The new coach, the new direction
Men's basketball begins the Gary Waters era
Archived article from Nov 30, 2001
By Douglas Frank
The new coach
Rashod Kent puts his 6-foot-6-inch, 275-pound body at the foul line. Word had been going around that Kent, not known as a good foul-shooter, had been practicing like crazy to improve. He went 6 for 6 at the line in a preseason scrimmage two nights before, but now in a drill he misses two in a row, and he glances at his head coach walking by.
Gary Waters returns his senior forward's look, slowly raises his hand above his head and makes a shooting motion with it. "Higher," he says quietly, "a little higher." Kent nods his head, 'nuff said, got the message.
The absence of vituperation is not lost on observers. Waters gets his message across as most teachers do, making sure his charges understand what he wants them to do and showing them if necessary -- without raising his voice or biting their heads off.
Later Kent explains what life is like in the Gary Waters era.
"Coach came in and it was all about family and being together and being a cohesive unit - going all out for each other and opening lines of communication from the coaching staff to the players as well as from the players up to the coaching staff, whether it is basketball related or not. He's like a father-figure for us," Kent says.
"Oh, he gets angry," observes assistant coach Larry DeSimpelare, who has coached with Waters at two other institutions, "but he has a way of not allowing his anger to become personal. For him, coaching is about building things up, not tearing them down."
Gary Waters, who led Kent State to new heights for the last three years, is now hoping to take the Scarlet Knights men's basketball team in a new direction. He became Rutgers' 15th head coach in April after compiling a 92-60 (.605) record at Kent State over five years, including two trips to the NCAA tournament and one to the NIT.
Overall, in 27 years in collegiate coaching, teams that he has been affiliated with have amassed 12 seasons of 20 wins or more, and have had just five losing seasons. This is what athletic director Bob Mulcahy means when he calls him a "proven winner."
Waters knows what it takes to build a successful college basketball program "the right way" according to Mulcahy, "by recruiting student-athletes of the highest character and developing them into winners on the court and in the classroom.
"I think that his personality is such that he is a healer, and this is necessary at this particular time. I also think that he is a teacher by nature; he is very patient and has a very strong work ethic and a very strong value system," Mulcahy adds.
"I'm here for one reason: I love my boss," asserts DeSimpelare, "and when he was coming here, there was no question that this is where I was going to be, no matter what. The values that he has in his life are unbelievable. I tell every recruit, there's one reason to come here, and it's my boss."
Coach "D" is one of three "young, aggressive assistant coaches with high energy, high character and high ambitions who represent our philosophy on and off the court," says Waters. "I have the utmost confidence in these men."
DeSimpelare, Kevin Heck and Garland Mance share in various recruiting and administrative duties and coach the various positions. All three served most recently with Waters at Kent State, and two were with him at Eastern Michigan.
Heck testifies to his teaching abilities: "We've been together, this is the eighth year, and I learn something new every day. The opportunity to grow and learn personally and professionally is something that keeps you on your toes."
But loyalty alone does not explain why all four uprooted from a program that they had built from 9-18 to 24-10, including three postseason appearances and a number 20 ranking in the nation. Waters suggests that another part of it is the Big East, a high-profile conference, together with an intense media area and a good recruiting base within a 200-mile radius. And then there is the simple answer, according to Mance, that everybody on the staff was looking for a bigger challenge.
continued...
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