CATCHING UP WITH ANDY STOGLIN
SWAC.org
Jan. 27, 2010
By Roscoe Nance
Special to SWAC.org
Have team, will coach.
That's more than a motto for Andy Stogln. It's a way of life for the former Southern University and Jackson State University men's basketball coach.
Stoglin, who spent 16 seasons in the SWAC, has coached at every level except junior college during his 38-year career, and he has made stops at some of basketball's most remote outposts. His travel log includes stints in the Persian Gulf region, where he led Qatar to the Qatar Cup championship, Mexico, where his UV Xalapa Hawks won a league record 25 straight as well as in Santurce, Puerto Rico.
His resume also includes stints as an assistant coach for Nolan Richardson at Tulsa University and the University of Arkansas, tours as an assistant at Texas El Paso - his alma mater - Oklahoma State, San Diego State and Cal Poly Pomona, and minor league head coaching jobs in the NBA Development League, the U.S. Basketball League, the WBA and the ABA.
"No question about it. Have team, will coach. That's me,'' Stoglin, 67, says. "My friend has told that I probably would a pay team to let me coach.''
Stoglin's basketball roots run deep. He played for Hall of Fame coach Don "Bear'' Haskins at Texas-El Paso, which was then Texas Western, from 1962-65 , and he is a member of the school's Hall of Fame. The year after he left, the Miners made history when they beat Kentucky with an all-black starting five to win the NCAA championship.
This is the first season since Stoglin left Jackson State in 2003 that he hasn't coached, and he is getting antsy to return to the sideline. He says he has been contacted about returning to Puerto Rico, and he says there is a possibility that he might join Richardson - his teammate at Texas-El Paso -- who will coach Tulsa in the WNBA this season, as an assistant. "I want to get back in it one way or the other,'' Stoglin says. "When you're as successful as I've been, it's hard to let it go.''
At one time, Stoglin says he had given up on coaching at the college level because athletes' attitudes have changed from what he was accustomed to. However, he says his experiences coaching minor league ball have rekindled his interest in coaching college ball, and a part of him would like to give it another whirl.
"There are a lot of little thing that I learned the last few years that make me want to go back to college,'' he says. "I'm old school, and the kids changed so much. That's the reason I retired (from college coaching). I've sort of figured some things out.''
Stoglin is still close to the game. He was a volunteer coach with the Jackson State women's team at the start of the season. He gave that when it appeared that he had an opportunity to join a proposed franchise in Birmingham, Ala., that would have played in an international league. The league fell through. He is still a regular at Jackson State's men's and women's games.
A number of Stoglin's former players and assistant coaches are now head coaches. He feeds his basketball Jones by observing their games and practices and lending them advice.
"I go around and share things that I think will make a difference,'' Stoglin says.
Jackson State men's assistant coach Eric Strothers, who played for Stoglin at Jackson State and was also on his staff for 10 seasons, says the pointers Stoglin has given him after watching the Tigers play are invaluable.
"He's a real student of the game,'' Strothers says. "He looks at the game a little bit differently. He's more detailed than any coach I've seen. He tells me different thing that I never looked at. When I watch the tape, I see exactly what he's talking about.''
Strothers says Stoglin emphasizes angles, spacing and timing. He credits his former coach for jump starting his career as player inspiring him to go into coaching.
Strothers was a junior when Stoglin replaced John Prince as the Tigers' coach. He had averaged eight points and four rebounds as a starter the previous season. Under Stoglin's tutelage, Strothers averaged 17 points and nine rebounds his junior and senior seasons and became a member of Jackson State's 1,000-point club. He went on to play professionally for one season each in Holland and Hong Kong.
"He changed my career and the way I played,'' Strothers says. "He taught me how to play. He influenced me about character and respect for people. I learned how to treat people from him.''
Stoglin's coaching career began in 1969 as a graduate assistant on Haskins' staff at Texas-El Paso after when his career as a basketball player had ended after one season with the Dallas Chaparrals in the old ABA and two seasons of barnstorming with the Harlem Globetrotters. He became a full-time coach in 1972. While his career has taken him all over the world, he says the years he spent coaching in the SWAC will always be special time for him.
"I enjoyed coaching in SWAC,'' Stoglin says. "Southern took a chance on me and gave me my first head coaching job. I wouldn't have gotten the Jackson State job had it not been for having coached at Southern. I'm a SWAC guy.''
He compiled a 32-30 record from 1982-84 at Southern, his first shot at being a head coach. He returned to the SWAC as head coach from at Jackson State from 1989-2003 and led the Tigers to three NCAA Tournament appearances, one trip to the NIT, six SWAC tournament finals, three regular season conference titles and three conference tournament championships.
Tougaloo College coach Lafayette Stribling, former coach at Mississippi Valley State and a member of the SWAC Hall of Fame, says when he played Stoglin's teams he knew they were going to be well prepared and that they were going to play hard.
"When you threw something at him, he was prepared for it,'' Stribling says. "He would check you out through films. He was hard to beat.''
Stribling recalls a game in which the Delta Devils had some success in the first half against one of Stoglin's teams while using a press. However, in the second half, the Tigers repeatedly beat the press and won the game.
"He was a tactician of the game,'' Stribling says. "He felt it out and found the weaknesses. A lot of other people didn't find them. He would find out what you were doing and how you do it and he'd take it and beat you with it. Wherever he goes, he's usually a winner.''
One of the things Stribling says that he admires about Stoglin to this day is that Stoglin never stops trying to learn the game.
"He loves the game of basketball,'' Stribling says. "He can sit and talk basketball for hours. Wherever basketball is played, he's there. He visits game and has a front row seat analyzing things. He's in the process of learning every day. He doesn't think he knows everything.''
The high point of Stoglin's coaching career came in 1993 when Jackson State, led by future NBA guard Lindsey Hunter upset the University of Connecticut in the National Invitation Tournament.
Stoglin also experienced enormous success coaching minor league basketball after he left Jackson State following the 2002-03 season.
He coached Mississippi's ABA team to the semifinals of the 2004-05 playoffs and a 22-4 record. That same year, he led the Mississippi Hardhats to a second place finish in the WBA with a 20-7 record.
Stoglin says he had his best year as coach during the 2008-09 season, his second campaign with UV Xalapa in the Mexican League. The Hawks were 61-8, including a league record 45-2 regular mark, as Stoglin became the first coach to win back-to-back league tournament championships. They reached the championship game of the Americas Cup, where they suffered a three-point loss.
Strothers says he doesn't think it will be very long before Stoglin is back coaching again some place.
He's got the fever,'' Strothers says. "I don't think he'll stay out long. If I had to hire somebody, I'd hire him. He'll get the job done.''
Roscoe Nance is a sports journalist with 34 years experience who most recently wrote for USA TODAY.