SZVETITZ COLUMN: Chuck Person at Auburn just makes sense
Person a fit for Auburn?
When Jay Jacobs hired Gene Chizik, one point the Auburn athletic director kept coming back to was that Chizik was the best “fit” to lead the Tigers.
Chizik had the drive, the respect of players and a love for Auburn. As far as Jacobs was concerned, it was a no-brainer.
Well, here’s another one: Hire Chuck Person to replace Jeff Lebo.
You want to talk about a good “fit” for Auburn — for its basketball program? It’s Person. The Rifleman himself.
It just makes sense.
He’s an Auburn legend, who loves the university. His No. 45 jersey is one of just five hanging in the rafters of Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Soon it will move over to the new Auburn Arena.
And Person should be there in person to see it unveiled … as Auburn’s head coach.
And why not?
Think about it. What two things do the Auburn basketball program need more than anything? Players and excitement.
Sure, I can understand some might be hesitant, because there’s no proof of how Person would do as a recruiter. He’s been in the NBA for so long, could he adapt to the college world?
In a word: yes. I don’t think that would be a problem.
As a player, coach and executive in the NBA for 25 years, my guess is he can evaluate talent. I’m quite sure he knows a good player when he sees one.
Also, I don’t think it’d be very hard to get a recruit excited about playing for him. I mean, this guy knows basketball. And he knows what it takes to make it in the NBA — which is the goal for anyone who can dribble.
He’s currently a special assistant on the L.A. Lakers staff, learning under one of the best coaches ever in Phil Jackson and helping coach a player like Kobe Bryant.
That’s pretty good experience right there. Don’t you think?
To top it all off, he’d have the new arena to sell. It’s pretty nice over there, you know?
And that brings us to the “excitement.”
Person would pump it in by the truckload. This guy is one of the best to ever wear an Auburn uniform. He’s the Tigers’ all-time leading scorer for a career (2,311 points) and for a season (747).
When he came back to be honored a few weeks ago with the rest of the 1985 team that won the SEC Tournament — taking four games in four days — Person received the loudest ovation out of anyone.
After that halftime ceremony, everyone wanted an autograph or to have their photo taken with him. He was like the mayor of BEMC or something.
Imagine the Tigers’ first game in the Auburn Arena. All the glitz and glamour, all the hype and hoopla, and in the middle of it all, here comes Chuck Person leading the team out of the locker room.
Talk about excitement. The Brantley native comes home to lead the program he helped build out of the doldrums.
The roof might come off that place on the first night.
Of course, a few things have to come together for all this to happen.
Does Jacobs want Person?
Well, without naming names, Jacobs does want “the right fit.”
“An Auburn man that is the right fit for those current players and those signees that we have that represent them, represent this athletic department, represent the university and the Auburn family,” Jacobs said Friday evening. “That’s what we’re going to look for.”
Ahem.
Second, would Person want Auburn?
From what he said Thursday night during halftime of the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., Auburn would be a place he’d definitely consider.
And, as he was assessing the job Lebo has done in six years, Person had some ideas about what it takes to win at a place like, say, Auburn.
“…You can’t win unless you get players, and that’s the main thing,” Person said Thursday. “The kids are in a situation where Auburn is a football school, so you have to understand the dynamics of the situation in order to realize your prospects of winning when you’re a coach at a school like that.”
Person knows the dynamic at Auburn. He’s lived it.
Sure, there are a bunch of other names floating around out there for guys that would be candidates to replace Lebo. Guys like UTEP’s Tony Barbee, Missouri’s Mike Anderson and Miami’s Frank Haith.
But if we’re talking about “fit,” Person sizes up very well.
MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at mszvetitz@oanow.comor 737-2513.
0 Comments
You can be the first one to leave a comment.