Boulder – Colorado women’s basketball players, more interested in watching “SportsCenter” highlights than researching the game’s history, might be surprised to learn that their new coach played point guard on Virginia teams that reached the NCAA Tournament four consecutive years.
“There aren’t many basketball junkies anymore,” CU coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said. “I get a few questions about my playing days. Not a lot. But that’s OK.”
Whitney Law is an exception. The Buffaloes senior was recruited by Virginia’s Debbie Ryan, who coached McConnell-Miller from 1986-90. Law knows that McConnell-Miller, a native of Pittsburgh, comes from a renowned basketball family, and her siblings became coaches as well. That includes Suzie McConnell Serio, a former Penn State All-American who played for Team USA in the 1992 Olympic Games and coaches the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
Law, a combination guard, also has heard that the McConnells all played at the point in college.
“The players on our team that don’t know about Coach, who haven’t ‘Googled’ her or whatever, would find out the kind of player she was if they went one-on-one against her,” Law said. “You can tell she was a point guard. A point guard needs to understand everything about the game. I can see why they make good coaches.”
Former point guards could hold their own coaches’ convention. Seven women’s head coaches in the Big 12 played point guard. The best was Baylor’s Kim Mulkey-Robertson, the ponytailed playmaker on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team in Los Angeles.
Seven Big 12 men’s coaches played point guard, including CU’s Ricardo Patton (Belmont), Missouri’s Quin Snyder (Duke) and Oklahoma State’s Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State), who was a ballhandler before the term “point guard” become commonplace.
Missouri women’s coach Cindy Stein isn’t surprised at the number of high-profile coaches who were point guards, including the likes of Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. Anyone playing the position, she said, must have a love affair with the game. Otherwise their checklist of duties and responsibilities would feel overwhelming.
“Playing point guard, you need a very good perspective on every part of the game,” said Stein, a point guard at Illinois from 1982-84. “You need to know how post players like the ball delivered to them. You have to be able to run the floor, and know every situation that comes.
“When you’ve been a point guard, all that comes a little easier to teach.”
Point guards must think like a coach and sometimes act like one, McConnell-Miller said. The best point guards maintain their composure when things aren’t going well on the court. They should be the rock. The inspiration. The glue.
“Point guards have to be really thick-skinned,” McConnell-Miller said.
Like a catcher in baseball, point guards can see everything in front of them. Like a quarterback, they call the plays.
“You have to know the strengths and weaknesses of every player, just like a coach,” Law said. “You don’t want to get the ball to a left-handed shooter on the right side of the court.”
Point guards usually spend more time in the film room with coaches. More time studying game plans. More time being a leader.
McConnell-Miller gladly accepted the leadership role as a player. She was a natural at it, Ryan said.
“Kathy liked to be in control and had energy, lots and lots of energy; she bounced around a lot,” Ryan recalled. “But because of her (outgoing) personality, she also did a lot off the court. She was great for team chemistry.”
North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell, whose first year coaching the Tar Heels coincided with McConnell-Miller’s freshman season at Virginia, predicts a long, successful stay for McConnell-Miller in Boulder.
“It’s sort of natural that point guards would become good coaches,” Hatchell said. “Like Kathy, they were already used to running a team.”
Staff writer Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-820-5456 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
