Beat writers: best coach you've ever worked with/interviewed?

Just interested to see who else out there could be considered among the "good guys" as far as accessibility/cooperation when it comes to your job.

This doesn't necessarily have to be a coach you cover, per se. It could be a coach in the conference you cover, or someone you've dealt with often through the years.

My best thus far has been Villanova's Jay Wright.

 

Rick Pitino, followed by Jim Calhoun.

 

I never covered him, but I interviewed Jim Harrick about 10-15 times over the years when he was at UCLA, Rhode Island and Georgia. I'm not saying he wasn't dirty, but I haven't encountered many coaches who were as interesting, accomodating and media-friendly as he was.

 

gotta second harrick

 

Barry Bonds

 

Good topic...I think we've done "worst interview" about a million times around here. "Best" is a nice change.

My top 3, the all Southern coaches edition:

1. Jim Grobe
2. Bobby Bowden
3. Tommy Tuberville

All three of these guys will lie or resort to coach-speak at times, but they're all super-accessible, generally happy to talk and able to speak in comprehensible and trascribe-able paragraphs. I don't ask for much more than that.

I'm restricting this to major-college football and basketball head coaches...Obviously, coaches at smaller schools and most assistants are often great to deal with, as are minor-sports people.

And then, because I'm a negative sonofabitch, my bottom 3, also all Southern coaches:

1. Al Groh (Shut up and drop dead, you miserable fucking bastard.)
2. Urban Meyer
3. Mickey Andrews (I had to break my no-assistants rule for the king of the monosyllabic non-answer. Also, he spit on me once. Claims it was an accident.)

 

One of the best I've with was Ron Ekker, who has bounced around the NBA (assistant), the CBA and NCAA. Knew him when he was in the CBA. He always offered me a beer in postgame interviews (big plus), and he needled TV guys for their lack of interviewing skills (bigger plus).
TV guy: "Nice game, coach."
Ekker: "Yes it was Gary. Do you have a question about it?"
He once did this on a live shot.

 

See, there's "nice guy" best, and there's "copy" best.

John McKay could be quite a prick -- but he was a great quote (when he wasn't repeating material), and was actually reasonably nice to me when I was a 23-year-old Bucs beat guy (interestingly, first Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse, who was known far and wide as a cutthroat, horrifying bastard, was never anything but a gentleman with me).

Interesting thing about McKay was that postgame, he was often better after a loss than a win (which, of course, he had a lot of practice with in the first couple of years with the Bucs). He was humble and willing to talk after losing; he was often arrogant and "Screw you guys, we won" after winning. Q&As like:

Q: "What did you think of your offensive line's execution?"

A: "I'm in favor of it."

came, obviously, after losses.

 

Ozzie Guillen tops my list. Dave Cowens, in my limited dealings with him, was great, too.

 

Steve Sloan, former football coach at Vandy, Texas Tech and Duke, now the AD at Chattanooga. Classy and accommodating, whether you were the local or visiting team beat guy.

 

I can't believe I left out Steve Spurrier. He's probably better in short doses, but nobody does SEC Media Days like ol' Shiny Pants.