Sendek seeds head coaching ranks

The blue and white looked out of place on Mark Phelps, a man given to red and white for the past dozen years, mostly at N.C. State. Equally incongruous was the name emblazoned in flowing script across his shirt front, a word that began with “D” and ended with “e” and conjured images of Blue Devils.

But closer examination revealed the name was not Duke but rather Drake, signifying freshened opportunity for a genial, long-time laborer in basketball’s trenches. “If you were alive, you knew about Drake basketball this year,” Phelps said when he was hired as the private school's head coach in late April.

First-time head coaches rarely get another chance if they stumble, and Phelps confronts instant jeopardy. Expectations remain high at the Iowa university, coming off one of its most successful seasons ever. Changes in sideline leadership in such circumstances tend to produce painful periods of adjustment, as Duke women’s coach Joanne McCallie discovered last season.

Phelps retains two starters from a Drake squad that won the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament titles, defeated in-state big boys Iowa and Iowa State, reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1971, made the final AP poll for the first time since 1975 (at No. 14), and went 28-5, most wins in program history. Only the 1969 squad, which reached the Final Four and defeated North Carolina in the consolation game, earned a more revered place in the century-old basketball history of the university in Des Moines, the state capital.

Schools in power conferences rarely turn to career assistants and hand over the keys to the family car. Johnny Dawkins, the former Duke player and assistant, became a notable exception when hired at Stanford this spring. Two decades ago, Roy Williams got a similar break at Kansas, and fashioned a Hall of Fame career that continues at North Carolina. But Williams endured an inherited probation as part of the deal at KU.

Head coaches are more likely to be christened at the mid-major level; often assistants are elevated to replace a successful boss who took a more prestigious job elsewhere.

Phelps, 42, replaced Keno Davis, departed for Providence College in the Big East after a year at Drake. Keno Davis had succeeded his father, Dr. Tom Davis, who retired after lifting Drake to its first winning record in two decades. The elder Davis, a long-time head coach, mentored Gary Williams at Maryland and Lafayette College nearly 40 years ago.

While Phelps has no link to the Davises, he did work for a successful coach in the ACC, serving for a dozen years under Herb Sendek. The first 10 seasons came at N.C. State, the last two at Arizona State. “Herb will be mentioned as one of the great coaches in the game,” Phelps insisted. “He just gets better and better and better. He does.”

In two years at Tempe Sendek has transformed the Sun Devils, a perennial Pac-10 also-ran, into a contender. He became a popular local hero in the process. “I’d put it this way,” Phelps said, “I think there’s just a genuine appreciation for the brand of basketball they’re playing at Arizona State.”

That respect is shared by athletics directors – Phelps is the third member of Sendek’s original N.C. State staff to get his own program, with Xavier’s Sean Miller and John Groce, hired this summer to direct Ohio University. Western Carolina’s Larry Hunter, formerly head coach at Ohio U., also worked for Sendek at Raleigh and helped kick the Pack program into a higher gear.

Phelps stiffens notably when recalling Sendek’s last years with the Wolfpack. Despite five straight NCAA appearances from 2002-06, matching a school record, many fans and media members grew impatient with his controlled playing style, reserved public manner, and unwillingness to concede a political component to leading the so-called Wolfpack Nation. Sendek’s record against the neighborhood giants, Duke and UNC, wasn’t all that great, either.

“Herb doesn’t deserve a rehashing, in my opinion,” Phelps said. “I was so, so disappointed when we left Raleigh. But it worked out great for Coach Sendek, it worked out great for me.”

The soft-spoken Phelps arrived at N.C. State in 1996, taking a job as director of basketball operations after seven years as a boys’ and girls’ head coach at private Christian high schools in the Virginia Beach area, where he grew up. He was accompanied to Raleigh by Damon Thornton and Kenny Inge, gifted forwards from his prep program,.

“Quite frankly, in terms of college I’ve only known high majors,” Phelps said. “Ten years in the ACC, I’ve seen the best of the best. I’ve taken a lot of notes about what players and coaches did well.” His new AD emphasized the importance of that experience, and his high school coaching, upon introducing Phelps as head coach.

Phelps places the tradition-rich Missouri Valley Conference at the top of the mid-major ladder, and sees many parallels between it and the ACC. “The passion and the importance is very similar to the ACC,” he said, citing sold-out arenas, passionate followings, and periods of national prominence at member schools such as Bradley, Creighton, Illinois State, Indiana State, Southern Illinois, and Wichita State. “There are Midwestern kids who look at the Missouri Valley as a goal.”

Phelps, newly remarried, is eager to put into practice the lessons gleaned from coaching almost 500 high school games and then participating in some 400 more in elite conferences. “Excellence is the goal in everything,” he said, sounding less boastful than candid. “You can do it the right way and be successful. You’ve got to work really hard, and you have to be really smart.”

A little luck wouldn’t hurt, as Drake fans will attest. The Bulldogs, seeded fifth in the West Regional, suffered one of the most shocking defeats in the 2008 NCAA tournament, losing their opener 101-99 in overtime on a long 3-pointer at the buzzer by Western Kentucky.

Had WKU not reached the Sweet 16, its coach, Darrin Horn, might not have followed the retired Dave Odom at South Carolina. Who knows? Phelps might have landed at Columbia instead. Then he could have stuck with red and white, just like old times, but with the name “Carolina” on the front of his shirt.