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

I have to give props to Jim Molinari, at Minnesota for the time being.

He always had time for me even though I was at the school paper at the time. Access was no problem either even letting me go on the road with the team with almost total access for a behind the scenes story. The only place I wasn't allowed was in the locker room before the games and at the half. Definitely above and beyond the call of duty.

 

I don't think I've seen Joe Torre's name yet. He is, to me, the gold standard, just because he is gracious and expansive in a setting that would tear up almost any other manager.

Ask him almost anything, on almost any subject, and he will give his best shot. Sometimes, he'll dress down an idiot who will ask a no-clue strategy question, but he's always game. He's one of those coaches/managers who seems to enjoy the give-and-take. He doesn't play favorites.

Enjoy it while it lasts, because those days, in general, are going, going, gone.

 

Izzo is excellent. Though I don't quite meet the beat criterion on Ray Meyer, I'll second the old school nomination for him. When I called him in the 1980s for a story about one of his former players, he answered his own phone -- no secretary screening the calls. He asked that I send him a clip of the story. About two weeks later, I got a hand-written two-page thank you note from him.

 

I'll preface this by saying these are people I've never worked with on a day-to-day basis but only came across or visited with occasionally, but here's a few:

Mack Brown
Gary Williams
Dick Bennett
Dan McCarney
Rick Barnes
Barry Hinson

 

Jim Leyland, Don Zimmer, Paul Owens, and I'll even throw in Bruce Coslett when he was with the Bengals. All gave good inside information. And I truly believe Zim was crazy because he let a lot of shit out of the bag.

 

I don't know if he was like this all the time - especially during the season - but I found John Cooper to be very accomodating when he was at Ohio State. I was working for a non-Big Ten school's student newspaper, and I was doing some advance work for the football tab regarding tracking down some coaches for a national overview story. I called Steve Snapp at OSU, and he told me to call the football office, since, he said, Cooper's secretary handles those things. So I call, and he's not in the office. But his secretary takes my name and number, and 40 minutes later, the phone rings and it's Cooper. Gave me plenty of time and answered all my questions. No matter how many times he lost to Michigan, or failed to win the big game, I'll always have good things to say about him because of that.

 

Coach K at Duke has always been a media-friendly type. Always willing to offer his opinions in a nice manner, and never talks down to anyone in the media room. I found he is often very receptive to younger journalists, as well. I can't say enough great things about K.

 

I'm a newcomer to the site, but an oldtimer to the biz.
Paul Westhead, at LMU and later George Mason, was awesome to work with. He always had analytical answers and he spoke slowly enough so I could write down his quotes without having to use tape. He also had a way to give you a usable quote on questions he did not want to answer, instead of "No comment." LMU was damn lucky to have him as its front man during the whole Hank Gathers situation.
Jim Harrick, at Pepperdine and UCLA, I knew that he was nine-tenths bullshit and he knew that I knew so he was generally good to work with. We cut through the crap and he usually had good stuff to say. He lied to me once about a job interview at another school and I called him out on it. After that he was a OK.

 

Although you did specify Bengals, I think most Jets' writers would still vomit at the mention of Coslett on this list.

 

roger neilson.
larry dierker.

 

Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks might not be much in the personality department, but he is as approachable as any D-I coach I've dealt with. If I ever need an interview with him or a local player, one phone call or e-mail will take care of it.

A bit off topic, but Louisville's Kenny Klein is a godsend when it comes to being an SID. I think Reilly mentioned Klein a few years ago as one of the 30 good guys in sports (or something along those lines).

 

My best and worst:

Best
Tom Penders
Abe Lemons
Bobby Bowden
Steve Spurrier
Bob Knight (ask the guy an intelligent question about basketball and he can expound with humor, insight and incredible recall---it's no wonder that even his critics say he's second to none as a teacher.)

Worst:
Moe Iba
Gene Iba
Hank Iba
Pat Dye
Charlie Weis