The Kevin Sheehan Show - RIP Lefty

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

Kevin today with a special podcast to talk about the passing of legendary Maryland coach Lefty Driesell. Scott Van Pelt jumped on to share his thoughts as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Basketball has been great to me. And for me to get in this Hall of Fame is like unbelievable. And thank you very much.

That was Lefty Dressel five years ago, finishing up a very memorable Naismith Hall of Fame induction speech. So glad that Lefty got into the Hall of Fame. fame while he was still alive. Lefty passed away this morning at the age of 92 years old. This is a special podcast on this Saturday to remember Lefty, one of the most important figures in the history of college basketball, and in all time, D.C. and Maryland sports legend. Scott's going to jump on with a Scott Van Pelt, that is. We'll jump on with me in the next segment to share his thoughts on a day that not all of you of a certain age will understand,

and that's fine. But for basketball fans of a certain age, call it 40 or older, especially in our area and south throughout ACC country, Lefty was a giant. He left an indelible mark on the sport during his coaching reign. And today, there are so many of us that are telling stories, sharing memories, and almost all of them, all of them, and with a huge smile or a big laugh. The show, as always, presented by Window Nation, call 86690 Nation or go to Windonation. Before the end of the month, and you'll get 50% off on all windows with no money down, no payments, and no interest for two years. Lefty could have sold that spot much better than I just did. When Lefty coached, there was this word always used to describe him.

You know, it was in his bio. It was an announcer, you know, talking about Lefty at the beginning of a game. And the word was colorful. It was always part of the description of Lefty. It was the definition part that says, colorful means interesting, lively, exciting. And he was all of that. You know, there isn't a writer in the history of D.C. or Maryland. Maryland or anywhere on Tobacco Road that covered college basketball that wouldn't tell you

that Lefty's interviews, his press conferences were must watch or must listen. But Lefty was so much more than just colorful or just an entertainer. He was a winner, a big time winner. In just over 40 years as a college coach at four different universities, he won 786 games. When he retired in 2003 as the coach at Georgia State. He was number four all time on the wins list. Bobby Knight, Adolf Rupp, and Dean Smith were ahead of him. That was it. He was the first coach to win 100 games at four different schools, and for a long period of time, he was among a very small group of coaches to take four different programs to the NCAA tournament. He never did win a national title. Never coached a team to a final four. He did coach teams to four Elite Eight appearances and won a

combine 21 conference, regular season or conference tournament titles during his career. Billy Packer called him the greatest program builder in the history of the sport. How did he arrive at that label for Lefty? Well, it started at Davidson in the 1960s, a Southern Conference Sleepy, Carolina school, great academically, but not known for sports. And he took Davidson into the elite eight on two different occasions and had the team ranked as high as number two in the country multiple times. Then he came to Maryland, 1969. It was a lifeless program that he signed on to. He didn't quite build the Terps into the UCLA of the East that he claimed was possible, but Maryland during his time, his 17 years in college park, was a fixture in the top 20,

really mostly the top 10 for the decade of the 1970s, when he took two of his TIRP teams to the elite eight. And the 1974 team, which was Lefty's best, it finished ranked fourth in the country, but couldn't go to the NCAA tournament after losing one of the greatest games in college basketball history, the 1974 ACC final to NC State, 103 to 100 in overtime. Back then, only one school from each conference could go. And in the ACC, they determined their conference champion in their tournament. That was the last year of just one team per conference. They expanded the tournament, changed the rule after that season,

called it the Maryland rule, allowed more than one team to go. go to the NCAA tournament through the at-large process because they knew that it wasn't good for the sport to have one of the best two, three, or four teams in the country not even be able to compete for the title. NC State, by the way, went on and won the title that year. It's very possible that Maryland would have faced NC State in the NCAA final in 74 if they had gotten in. Ironically, that first year in 1975 of allowing more than one team per league to get in. Maryland was the first at-large team out of the ACC. They won the regular season in 75, but lost to NC State in the semifinals in the tournament, but got a bid anyway and advanced to the

elite eight that year. Lefty was a winner. He was also an innovator and a marketer. He created Midnight Madness. It started by having his players at 12.01 a.m. on the first day that practice was allowed. He had him out at Bird Stadium running a mile around the track. But he called it their first practice at 12.01 a.m. and called it Midnight Madness, and the rest of the country followed. Lefty was one of the first to put seats on the floor, allowing fans to sit courtside for home games at Cole Fieldhouse. He was also one of the first to make sure that students weren't relegated to the rafters of the arenas in which their schools played in. Lefty gave the student section a really good seats at Cole Fieldhouse and they became a big part of the games. Lefty was often labeled as great recruiter, OK coach.

I never loved that. And people that followed lefty's career knew it wasn't true. The winning belied the OK coach part of it. The recruiting part, well, it was definitely true in his first 10 years in college park. He was a phenomenal recruiter. In those early days, he got the number one high school basketball player in the country four times in eight years in the 1970s. He got Tom McMillan in

1972, the number one player in the country. He got Moses Malone, the number one player in 1974. McMillan, I think was 71, actually. He got Malone in 74, Albert King in 77, and Reggie Jackson in 79, I think. Reggie Jackson, not that Reggie Jackson,

but a point guard out of Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia. Four times. Over eight years, Lefty got the nine. number one guy in the country. And the stories of his recruiting style, which started with just relentless work ethic, are legendary. The Moses Malone recruitment, you know, the stories go that he slept in his car outside of Moses Malone's house the night before recruiting season opened, you know, with a shotgun under his seat. He beat every other coach into Moses's house,

all of the other coaches that arrived at, you know, whatever time was. supposed to be the time that you could start recruiting. They couldn't believe that lefty was already there and already in the house. Big John, as in Coach Thompson, and they had quite the relationship, and were much closer later in life, you know, key area rivals when Big John was coaching at Georgetown and Lefty at Maryland in this era in the 70s and 80s. But Coach Thompson used to tell lefty stories all the time, and the one that always stands out to me, is that he would talk about Lefty as a recruiter and said he was always one step ahead of us.

We would be in the stands, there would be dozens of college coaches in the stands watching some big-time high school player play, and they'd be looking around and they'd say, where's Lefty? And then somebody would point to the floor, and Lefty would either be right behind the basket, or he'd be sitting like at the end of the bench.

He wanted to be seen by everybody in the high school gym, especially the player and the player's parents, and all the coaches, Coach Thompson would say, that's old Lefty. He would figure it out how to get down there. And, you know, when everybody else was just in a pack of wolves, Lefty would stand out. Lefty sold encyclopedias door to door when he was a young coach, you know, in high school, wanted to coach but had to convince his wife that he could make enough money while coaching.

And so he sold encyclopedias. door to door to bring home enough money to support the family. Lefty was a legendary salesman, which of course translated into him being a legendary recruiter. I do think, though, that the great recruiter but not a great coach was really, you know, a bad narrative and sort of flipped on its head, you know, especially when you considered what he did with teams at smaller places like James Madison in Georgia State and Davidson, he got to Maryland. And even at Maryland, you know, the recruiting tailed off just a bit in the 80s. It's not that he wasn't getting good players, you know, Len bias, Adrian Branch, but he wasn't consistently getting the top two or three player in the country. And yet the teams were still

good teams. He wasn't getting top 10 classes, but those teams went to the tournament regularly. They won an ACC tournament in 1984. They went to multiple. sweet 16s and had the potential to go further. I thought his coaching was never appreciated as much as it should have been. I don't think the development of players was ever appreciated in the way it should have been. You know, Len Byes was nowhere near a finished product when he got to Maryland. In his later years at Maryland, Lefty developed guys like Keith Gatlin and Jeff Baxter and Jeff Badkins and Speedy Jones and, you know, guys like Terry Long who weren't overly talented into

serviceable big men in the ACC. He turned Derek Lewis into one of the great defenders and shot blockers in ACC history at the time. He got so much out of those players and those teams. And I don't think he was ever appreciated for the coach he was and the developer of players that he was. Lefty was such a great leader. He was a bigger than life character and a mentor. He was a big dude. People that were never around him in person don't understand. He was 6'6, and he had this big, booming voice and a personality that just made him, you know, the room.

Not the biggest voice in the room, but actually the room. Moses Malone until his dying days referred to Lefty as a father figure. to him. You know, that Moses Malone lefty relationship was really special. Moses was at the time probably the most highly recruited high school player in history, or certainly one of them. It's not an exaggeration. I mean, guys like Ralph Samson and Patrick Ewing and a guy like Kenny Anderson came along and they were massively big-time recruits. But Moses was up there in terms of the most sought after high school players of all time. And anybody that signed Moses in 1974 was like guaranteed national championships, plural.

He signed with Lefty. And then just as classes started in 1974, Malone got a visit to his home from the Utah stars of the ABA. They offered him $250,000 in cash. And according to Lefty, they rolled the cash out on the table in his house. Moses didn't accept it. He called Lefty, and Lefty went down to Petersburg, Virginia. Keep in mind, lefty is just signed the number one player, maybe of all time. School's about to start in a day or two. Lefty's going to probably get a national championship or two with Moses Malone. Lefty goes down to Petersburg, Virginia,

sits with Moses and Moses' mother and I guess other family members. And he told Moses, you call Utah back, tell them that if they come back with a million dollars, you'll take the money and play for them. They came back a day or two later with a million bucks, and Lefty told them to take it. That was big money in 1974. Lefty thought it was the right thing for Moses and his family to take the money and go pro. And he did. So Moses never played at Maryland.

But throughout the years, you know, when Lefty would tell stories about his players, he would tell stories about Moses as if he played for Lefty. You know, when we had Moses, Moses never played for Lefty, but the two of them stayed super close until Moses Malone died at a very young age in 2015. The Maryland team that Malone would have been a freshman on in 1975, that team went to the Elite 8 without them. It had John Lucas, Brad Davis, Mo Howard on that team. They lost to Louisville in the Elite 8.

They probably would have won the national championship in 75, had Moses at least played a year. You know, lefties wins were great, but Lefty's losses are also part of his legend, because for all of us that lived and died with every one of those Maryland basketball games. I think the losses are just as imprinted in our brains as the wins are. Lefty lost the ACC tournament final five times before he finally won it 40 years ago this March.

He lost it in 72 to Carolina. He lost it in 73 on a bucket by David Thompson at the gun by two. he lost in 74 in the greatest game in ACC basketball history, you know, by three in overtime to NC State. He lost to Duke in the 80 final in Greensboro on a very controversial finish. Buck Williams rising to tip in and Albert King miss at the buzzer and he gets undercut by Kenny Dinnard, no call. And Maryland loses that ACC tournament final by a point. The next year in 1981, they're in the ACC final. They beat number one Virginia and Ralph Sampson in the semis.

That, by the way, was a tournament played at the Capitol Center in Landover. They lose to North Carolina by a point. I mean, they lost five ACC tournament finals, four of them, by two, three in overtime, a point, and a point. I mean, rare lefty, by the way, just rome. rarely got the best of Dean Smith. Carolina was the team and the rival. NC State to a lesser degree.

It wasn't Duke back then, and Lefty just didn't have Dean's number. He was the only coach in the ACC that Lefty didn't leave with a winning record head-to-head against. He was 10 and 29 against Dean Smith in his time at Maryland. And, man, so many of those losses were painful. some of the better regular season games of that era. They lost a 95 to 93 overtime game in which they had a 10-point lead in the second half at Carmichael in Chapel Hill.

They lost a four-point lead in the final 20 seconds in Chapel Hill and lost by a point. They had a chance to beat North Carolina, who was number one in the country with Michael Jordan on the team. And Lefty put his son Chuck into the game who didn't play that much. and call the play to get Chuck the final shot, and Jordan threw it into the third row, although all of us, I think, believe it was goaltending that wasn't called. But Lefty was asked after the game why he had Chuck take the final shot, and he said, well, he's my son.

I wanted my son to take the final shot and beat North Carolina. But, man, there were just some brutal losses in Sweet 16 games to Georgetown in 1980. They lost to a point to Illinois in 84 with Bias. That looked like a Final 4 team. The next year in 85, it also looked like a team capable of getting to the final four. And they lost by three to the eventual national champions Villanova. In a game, by the way, where Len Bias was three for 17, it was probably the worst game of his career. But, man, the wins were memorable too.

I mean, they were. The last two head-to-head against Dean Smith for Lefty in 1986 included the legendary Len-Bias game in the Dean Dome. They were the first to win a game at the Dean Dome as a road team. Bias went for 35 and, you know, had the memorable steel and the backwards dunk, and Keith Gatlin threw it off Kenny Smith's back and scored at the end. They won 77 to 72 in overtime. A few weeks later, Lefty beat Dean again in the ACC tournament quarterfinals. So the last two of lefties tenure at Maryland head to head with Dean Smith, the Terps won both of them. The ACC tournament title in 84, 40 years ago, that was so sweet. I think it may have been for fans, the most emotional win for lefties

teams because he had failed five times in the final and all of those games were so painful in the way they ended. But he finally got that ACC tournament title. Bias was breaking out as a sophomore, had 26 was the MVP of that tournament. They won by 12 over Coach K's Duke team. Those were the early years of Coach K at Duke. They had not yet gone to a final four.

He promised to strap the trophy to the hood of his car and drive it all around the state of North Carolina if he ever won the ACC tournament. But by the time he got to 84 and was 0 for 5, in the finals. I think he just celebrated with family. But that game was so emotional for Maryland fans to see him finally get over the hump in the ACC tournament final. There's a game that many who are older than I am refer to in terms of being memorable. South Carolina was still in the league. It was 1971 and the Gamecocks were number two in the country. Maryland held the ball.

They led four to three at half time, and they won on a Jim O'Brien shot late in the game, 31 to 30. A lot of people remember that from the early portion of his career in college park. Lefty's teams at Maryland were ranked number two more than any other school that wasn't ranked number one. It's still to this day true because Gary had a bunch of teams that were ranked number two as well. Maryland's been ranked number two more often than any school that hasn't been number one. Maryland's never been number one in the AP poll during the season. They finished when they won the national championship in 2002 as the number one team, but that actually didn't count as a final poll.

Lefty beat number one more than anybody else. Several wins over the number one team in the country. Beat Carolina, beat NC State, beat Notre Dame when they were the number one. number one team in the country. It's hard for me to think on a day like today about Lefty without thinking of a couple of things, which I'll mention right now. Coach Thompson always said there would have been no Georgetown without Lefty. Understand this. When Lefty arrived in the area in 1969, there was nothing other than the Redskins. The senators were two years away from leaving. there was no hockey team. The bullets were in Baltimore. It was the Redskins. It was Maryland basketball,

and it was high school basketball that was actually popular in the area. I mean, it was a smaller town, Washington in 1969. But Lefty created the popularity for college basketball in this city. And it, you know, happened to correspond with the run of the popularity of the sport overall. And the growth, of the ACC as a mega star conference power in college basketball. But John Thompson said so many times without Lefty there would have never been a Georgetown. It's impossible to think of Lefty today and not think of ACC basketball in his place in, you know, that legendary conference. You know, for the school, Maryland, that was the northern outpost for the league, all of those. years and was always treated as such. They were they were the red-headed stepchild in the

ACC to the teams in North Carolina. But during that heyday of ACC basketball, while Maryland was treated as an outsider, lefty battled tobacco road like nobody did. During his era at Maryland, he was number two on the wins list to Dean Smith. He had a winning record, as I mentioned, against everybody except Dean in the ACC. And still to this day, he's eighth on the all-time ACC wins list. And understand this. I mean, you're talking about a lot more conference games are played now. And in the last, you know, since left he retired or left Maryland, then were played back then.

I mean, they had a 12 or a 14-game conference schedule. You know, they play a lot more conference games. He's still eighth all-time on the ACC wins list list. You know, it's impossible on a day like today not to think of Gary Williams, Maryland's greatest winner of all time as a head coach. The other Hall of Famer. I mean, they've had two Hall of Fame coaches. Pretty amazing. The foundation of Maryland's basketball relevance in the area nationally allowed Gary to turn that thing around quicker than you would have been able to do it most places after they came off probation. Gary, by the way, is still the fourth all-time winner in ACCC history behind Coach K, Dean Smith, and Roy Williams. By the way, Roy Williams, Gary owned Roy Williams head-to-head.

That's a bit of a side comment. You know, it's easier on a day like today to not think of the complexity around some of lefties years at Maryland, specifically the bias death and the aftermath of it in 1986. You know, Lefty said the day that Leonard died, Lefty, I love you, Leonard, and I'll see you in heaven one day, and today's that day. Lefty wasn't without flaw, you know, and those days, you know, the aftermath of the bias passing

may be exposed some of those flaws, but I think most people who were Lefty fans, but even most people that were there to document Lefty's career during those days understood that whatever he did was never out of ill intent. It was always because the players that he coached were foremost in his mind. By the way, Lefty said after the Moses Malone recruitment ended, and there was talk of investigating Maryland because they got Moses and nobody else did, so somehow Lefty had to cheat together.

him. Lefty said, quote, I fully expect an NCAA investigation. It doesn't affect me at all. I welcome it. I've been in this profession for 15 years, and you've never seen one of my teams on probation, and you never will. When I get so I have to cheat to win, I have other ways to make a living. Closed quote. He never was on probation anywhere he went. It's hard not to think about Cole Fieldhouse when you think of Lefty. It was there when he got there and it hosted the most famous championship game in 1966, the Texas Western team, which was the first NCAA champion to start five black players.

But it wasn't really Cole Fieldhouse in the way Maryland fans knew it until Lefty got there. You know, summing it up to walk into that arena for a big game on a cold winter night, just to think about it. As I'm doing it right now, the hair is standing up on the back of my neck. In the same way that I think of RFK

and walking into RFK for a big game against the Cowboys, to walk into Cole and to walk through that area, that foyer area before you'd go through that second level of doors and walk into the arena, and then you'd look down and it was red everywhere and maybe Carolina's powder blue road uniforms are going through layup lines. It was a spectacle. I mean, back in that day, it was Colfield House and RFK Stadium in this town.

Those were the two venues. Still to this day, for me, the two greatest venues of all time. I mean, it was a cauldron. It was filled with passion, with bloodthirst. It was special, so special. so many nights in that building that so many of us have talked about and we'll talk about for the rest of our lives. Lefty started it.

Gary took it to an incredible level as well. What a building. You know, what an atmosphere and what memories. What else do I want to say before we get to Scott? You know, Lefty was so comfortable being lefty. I mean, he was an original. He was totally authentic. And that meant saying exactly what was on his mind, you know, in the moment.

And doing it, by the way, with this southern draw born out of, you know, a Virginia-tidewater, you know, Norfolk, Virginia area childhood where he grew up and he started his coaching career as a high school coach. You know, he had this, you know, southern country accent. He would, you know, deliver a malaprop or two for sure. and it would occasionally draw the wrong conclusion about him. He was super sharp. You know, that old saying, dumb like a fox, was often used by those who knew him

and definitely those who competed against him. He was an honors student at Duke, okay? He didn't care, though, that you thought differently about him. There's this famous rant from the Maryland coaching days. It's the I can coach rant. I don't remember specifically the details or what led up to it, but it was a press conference probably leading up to a game against North Carolina and somebody brought up Dean Smith and lefty went off and he said,

I may not be able to coach X's and O's like Dean Smith can. I may not be as smart as Dean, but I can coach. Check my record, you know, and it went on and on with this I can coach. he never backed down to anybody, that's for sure. And he never acted like anyone else but himself. I mean, he was a true original. Rest in peace, Lefty. We'll get Scott's thoughts next.

If you have a moment to rate and review this podcast, especially on Apple and Spotify, it would be much appreciated. Following us and subscribing to the podcast is a tremendous help as well. Scott is with us, and I'll just start by asking you for your thoughts on the old left-hander. He was always our guy. Our guy is right, man. But he was Maryland's guy and just traded text with Keith Gatlin,

who I know up in College Park is going to be there for the game. You know, I've seen the tributes from, you know, Len Elmore and Tom McMillan. I can't imagine what it would have been to play for him, right? I mean, you and I and so many people out there, we just were rooted for them and we watched them. And, you know, the thing that's beautiful about it, Kevin, is I just, I just smile. Like, immediately, I just smile because I start thinking about stories.

And I just, I'm literally, I'm sitting here by myself and out loud, I just say the United States. Yeah. And you're laughing, and people that know would be laughing. The gist of it was that Lefty in Maryland had went to the Alaska shootout. They lost a game to somebody up there, and at some point he came back and said,

the lefty told the reporter that they hadn't lost the game in the United States this year, and they said, well, coach, you lost in Alaska, and he goes, no, no, you know, I mean the United States. Exactly. As if that wasn't part of it. Right. I mean.

He wasn't exactly sure where the 50 came from. Yeah, I mean. You know what? It was up there, way up there someplace, but it didn't feel like it was united. But my gosh, he made Maryland matter. He, you know, he was willing to say things like, we're going to be the UCLA of the East. And, you know, you come up short because it was an arrow where obviously you could lose an overtime to NC State as a top five team and didn't make the tournament. because at the time, you know, that was the rule. Only one team went.

They changed the rule, and at-large teams initially were, they called it the Maryland rule. I mean, they changed, they literally changed the rule to the NCAA tournament because the idea that Lefty and Maryland not being in the field was just preposterous. Like, how could you have a tournament not have a team that good in it? Well, well, let's change that. Unfortunately, for that 74 team, it was a year too late. but, you know, every person listening that was lucky enough to be around and grow up in the time of left, he has his or her own memories and, you know, moments that you were, maybe irate with him,

but you loved him no matter what. Yeah, I mean, you know, in talking about those early years, because those are the first years we remember, and it was so important to so many of us, but one of the reasons, and I tried to explain this that it was so important was it was him for sure, but there really wasn't anything else in town, too. I mean, he came in at a time where baseball was leaving. We didn't have hockey. We actually didn't have an NBA team. It was the Redskins and Maryland basketball. That was it. and he was so out there in terms of personality and so good as a coach and built it up so quickly, it just mattered in a way that I don't think people in this generation can understand how big Maryland basketball was during lefty.

And of course it carried over almost exponentially into the Gary era. without a doubt, but I think that what lefty helped make, could Gary have done what he did without what lefty did initially? I mean, it's, right, it's foundational building blocks that create an idea of what a place can be and, you know, what Cole was. And, you know, I know you and I both have so many memories of so many nights in that building and, you know, just waiting to hear the drums started. if you could hear the Amen chorus at the end of it. There was just nothing like it, and you make a great point of just how big it was. The times were different.

Like the caps didn't exist. I know when they started, they were horrendous and whatever, but I'm just, I'm glad I got to know him as a man, like, away from it. You know, we went to his camps. Yep. And there's basketball camps, and I remember the speech every year around the third or fourth day. And he'd tell, he said, now, some of you little kids, you've got to take a shower now. You can't just jump in the pool.

You start to stink. He's like, I can't send you home to your parents stank it. Yeah. What about ice cream? Tell everybody the ice cream store. I don't know what about how I have an ice cream party. Yeah, I mean, basically lefty, like I went one year because I went to this St. to math at basketball camp every other summer.

Right. Coach Gallagher, Coach Wood. Yeah, but the one summer, it was, you know, Lefty was barely around. By the way, I think people don't realize he was such a bigger-than-life figure because of personality, but also because of his physical stature. He was 6-6, and he had a big, booming voice. And when he walked, you know, on that concourse level

and would walk down for camp, I mean, he was a larger-than-life figure. but at the end of the speech about, you know, don't jump in the pool. Some of you little guys got a shower, he would say, but hey, you guys try hard today. We're going to have ice cream tonight. Ice cream was definitely the carrot at the end of the stick. You were staying in the dorms. It was hotter than hell.

And, you know, I mean, again, I was lucky enough to know him in life through a very close family friend. And I've told the story. And I think of it today of, you know, after things worked out with ESPN and I saw coach actually was at the funeral for the man that was our common friend a legendary guy

Mark. A great Terp and a great family friend named Mark Perry and coach said you know you do a great boy I'm proud of the I said I coach I just got lucky he said son if it was luck it would have run out by now and I just such a lefty line but it's such a great line because he's like nah no you got to you got to take some ownership and

and how things have worked out and Like this morning I just put on the Hall of Fame speech where he's talking and it's George Ravling and John Thompson and Mike Schiafsky. Like think about who's up there representing him putting him in. You know, the significance of his relationship with Big John, the significance of his relationship with George Ravelling. And the fact that he probably doesn't get in the Hall of Fame if Mike Schiazke didn't make a stink about how it made no sense that Lefty wasn't in there. And there's those three men. And Coach starts talking about Mike, graduating from West Point and how, you know,

if you don't listen to the guys in the Army, you get killed. Talking about how, you know, get people from West Point or obviously, you know, on a different level of what they encounter in life. But just listen to the lefty talk. My God, he had the whole room in the palm of his hand. He was a storyteller.

He was just, he was truly legendary, man. and did he get to the place he wanted to get to, you know, in terms of Maryland, winning a title? No, but again, Gary did his own thing and deserves his own credit for that. But the foundation of Maryland basketball was established truly by Lefty. What's your favorite lefty game? What a great question. I remember being there when they beat, like they beat Notre Dame, Larry Gibson hit a hook shot.

Yeah. You're a three-point play. Yeah. Yeah, three-point play late down to. So many games with Carolina. But the games I end up remembering, I have to think, like, when they beat Duke in the ACC title game, and you hear people singing the A-man chorus and imagine him doing what he said he was going to do, which he put the trophy on the hood of his Cadillac and drive around the States of North Carolina.

that felt like a monstrous, significant thing because it had never happened. I don't know, do you have one? They beat Ralph and they beat Ralph and Cole. That was a great one. That was a great one, but that wasn't a great season, if you recall. It was the branch freshman season. But I think that, I think, by the way, it's coming up on the 40-year anniversary of the 84 ACC title.

I think that's the most emotional I can think of being because we wanted it to, so badly for him, and he got it, the ACC tournament. For those of you listening that just don't have a clue as to what that meant, it was in so many ways bigger than getting to the final four, you know, winning the ACC tournament in 84. But I think the game at the Dean Dome, you know, the bias game was, you know, because they were, remember, they started that season in 86, like 0 in 5 or 0.6 in the conference and then roared back and ended up getting into the NCAA tournament.

tournament in large part because they beat North Carolina twice at the end of the year, including that game at the Dean Dome. And to see him pump that left fist when that game ended in overtime, there was a real satisfaction in that one because, and I tried to explain this, that in many ways, like, he brought us so much joy, but part of the joy was because we experienced so much pain in watching. We wanted it so badly, and there were so many heartbreaking. losses, you know, the 74 loss to NC State. For me, the loss to Duke in the 1980 ACC tournament final when Kenny Dinnard undercut Buck and they didn't call it was so painful,

because that may have been his best team if the 74, the 74 team was his best team, but the 80 team was sensational. That was Albert King's junior year and God, was he great that year. But there were so many painful losses, as you mentioned, so many memorable games, wins, but more losses to Dean in North Carolina. Sure. And I mean, that was just the byproduct of the league you're in and, you know, being the Yankee school in the conference and always feeling like, you know, I mean, what was the chant in Cole Fieldhouse? You'd chant Carolina ref. And there was, because Carolina was far, far bigger rival than Duke at that time. And, and, and, and,

state as well. I mean, you had to deal with the whole tobacco road bit. And yeah, I mean, there were a lot of close losses and a lot of excruciating losses. But, like, I remember playing Houston in the tournament with Clyde Drex, when down in Houston, and, like, Maryland's holds the ball, and it was a low-scoring first half, and they're booing lefty walking off the quarter half-time. What do you do? He turned and pumped his physical at the whole building. Like, you know, I'll fight you at this whole joint. I don't care. And, and again, it always came back to, like, We just loved the left-hander. And, you know, the people who covered him have just such incredible stories of, you know, the character that he was.

And, you know, I couldn't help but think the day, you know, after the worst chapter that we ever went through of Maryland when Lenny died and what it left he said that day, I love you, let her nothing in heaven one day. And, you know, his wife, Joyce passed away a few years ago. and, you know, those two were such an incredible duo. And, you know, you think about, you know, the hope and the belief for many of us that there's something beyond this. And if that's the case, then that's the happy thought, too, that they'd be reunited somewhere in a great beyond in heaven. But holy crap, today is a day of just, like, I just keep smiling, shaking my head thinking about lefty. just the stories and the memories, it's clear as day of him on the sidelines,

hitching his bridges up and calling something out to his guys. Yeah, you know, I don't know. That's the thing, is that unless you're of a certain age, I don't think you realize just the stories, the stories we've been telling, and people that experienced lefty have been telling their entire lives. He had to be the best press conference that this town has ever had. I mean, it was must-go-to, must-listen to, and you didn't know what you were going to get,

but it was going to be entertaining. Always. Always. And, you know, well, I don't know what you know. Like, that was kind of how I always talk. And if you deconstruct that, it's like, well, coach, if you don't know, I certainly don't know, you know. I mean, I don't know, I don't know, lefty tell me. but I mean, think how lucky, think how lucky, you know, for all the losses that are part of the painful losses that I think so many Maryland fans immediately can recall how lucky we've been in our lives if we're old enough to have, you know, gotten to watch Lefty and then gotten to see Gary. And, you know, a lot of schools have a pair of Hall of Famers that have been their basketball coaches, very different. but but you know to have had that it's just I don't know

quite unfortunate sort of history that there is yeah you know one of the things that I never have subscribed to at all is the notion that lefty was one of the great recruiters of all the time of all time but wasn't as good of a coach I actually thought as he grew you know into those you know 80s teams he was proving that he was actually a better coach and not as great of a recruiter. I mean, I've heard too many stories about the recruiting.

Like, you know, Albert King talking about, like, somebody's saying, like, there's a Catholic out front. He says he's not leaving until you agree to come to Maryland. And, you know, the McMillan story about Tom McMillan saying, well, North Carolina has more volumes in the library and left you tell them, if you read all the books in the library, I'll go get you some more. I mean, he's going to Carolina. Yeah, he was.

He was. hijacked him and stopped at Maryland so that he could go there. It's hard. There's so many fish stories about the recruiting that it's hard not to look at that part of it. And, like, say, that's what he was, his calling card were. But obviously, you don't win, you don't win 100 at four different schools, which he did. You don't get the number of teams to the tournament that he did at different schools. If you're not a great coach, of course he was a great coach.

It's just, it was difficult. And think about it. You're going up against Sloan at State who won a title. You're going up against Dean Smith, Carolina, who won a title. You're going up against Terry Holland at Virginia. You didn't want a title, but obviously was an excellent coach. I mean, it was... Valvano, you know, yeah.

Of course, Jim Valvano was another title winner. I mean, it was murderers row in that league. And, you know, he won more than his share, and you just weren't going to be able to dominate a league like that, that's for sure. Yeah, that's just... It's just a shame that Lefty didn't get a team to the Final Four because he would have been one of the all-time great Final Four shows in the week and the days leading up to it. No question. You know, that McMillan story, you know, remember I had him on for one of those lunch with a legend shows.

You know, it took me about five years to convince him to do it. And then, you know, and then he did the thing where the thing started at 1130 and he calls me on the phone and he said, Kevin, I'm going to need another $1,000 to do this. And I said, are you effing kidding me? And he said, no, man, I'm just joking with you. I'm getting off the escalator right now, which was hysterical. I didn't know that. Yeah, I thought I told you that story.

But as part of that show, you know, the McMillan recruiting thing was just phenomenal. I don't think people realize this. In the 70s, Lefty recruited the number one player in the country four times. Macmillan was actually the number one player. player. Walton was two. Then he got Moses who never played for him. Then he got Albert King, and then he got a player by the name of Reggie Jackson at a Roman Catholic in Philadelphia, who was the number one player. But part of the McMillan's story was that the school told all the dorm rooms are filled up. We don't have a dorm room for him. And lefty went and found

somebody in Hagerstown Hall or something and said, y'all are coming with me, pack your stuff up, you're getting out of here. And McMillan, why? And McMillan, wanted a room to himself, and so he got both of the people out of the room, and Tom ended up with his own room. Yeah, I mean. Where those two? He probably put him in a tent in the middle of Ellicott Hall. Exactly. He was just, he's one of the great storytellers, too, which I think a lot of the people in the business appreciate.

You know, the broadcasters, the vitals of the world, so appreciated. I know you've got a busy day, but I appreciate you doing this, but I don't know if you anything else that you wanted to say? Well, I mean, I just, I mean, I truly, truly, truly know that we, you and I and I so many people that will listen to this feel the same, which is that, you know, we just love the guy. Was he perfect? No, no, but who is?

None of us are. And I'm just, I'm grateful, I'm so grateful that he got into the hall. and I think he's deserving of it the era that he was in made it so much more difficult to have the kind of accolades that those that followed could have and in part

some of them have them because Lefty came before him and as we discussed earlier had a team that was so good that didn't make it that everyone realized how dumb it was that so few teams made the tournament but whether it's midnight madness

or you know whether it was willing to put his neck out there and make bold claims whether they came true or not. He wasn't afraid to say what he felt his heart. And we were lucky as hell to have a guy like Lefty, and I know I love him. I know you did, too. And I just, Maryland basketball is in his debt forever

because of what he helped set forth, you know. And, you know, I just hope that the people that are going to the game today, especially the students, that wouldn't have the slightest clue, hopefully they spend a little time, like, doing a little, you know, a little dig. And it doesn't take a lot with social media. You can kind of go down a wormhole and find out a little bit about the guy. But he was, he was like a real-life history. Whatever you hear about the guy, like, it's true. Like, whatever you hear about left, it's true. All right, I will talk to you later.

Thanks for doing this. Appreciate you, man. So I got this text this morning from my good friend Andy Poland. Andy texted me, Best Lefty Off the Court story was the one he told you and Tom about Moses Malone and the Milkman. So I will tell that story right now, as Lefty told us, during that lunch with a legend appearance that I referred to with Scott in the last segment, the one where we had to pay him,

and then he wanted more money right before, but was really actually just kidding. Kevin, I need $1,000 to do this. Lefty, the show is starting right now. I'm just kidding with you. I'm getting off the escalator right now. But it was actually, it was really hard to get Lefty to do it because he wanted to get paid to do it,

and we didn't pay any of the people that we got to do this. We got some, you know, we had Coach Thompson, which was a memorable one. We had Sonny Jurgensen. We had Joe Thysman. We had Dexter Manly. We had Jim Palmer. You know, it was a series that we did over about a five-year period maybe where we,

I don't know how many we did a year, two or three, maybe four a year. And we sold tickets down at Morton's on Connecticut Avenue. And those things sold out. And I'll tell you, the demand for Sonny Jurgensen, Gary, Coach Thompson, and Lefty. Those were the biggest overwhelming demands. We sold those events out in, like, five minutes and we could have held it at a much bigger venue and probably generated a lot more revenue, which would have allowed us to pay Lefty a little bit more. But anyway, Lefty wouldn't do it

until finally I was able to shake up some money to pay them. I mean, I called him for like four straight years and I finally said to him, I'm going to come down there in a station wagon, park it in front of your house until you say yes. And he laughed and he said, just give me a little bit of money and I'll come up and do it. So I don't know. I think we got him like 2,500 bucks. It was nothing. And we picked up his hotel bill, you know, for the night. And so anyway, one of the stories, and he told so many of them that day. And by the way, I can't find that show. I thought I had saved that show and had it in basically a box that I had some of those lunches with legends and some some of the shows that I did about Sean Taylor I had saved.

When we moved a couple of years ago, I can't find that box because I was looking for it this morning. But anyway, that's beside the point. Lefty told so many stories that day. And the Moses Milkman story goes like this. So when Moses finally signed with Maryland in 1974, Moses said to Lefty, I can't get any good pickup games down here in Petersburg

without going to the state penitentiary. Lefty said, what? Moses said, there's no competition for me unless I go to the state penitentiary. There are some really good players at the state pen. In fact, coach, there's this guy, they call him the milkman. You should recruit him.

He's 6'9, and he's the best player I've ever played against. And lefty said, really? He's that good? Moses said, you've got to get him. You got to get him. So Lefty called up the governor of Virginia at the time and said, Governor, you got a prisoner at the state penitentiary in whatever town of Virginia that was, he was probably near Petersburg where Moses Malone lived.

You got a prisoner down there, and Moses Malone says he's the best player that he's ever played against, and I'm willing to take responsibility for him, give him a college scholarship, get him in education, and have him play at the University of Maryland. So the governor says to Lefty, coach, give me a couple of days and I'll get back to you. So a couple of days later, he calls Lefty back and he said, Coach, we're not going to be able to free up the milkman to come up and play at the University of Maryland. And Lefty says, well, why not? And the governor said, well, Moses was right.

Apparently he is quite the player. But the reason that they call him the milkman is because he actually killed a milkman. And Lefty said, are you sure? And the governor said, coach, I promise you, the milkman ain't never getting out. And that was the story Lefty told us that day. So the milkman stayed in prison. Moses was committed to Maryland, but he never actually played at Maryland. What an absolute joy it was to grow up watching Lefty-Drazel coach at Maryland.

so much joy to so many of us. Rest in peace, Lefty. All right, we are done for the day. I'll be back on Monday.