2008 Woodie Awards
No. 100!
First-year head coach scores 100th win Saturday
Brooks Kirchheimer
Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: Sports
|
Athletic Director Peg Bradley-Doppes hiring men's basketball coach Joe Scott from Princeton on March 21 has turned out to be one of her finest decisions.
And on Sunday he quietly earned career coaching victory No. 100.
There were no balloons or confetti or ESPN mention or headlines in the local papers, but a humble Scott guiding his Pioneers to an unprecedented season.
Sure it is nowhere close to the 902 wins that former Head Coach Bob Knight retired with, but with this season's conditions the 11 wins are more than impressive.
"Impressive isn't a very good word to use. It is very inspiring to see how he and his coaching staff have worked and convinced that young group of basketball players to believe in what they're doing," commented hockey Head Coach George Gwozdecky.
It was just one year ago when the Pioneers found themselves without a head coach and nowhere close to a winning way. DU finished last season an embarrassing 4-25 after four consecutive winning seasons and what looked like a positive direction for the DU basketball program.
That positive direction has been restored as Scott has the Pioneers off to a more than impressive 11-12 start to the season and 7-5 mark in conference, good for a first-place tie in the West Division.
Scott has not just directed this team to seven more wins than they had all of last season, but has done it with limited personnel. Sophomore Tyler Bullock, last season's second-leading scorer left the team after just six games. Senior David Kummer suffered his third injury in five seasons at DU during the 16th game of the season and the Denver rotation which was at eight strong at the beginning of the season was and is down to six.
Be the first to comment on this story