RIP "Spoon": Charlie Spoonhour, 1939-2012

(Image: Kansas City Star)

Legendary college basketball coach Charlie Spoonhour died in his Chapel Hill, North Carolina, home today at the age of 72. Spoonhour spent nearly 20 years as a head coach in NCAA Division I college basketball, having served as head coach at Missouri State University (then known as Southwest Missouri State), Saint Louis University and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV). Spoonhour had been in poor health in recent years. He was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2010. He received a lung transplant at the Duke University Medical Center in August of the same year.

Charlie Spoonhour rose to prominence in the mid 1980s when he turned the university now known as Missouri State -- then, as previously noted, a little-known state school in the Ozarks known as Southwest Missouri State -- into something of a mid major college basketball powerhouse. Spoonhour had nearly twenty years of paid coaching dues under his belt when he arrived at the Springfield, Missouri, school in 1983 to begin his career as an NCAA Division I head coach, a mere year after the Southwest Missouri State men's basketball program began competing as an NCAA Division I institution.

During his time at Southwest Missouri State (1983-1992), Spoonhour led the Bears' basketball program from obscurity to relative national prominence (short-lived though it may have been). From 1986 to 1992, Spoonhour's Southwest Missouri teams were fixtures in the post season: during that stretch, the Bears made five NCAA Tournament appearances and appeared in the NIT twice. But it was the 1986-87 team that caught the attention of the the national media and thrust Charlie Spoonhour into the spotlight. Led on the court by future NBA point guard Winston Garland, Spoonhour's 1986-87 Bears steamrolled their way to the Mid-Continent Conference championship, finished the season with a 28-6 overall record and upset the Horace Grant-led, 13th-seeded Clemson Tigers in the NCAA Tournament. But "Spoon," as he was affectionately known, didn't gain notoriety solely on the basis of his on-court exploits. By the late 80s, the man at the helm of the little school from the Ozarks with the somewhat bewilderingly directional name (at least bewildering to media types in Manhattan and Bristol, Connecticut) had garnered the attention of the national sports media in part because of his endearing personality. A son of Kansas and Arkansas, Spoonhour combined a crusty, old school demeanor with a sharp wit and a folksy, yet charismatic persona.

In 1992, Spoonhour left Southwest Missouri to take on the challenge of returning the once-prominent Saint Louis Billiken basketball program to college basketball relevance. At St. Louis, the "Spoon" succeeded and then some. In seven seasons as the Billikens' head coach (1993 to 1999), Spoonhour's teams made three NCAA Tournament appearances; went from playing sparsely attended home games in a small, antiquated gym to regularly playing in front of full houses in the new 19,000 seat downtown St. Louis home that they shared with the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues -- the then-newly-opened Kiel Center (now known as the Scottrade Center); and convinced the most sought-after St. Louis prep basketball star in a generation -- Larry Hughes -- to resist both the temptation of jumping directly from high school to the NBA draft, and the pull of playing for one of college basketball's high-profile, elite programs (Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Syracuse, Arkansas, Missouri, etc.) in order to stay home and play for the Billikens.

As it happens, Hughes left college for the NBA after playing only one season (and it was a relatively tumultuous season at that), but his unexpected decision to stay home and play for Charlie Spoonhour made it abundantly clear that Coach "Spoon" had put the St. Louis Billikens back on the college basketball map. Unfortunately for St. Louis, the Billikens' time in the sun was short-lived. During Spoonhour's tenure, St. Louis was a program that routinely acquitted itself well in Conference USA -- when C- USA was considered a major conference (St. Louis' Conference USA rivals included Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul, Memphis and Alabama-Birmingham [UAB]). But the program regressed to perpetual mediocrity shortly after Spoonhour's 1999 departure. The Billikens last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2000 ( under the stewardship of Spoonhour's successor, Lorenzo Romar).

Saint Louis' fortunes fell further in 2005, when Conference USA came apart after most of the aforementioned power programs left for the Big East. Saint Louis joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2006, where the Billikens remain. The Atlantic 10 is, to be sure, a quality league, but there's no doubt that its stature is a notch or two (or three) below the stature of the old C-USA. And it's only been in the last two years, under the guidance of another larger-than-life head coach -- Rick Majerus -- that the Billikens have been competitive in their new conference home.

But while Saint Louis was fading from its brief, Spoonhour era return to college basketball's national scene, Charlie Spoonhour was busy trying resurrect another well-known college basketball program -- the once-fabled Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) Runnin' Rebels. In 2001, Spoonhour was hired to replace former John Calipari assistant and one-time coaching wunderkind Billy Bayno as the head basketball coach at UNLV after Bayno landed the historically scandal-ridden Rebels' basketball program in hot water with the NCAA (who'd have thunk it!) over improprieties pertaining to the recruitment of then-prep star Lamar Odom. At UNLV, "Spoon" did what he was hired to do: right the ship, make the Rebels' notoriously sleazy basketball program respectable, get the program off of the NCAA's hit list, and win basketball games. But Spoonhour inherited a program that the NCAA had placed on probation for four years as punishment for Bayno's sins. Spoonhour compiled a respectable 54-31 record -- not bad for a program on probation! -- but failed to win over UNLV alumni and fans the way he'd won fans over in St. Louis. Spoonhour abruptly retired during the middle of the 2004 season.

The following year, Lon Kruger was hired to steer UNLV back to respectability. Kruger succeeded in short order, but he couldn't have done so if not for the foundation that Coach Spoonhour had spent the previous three years laying down.

In the years that followed his retirement from the coaching ranks, Charlie Spoonhour did yeoman's work as a television analyst for Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball games. Though Spoonhour's TV work for the Missouri Valley never reached a big, national audience (thanks to the Valley's relative obscurity and strictly regional appeal), "Spoon" was easily one of the best color commentators in the business. Much like the "color work" that Bob Knight currently does for ESPN, Spoonhour drew on a lifetime of basketball knowledge to break the game down into terms that entertained, but more importantly, informed the viewer. His breezy, down-home style was engaging and fun, but if you listened closely, the "Spoon" could be heard putting on a veritable coaching seminar. A better example of "wit and wisdom" could hardly be found.

Charlie Spoonhour will be missed.

Kansas State Drops Kansas From Undefeated Ranks

Last night Kansas State upset previously undefeated #2 Kansas 84-75. It marked the first time in 25 years that Kansas State was able to hold off a visiting Kansas team on their home court.

In other news, Drive and Dish has been following the travails of Rick Majerus' rough first season as Saint Louis University's head basketball coach. Last night, Majerus' Saint Louis Billikens only managed 36 points in their 63-36 loss to Dayton.

We're beginning to wonder how long Majerus will stay at Saint Louis.

Rick Majerus: Open Mouth, Insert Foot (Again)

By Trashtalk Superstar

In yesterday's Sunday Chicago Tribune, Columnist Rick Morrissey took on basketball coaches who espouse their political views in public forums. Morrissey's column was prompted by comments that Saint Louis Billikens' basketball coach Rick Majerus made about abortion and stem cell research at a recent Hillary Clinton campaign rally.

I had intended to write about Majerus' comments myself, but then a rash of upsets occurred in college basketball last week, and Rick Majerus' latest incident of shooting off his mouth quickly fell by the wayside in terms of warranting Drive and Dish's immediate attention.

But Morrissey's article hits on most of the points that I had intended to address. So I decided to link it up on Drive and Dish.

For the record, I don't know why coaches (or athletes, actors, rappers, rock stars, celebrity chefs, daytime TV talk show hosts, playwrights, screenwriters, authors, etc...) think that the world needs a public hearing of their political views. If a basketball coach wants to talk publicly about the intricacies of the match up zone, then let his voice be heard. But when he starts to believe that it's imperative that the world hear his thoughts on water boarding, Guantanamo Bay, capital gains taxes, the economic stimulus package, or any other political issue of the day, he's letting himself fall victim to his super sized ego ... if not to delusions of grandeur.

Rick Majerus should never have spouted his political views to a television reporter. And he should have understood that, as a representative of both Saint Louis University and the Billikens' basketball program, part of his job description is to present a positive, non controversial, apolitical public image. But Majerus has a long history of doing his thinking out loud. Drive and Dish has discussed this before.

Look, I was pretty critical of Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski's very public support for Elizabeth Dole during her 2002 North Carolina Senatorial campaign. And I like Coach K. What's more, I had a fairly strong dislike for Elizabeth Dole's opponent, Erskine Boles (even though he's, most likely, a distant relative of mine and doesn't exactly have a lightning rod personality).

But Coach K stuck his neck out too far when he injected himself into the larger political debate. He's a great basketball coach. He's a fine leader of young men (as North Carolina fans will surely attest). And hell, I don't doubt that he knows what he's talking about with regard to government and politics. Krzyzewski is, after all, a really sharp guy.

But it's simply not a basketball coach's place to make his political views and policy recommendations known to the public.

Not Mike Krzyzewski, not Dean Smith, not Bob Knight, Nolan Richardson, Rick Majerus, or even John Wooden.

And as for Rick Majerus, he's certainly always spoken his mind. But he's been speaking a little too much of it as of late.

Rick Majerus just needs to show some self discipline and shut his pie hole -- for the first time in his life.

Saint Louis Only Manages 20 Points Against George Washington

Tonight, the Saint Louis Billikens lost at George Washington 49-20. SLU's 20 point outing sets a new record for fewest points scored in a modern era (since the introduction of the shot clock) Division I basketball game.

Rick Majerus has already had a bumpy ride in his inaugural campaign as the Billikens' coach. In October, Majerus told a St. Louis newspaper that he wanted out of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Then the father of Billikens' guard Tommie Lidell III publicly criticized Majerus on an Internet message board (Billikens.com). At the time, several players weren't taking to Majerus' newly installed system, or to his coaching style. Lidell's father indicated that a player mutiny could occur. This came on the heels of a 40 point Billikens' loss to Kent State.

And now, in the first week of conference play, Majerus' Saint Louis Billikens set a new record for fewest points scored in a game.

Drive and Dish had reservations about Saint Louis' decision to hire Majerus. We thought that although he was an outstanding coach, he had the potential to self destruct and turn the already faltering Billiken basketball program into an all out train wreck.

It looks like the train wreck is underway.


Edit: More here.

Majerus Wants Out of Atlantic 10

By Trashtalk Superstar


In April, Rick Majerus was named the men's basketball coach at Saint Louis University. Now Majerus wants SLU to leave the Atlantic 10 conference.

And he's taking his case to the media. Majerus hasn't even coached a game at his new institution and he's already stirring controversy.

Drive and Dish has always respected and admired Majerus for his coaching ability. The guy is very good at what he does. But he's a loose cannon. You never know what he's going to say or do next. That - along with questions about his weight, health and lifestyle - is probably why he never landed a top tier coaching job. Yes, Majerus took the University of Utah to the Final Four, but it was with a once in a generation type Utah team. Utah was never going to be in danger of becoming an elite college basketball program. Word had it that Majerus always coveted a Big Ten coaching position. He was/is certainly good enough to coach in the Big Ten. But Big Ten institutions never seemed to be very interested in Majerus.

So now, after being USC's head coach for a few days (before abruptly resigning), Majerus is coaching the Saint Louis Billikens. And he's not thrilled about SLU's membership in the Atlantic 10.

Key lines:

"Majerus made it clear he isn't overjoyed by SLU being in the A-10; he doesn't like the 14-team configuration or the geography. SLU, unlike East-based conference members, can't take a bus to any conference road game.

'The thing I don't like about these large leagues is that there's an innate unfairness to it,' he said. 'Secondly, the demographics of it, particularly for St. Louis, are very perplexing, to say the least.'"

St. Louis is, indeed, in a strange position. Former members of the now defunct Metro and Great Midwest conferences, the Billikens were a charter member of Conference USA. They stayed in Conference USA until its recent split-up (remember- Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette and South Florida left C-USA for the Big East). Instead of maintaining their affiliation with the de-fanged Conference USA, St. Louis headed for the Atlantic 10. In doing so, the Billikens went from a high major conference to a glorified mid major conference.

St. Louis had struggled to make its mark (save for Charlie Spoonhour's 1998 team that featured Larry Hughes) in Conference USA. Moving to the A-10 appeared to make some sense because, while the A-10 is an outstanding basketball league, the level of competition is a step down from what the Billikens faced in Conference USA during its heyday.

Thus, it appeared that St. Louis was joining a good league in which it could finally make some headway. And the fact that the A-10 had several non football playing Catholic Universities as members probably didn't hurt either. So even though there would be no traditional or regional rivalries for St. Louis in the A-10, it looked like a good fit for the Billikens because they would be able to establish new rivalries with similar urban Catholic institutions.

But the fact is that the Atlantic 10 is primarily an Eastern seaboard league. That wouldn't be bad for St. Louis if they were merely looking to increase their national exposure, but it's a tough fit for them when it comes to travel considerations. And while it's true that Conference USA had member institutions spread throughout the country, they still had a core of schools that were in relative close proximity to St. Louis. Memphis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago and even Milwaukee were easy for the Billikens to travel to. However, in the Atlantic 10, the only schools near St. Louis are Dayton and Xavier (Cincinnati, OH). All the other member institutions are on the East Coast. And that's enough to make a season's worth of travel very taxing for the Billikens.

But the impetus for this post isn't to consider the merits of St. Louis' affiliation with the Atlantic 10 conference. This post is about Rick Majerus' behavior vis a vis his comments in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Rick Majerus was a good hire for St. Louis because he's a proven coach who has a high profile nationally. St. Louis wants to win and it wants to get some exposure. Rick Majerus won't ever shy away from a camera. But Majerus needs to be more careful when voicing his opinions. Rick Majerus might not be wrong to question SLU's conference affiliation, but he shouldn't do it publicly. Those conversations are best left behind closed athletic department and administrative doors. If Majerus wants to leave the Atlantic 10, he should talk to his Athletic Director and to the President of the university. But by taking his case to a St. Louis Post Dispatch sports writer, Rick Majerus makes his university, his athletic department and -ultimately- himself look bad.

Majerus to St. Louis?

After nearly a week of flirting with the possibility of becoming the new men's basketball coach at Saint Louis University, Rick Majerus has, apparently, accepted the position. A press conference is scheduled for Monday.

Because of Majerus' strange history with job openings (after stepping down as head coach at Utah, he has flirted with several coaching openings -Wisconsin, DePaul, Iowa, etc. - and went so far as to accept the USC job, before quitting after three days), Drive and Dish will wait until after the press conference to comment. We're not sure that he's serious.