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A Division 3 school once rejected Brad Stevens

John - Red's Army (@RedsArmy_John) March 1, 2016 Brad Stevens, Celtics News 10 Comments

Brad Stevens sat down with Chris Mannix before yesterday’s game for the latest edition of The Vertical Podcast with Chris Mannix.

The first thing he revealed was that after years as an assistant at Butler, he’d applied for a Division 3 head coaching job.

I actually applied for a D-3 coaching job a week before coach [Todd] Lickliter left to go to Iowa. And I got a letter in the mail to say I wasn’t one of the finalists because I didn’t have my master’s degree because I’d stopped going to school full-time and they wanted people, obviously, with the ability to teach at the Division 3 level as well.

That’s understandable, I guess. However it went down, there’s still a D-3 school out there that could have had Brad Stevens as a head coach, but didn’t. Instead, he ended up getting the Butler job, and the rest is history.

There’s a lot packed into this half hour episode of the Mannix podcast. Stevens looks ahead to how long he’d coach, why he doesn’t like to call it “player development,” and all the adjustments he’s had to make in his almost three seasons as an NBA coach.

Here’s the whole show:

If you’re having any issue with the player, here’s the link to The Vertical post

eddysamson

Also random D-3 fact….Stan Van Gundy’s first head coaching job came as head coach at Castleton State College in Vermont. As a Vermonter this blows my mind…I went to Vermont Technical College which plays Castleton in hoops….my crappy school’s team has played against a current NBA head coach….crazy.
- Curt Hays
  
  I played basketball against Austin Rivers in Orlando! That makes you and me brothers, basically.
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RedsLoveChild

Given what he has to work with, Stevens has done a remarkable job in Boston.

He`s a clear, rational, unemotional thinker, who makes very sound decisions.
His athletes consistently play hard for him. They want to play for him.
Just imagine the all out commitment and effort they`d make for him knowing that he was the one who put his faith in them by drafting or trading for them.

It`s only a matter of time anyways before the Celtics offer Brad Stevens the title of President of Basketball Operations.

The sooner, the better!
Brad should be coaching and making all the personnel decisions for the franchise.
- Curt Hays
  
  Brad has said that he’s quite emotional but that he works really hard to control it the outward manifestations of his emotional responses. You can see it in his face during games.
  
  He makes his decisions with as little emotion as possible, and I think it says even more about his character that, though he’s not naturally calm, he maintains the self control necessary to keep his team calm.
- Curt Hays
  
  In regards to Oscar Robertson…there was no three-point line in “his day”, so Steph’s advantage would only be about as good as Pistol Pete.
  
  ONLY as good as Pistol Pete. I mean, seriously, if Pete, who didn’t eat or drink much more than candy bars and beer, could be the scoring champ, you think Steph couldn’t dominate? You think Steph isn’t as effective as a ball handler as Pete? Steph would just be a shorter, quicker Pete. And Pete was unbelievable, Oscar.
  
  Give Pistol Pete a three-point line and see what happens. Give Pete some Muscle Milk after practice instead of Snickers…and Pete did it all with a defective heart that killed him.
  
  Shit, Steph would’ve destroyed your whole league, Oscar.
  - RedsLoveChild
    
    You talkin` to me???
    - Curt Hays
      
      Haha, so I DID reply to you. Yes, Travis Bickle, I’m talking to you!
      - RedsLoveChild
        
        Steph? No living creature has ever had his range. He`s the only guy I ever saw who was a legitimate threat from 40 feet away!
        
        For a brief period, in the mid-`70`s, Pistol Pete was the best guard in the NBA. Nobody came up with more different ways to put the ball in the hoop than this guy. As a ball handling magician, he was better than any Globetrotter. As a shooter, a totally washed-up Maravich was in his last season when the NBA adopted the 3-point shot, and he wound up hitting 10 of 15!
        
        It`s amazing he lived 40 minutes {let alone 40 years} given that he was born without one of two coronary arteries. Everyone knows about the drug and alcohol abuse.
        
        Oscar Robertson was never viewed a long range bomber. He was actually considered to be “big”, and generally backed down opposing guards. Personally, I would`ve taken Jerry West any day over Oscar.
      - Curt Hays
        
        Now maybe Antoine Walker understands why no one wanted a 4-pointer back in his day. No one could hit it! Now that we have Steph…well, if we have video game type players, might as well make the game have features from a video game!