggling basketball program at West Virginia and turned it into a winner. By 1981, he had the Mountaineers back in postseason play and a year later, led WVU to a memorable 27-4 record and the school’s first NCAA appearance in 15 years.
Catlett’s teams played an up-tempo game with aggressive, pressing defenses complimented by unselfish teamwork on offense.
Almost always when West Virginia and Temple met on the basketball court, it was a battle of wills. Whichever team could force the other to play its style usually won. From 1982 until West Virginia left the league to join the Big East in 1995, the two teams played to a virtual draw. Temple had an 18-15 record against West Virginia, but more than half of those games (including Atlantic 10 tournament games) were played in Philadelphia.
Eight times they met in the Atlantic 10 tournament: West Virginia won four, Temple won four.
There have been many memorable encounters. In 1984, West Virginia upset No. 15-rated Temple, 67-65 on its home floor to advance to the Atlantic 10 championship game.
The No. 1-rated Owls produced back-to-back wins over West Virginia in a span of five days to preserve its top rating in 1988.
Temple trailed big in a 1991 game against WVU in Morgantown, and Chaney decided he didn’t want to sit through another hour’s worth of heckling from West Virginia’s rowdy student section, so he got tossed from the game. The Mountaineers won, 91-66.
“A state trooper came over and grabbed me and walked me all around the locker room, wanted to know if I wanted ice cream or some coffee or something,” he said.
Contrary to popular belief, Chaney actually enjoyed his visits to Morgantown.
“The fans were always nice,” he said in 1998. “I used to come in and sit up in the stands with the fans. They were always very, very good basketball people. It was the best arena that I’ve played in any place in the country.” Perhaps one of Catlett’s most memorable coaching efforts came in 1994 against No. 7-ranked Temple in the Owls’ old McGonigle Hall, located on Broad Street not too far from where prize fighter Joe Frazier used to train.
McGonigle Hall and its surrounding neighborhood provided an imposing backdrop for visiting teams. Once the bus rolled to a stop, the players hoisted their hoods over their heads, grabbed their bags and quietly exited the bus. Everyone knew what they were in for.
During this particular game, West Virginia was facing an Owl team that boasted a 6-1 record and had lost just seven of 86 Atlantic 10 Conference games in the building since joining the league for the ’82-83 season.
Temple had a pair of NBA forwards in Eddie Jones and Aaron McKie, a smoothing-shooting guard in Rick Brunson and two brutes underneath in Derrick Battie and William Cunningham.
Depending upon who has the upper hand, West Virginia-Temple games can either be high scoring (Catlett’s preference) or low scoring (Chaney’s preference).
On this night Chaney’s style won over. Action literally ground to a halt midway through the first half and the two clubs went to the locker room tied at 22. West Virginia converted just nine-of-30 field goal attempts for 30 percent, while Temple clanked in nine-of-36 for 25 percent.
The deliberate play continued in the second half, although West Virginia took a nine-point advantage on a P.G. Greene layup with 12 minutes to go. Temple whittled the deficit down and eventually took the lead on a pair of free throws by Brunson at 7:10. There were four more lead changes before a Brunson three-pointer with 15 seconds tied the game at 47.
“After Brunson hit that three, which was a great shot, we knew what we wanted to do,” said Catlett.
Backup forward Zain Shaw came down the floor and attempted a short jumper that missed. Forward Ricky Robinson’s follow up also missed, but Greene was there to make the winning basket with just one second left.
Most other coaches would have called timeout and tried to diagram the winning play, but Catlett knew his players were so in tuned to what he wanted that he let the action unfold, much like he did four years later when he let Jarrod West come down and fire up the winning three against Cincinnati in the NCAA tournament.
His coaching brilliance was evident in that victory against Temple. It wasn’t because his team defeated the No. 7-ranked Owls at home, or because Temple had won a staggering 91.8 percent of its league games in the building. Rather it was because his team defeated Temple at its own game. Forty-nine to 47 is not the score Catlett would have preferred. But he won anyway.
West Virginia didn’t make a high percentage of its shots (37.7 percent), but it played hard, rebounded (42-28), and forced 14 Temple turnovers.
“Teams that are good in this business are teams that do things well other than shoot,” said Chaney.
The veteran Temple coach got another dose of Catlett magic four years later in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament. The Owls came into the game ranked (No. 24) but didn’t quite measure up to the Mountaineers that day. When it was over, West Virginia walked away with an 82-52 victory. It was the worst beating ever for Temple in the NCAA tournament.
“West Virginia started off making shots and never stopped shooting the ball,” said Chaney.
It was a near perfect day for West Virginia. All Chaney could do was watch Catlett’s team make layup after layup. It was the prefect example of what Gale Catlett basketball teams can do when his players listen to him and execute the game plan – a game plan he learned from some of the game’s greatest minds.
Now that the coach has chosen to quietly exit stage left, without a press conference or any emotional farewells, Catlett’s name will soon join those coaching greats that had once passed on their knowledge to him. Catlett's resume that includes more than 550 career victories guarantees him that.
