Jim Udinski has been coaching in the league for the past fourteen years, and his Division II team, the Lenape Valley Indians from suburban Philadelphia, has already made history - twice.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My high school coach was Ray O'Conner. He has coached a lot of players that have signed professional contracts, and many of those have gone on to play in the major leagues.
This is a tremendous opportunity to be named head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, and it's a role I have been studying for over the course of my playing days.
I feel like I've been very blessed to have some great mentors through the years, starting with Don James, who was my college coach, who really inspired me to want to be a coach, which is not something that I really had in mind.
So I don't really believe that how many years you've had in the league determines how well your players play... Coaching is coaching.
I first met Jim Valvano in the 1980s when he was a frequent guest on our CNN 'Coaches Corner' show based in Atlanta, as he was always in the area recruiting the next North Carolina State basketball phenom.
I enjoyed coaching so much that I just have to stay with it. Don Coryell - I love him, and I think he was a great coach - but I hear he's going to build a house on some island. He's going to divorce himself from football, and that's a mystery to me.
Those that coach 10 years that take a year off are three times better coaches... in year 11.
When Jim Irsay called me five years ago, he told me, 'I want you to be our coach and help us win the Super Bowl.' He told me, 'We are going win it the right way. We are going to win it with great guys; win it with class and dignity. We are going to win it in a way that will make Indianapolis proud.'
There's a handful of teams that have a revolving door, that are changing coaches every couple of years, and you can look at the success that they're having. They're not.
Coach Knapp is a tremendous quarterbacks coach.