Who influenced them once they became coaches?
All of these guys had multiple assistant coaching stops along the way before becoming head coaches, so I was curious if any influences they had during coaching stints differed from the ones they had as players.
Earl says in his time at Princeton, “Sydney Johnson was so sharp, especially defensively and brought some interesting ideas from overseas and just the way he taught defense was something I really picked up on.” On the offensive side of the ball, he said he learned a lot from another former teammate, Mitch Henderson, “He gained a lot of knowledge working in the Big Ten for years at Northwestern. Run after scores, run after everything, he had a good mind on the offensive end.”
While Drew took a lot of influence from his dad and his brother Scott, who is the head coach at Baylor, he also says, “I talk to other coaches, Tony Bennett has always been a good friend, Matt Painter was right down the road and Matt was someone you could get a lot of wisdom from talking on the road recruiting with, and Ritchie McKay at Liberty at all my stops has been a great sounding board and mentor.”
When I asked Horn this question, he did not hesitate with his answer of Tom Crean. He told me, “when it comes to everything that goes into coaching and running a program, everything from X’s and O’s to scouting to recruiting to building player relationships to how to get butts in the seats, I think Tom is as good as there is in college basketball.”