Kind of like their coach once did. Krystkowiak played the game with a chip on his shoulder, motivated by slights like the one from former Washington State coach George Raveling. Krystkowiak says that as a high school player in Missoula, he attended a WSU camp and was told that Raveling said he was "not big enough to be a post player, not skilled enough to be a wing."
Despite that, he won Big Sky MVP honors three straight times. Then he played 420 games in the NBA, including one year alongside Michael Jordan with the Bulls. But symbolic of Krystkowiak's career, that year happened to be 1995, which Jordan began on the retired list before returning at midseason, only to fall short of the NBA Finals.
"We kicked a field goal between the two three-peats," Krystkowiak jokingly said.
The Bucks are expected to make a formal announcement about Krystkowiak's promotion Thursday morning.Yes, that's right. In a year, he went from coaching the University of Montana Grizzlies to a first-round NCAA Tournament victory over the Nevada Wolf Pack to being an NBA head coach. Well, after he pulled off that upset, probably his best hoops accomplishment to date, he had to face Boston College. The team he faces following his most recent accomplishment will be a bit tougher. Krystkowiak's first game as an NBA head coach will be against the San Antonio Spurs, winners of 13 straight. Yeah, good luck with alllll that.
Lawyers for Bucks' owner Herb Kohl worked all of Wednesday afternoon in Milwaukee constructing a new contract for Krystkowiak. Krystkowiak then agreed to the terms and conditions of the contract early Wednesday night. The guaranteed contract is for the remainder of this season -- the Bucks have 18 more games remaining -- and the following two seasons.
To all you Bucks fans, congrats. I'm sure LK will get this team heading in the right direction. You may have to invest in more clipboards seeing has he tends to break them when he really gets going. In an earlier post I compared him to Lou Piniella and I really can't think of a better analogy."I'm not going to talk about that at all," Krystkowiak said earlier today of published reports linking him to the Utah job, vacant since Ray Giacoletti resigned on March 2. "I'm an assistant coach with the Bucks; that's what I can say.
"I'm looking forward to finishing the season out (with the Bucks)."
This sounds kind of similar to what he said when there were rumors swirling that he would be leaving the University of Montana.
After all that's happened in this situation so far, it would be hard to imagine anyone other than Krystkowiak taking over as the head coach of the Bucks.
Athletic director Chris Hill and other university officials interviewed assistant coach Larry Krystkowiak of the Milwaukee Bucks for the position Tuesday in Milwaukee and they are believed to have offered him the job, sources told The Salt Lake Tribune.Wow. For all of you that thought Krystkowiak was curiously hired by the Bucks to eventually become their head coach, it's looking like you were right. He's like some hot prospect they don't want to bring up to soon but wouldn't dare let go because they know he'll be good. Ladies and gentleman, Larry Krystkowiak is the Felix Hernandez of 2007. And Terry Stotts is Jamie Moyer.
The interview ignited a series of meetings involving high-ranking Bucks officials, sources said, which endured into the night and included U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, the team owner. The Bucks were grappling with whether they plan to fire embattled head coach Terry Stotts and replace him with Krystkowiak - a move that presumably would keep Krystkowiak from joining the Utes.
However, if Krystkowiak were to quickly accept an offer from the Utes, an announcement conceivably could come today, before Hill is due to attend the NCAA Tournament games Thursday in Sacramento, Calif.
Highly regarded in both college and pro basketball for his engaging personality and basketball knowledge, Krystkowiak is widely known as a favorite of Kohl, one of the most respected owners in the NBA. However, Kohl is said to be torn over what to do about Stotts, who has led the Bucks to a 23-41 record this season but endured a series of devastating injuries.It always helps when the owner is on your side, just ask Joe Girardi.
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At the end of last season, Larry Krystkowiak said he would never leave the Griz for another college coaching job. Apparently that didn't mean leaving for an NBA team for most of a season then heading back to the college realm.Of course I'd be happy to see a LK, who has done so much for the program, succeed at any level. However, I really couldn't help but be extremely jealous and wonder what could've been here in Missoula if he goes on to lead the Utes to any semblance of hoops prominence.Hill, meanwhile, is on the NCAA Tournament selection committee and would probably like to wrap up the search rather quickly since he must be in Sacramento this weekend and will be busy with the tournament the rest of the month.
The source told ESPN.com that if Krystkowiak is offered the job he is likely to accept and a decision could be made within days.
ard for veterans like Matt Dlouhy so see Tinks as THE guy instead of just the backup coach. Here's a little analogy: remember the feeling when you walked in for a grade school class one day and instead of seeing your usual teacher you saw some random sub? Sure, there may have been a good lesson plan and this individual may have even been a better teacher but you know you were planning on spending the next eight hours staring out the window.
coaching styles. Krysko was a very very passionate and fiery coach while Tinkle has a much more laid back personality. Many use a "good cop/bad cop" analogy bud I'd rather use a Chicago Cubs manager analogy. Larry Krystkowiak is your Lou Pinella, the total hardass and hothead. He would be all over his players and the officials. Tinkle is your California-style Dusty Baker. Baker once said that when he was a player and his manager flipped over the locker room food table in anger, he'd just pick up a hot dog and eat it. Now before you point to the fact that he ruined my favorite team, remember what Baker did with the strong veteran leadership of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent. This is where the loss of Criswell and Matthews comes into play.
The next step in the search for a leader would be to look at the team's best players. In my opinion, there's a trio of Griz "stars" including Jordan Hasquet, Andrew Strait and Cameron Rundles. Hasquet and Rundles especially are probably too young to be respected and heard by the upperclassmen. Then from what I've seen of Drew that he's really kind of a quiet guy, kind of like Tim Duncan. Has anyone ever seen him get really fired up during a game?
the job at Pepperdine before seeing all the good that he had right in UM and getting out. He saw that UM had a great program on the rise. They just beat Nevada to get to the second round of the NCAA tourney and, before he was mentioned as a candidate, I didn't even know Pepperdine had a basketball program.
What would be said if Hauck had a similar chat about his aspirations with the Griz football team? "Listen guys, I know when I recruited you I asked that you dedicate the next four to five years of your life to this football program but... I'm not gonna lie, as soon as something decent opens up at the next level and they're willing to hire a I-AA coach to run their program, I'm taking the next overpriced non-direct flight out of here."I'm not blaming him or calling him a bad guy, it's just kind of disappointing that he's such a lame duck. He needs to go elsewhere to take his game to the next level and wants to do so as soon as humanly possible.
Fawkward. It means more than just awkward, or f***in' awkward.“I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, what he's gone through and how he goes about his business,” Krystkowiak said. “He's one of those people you can tell he's constantly observing and assessing. He's not full of a lot of talk. Ask Brad about a team and he wasn't going to overwhelm you with 10 bullet points. He'd have it narrowed down to two, maybe three things. With as many things as you have on your plate as a head coach, that was valuable to me.LK on Tinkle:
“He gets the big picture.”
“He'd probably be the first to tell you we had a good cop-bad cop thing going on,” Krystkowiak said. “I didn't have to be a nice guy. A certain amount of fear has to be instilled in the players. Wayne will differ from me in that way, but he may actually harden over time. I don't know too many head coaches who are good cops.I overheard someone at the bowling alley last night talking about Tinks and LK and they were saying what I'm kind of thinking after seeing this. Maybe Tinkle is still too much of a "good cop" and needs to learn how to get in his players heads.
“That's the way I did it, but just because I did it that way doesn't make it right. He could probably do a great job being a nice guy too.”
Tinkle but I have to say these second half runs/adjustments were what made last year's Griz team as good as it was.Lost in the hoopla surrounding guard Mo Williams' first career triple-double in Wednesday's victory over Miami at the Bradley Center was the fact that assistant coach Larry Krystkowiak deserved an assist for the victory.The Bucks only ended up scoring 7 fast break points in the game but the change to the offense was drastic.
Krystkowiak entered the halftime locker room and reminded the Bucks - a team that likes run for a living - that they had exactly zero fast-break points at that stage of the game.
Asked about Krystkowiak's halftime message, guard Michael Redd said, "That was shocking to us. We were scoring but we didn't get any fast-break points and we were like, 'Wow.' So we made an effort in the second half to go out and push it."
This happened too many times to count last year. If the over/under for years until Krystkowiak is head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks was 2.5, I'd have to take the under.How dramatic was the change in style from half to half?
Let's put it this way. In the first half, the Bucks scored 53 points on 44.2% shooting. In he second half, the Bucks scored 68 points - two shy of their season high for a half - and shot 61.5%.
Miami, on the other hand, scored 56 points in the first half on 55% shooting. In the second half, the Heat scored 39 points on 35.1% shooting.
The Bucks have been searching all season for an identity and might finally be finding one as an open-court team.
last year's team and it just isn't showing. When talent is not meeting expectations, coaching has to come into question. See, it's not hard to tell when your coach stinks. You usually know when your players are constantly saying things like "We just need to sustain that intensity for four quarters," "We need to play the kind of defense we're capable of playing," "We can take big leads, now we need to learn how to keep them," "We're a young team, so we're still learning how to bring the same consistency every night," "We have to start getting stops," and my personal favorite, "We need to learn how to execute down the stretch."In last night's 81-65 blowout, the Hilltoppers made a run at the end of the first half to go into the break tied after trailing double digits previously. After the half the Griz came out flatter than a Monopoly board and Western Kentucky went on a 22-5 run. This would've never happened with last year's team. Last year the Griz would ALWAYS come out on a high and make a big run to start the second half. These runs were a staple of Larry Krystkowiak's motivational skills.
MontanaGrizzlies.com reports who will be filling out Tinks' coaching staff:The Griz hoops program continues to reward its own with the hiring of DuChesne. I'm definitely not going to argue with the idea as it certainly worked with LK.University of Montana men’s basketball coach Wayne Tinkle announced this week the hiring of Nate DuChesne to an assistant coaching position. DuChesne, who played for the Grizzlies from 1986-89, most recently served as the head coach at Edmonds (Wash.) Community College.
“Nate has Grizzly blood in him, which was really important to me when I was looking at applicants,” Tinkle said. “He’s a guy that understands our program and the way things are done in the Big Sky Conference.”
“It’s an honor to be a member of the Grizzly coaching staff,” DuChesne said. “The program has great tradition and the last few years it has gotten back on track. I’m looking forward to the challenge of building on the team’s recent success.”
"I feel very fortunate, very blessed," Krystkowiak said at a news conference Thursday afternoon at the Bucks' training center. "I'm kind of pinching myself that it's all happening. Missoula, Montana, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are two of my favorite places. To have an opportunity to get into the league as a coach, it's not an easy thing to do."On when it all went down and the future:
Stotts and Krystkowiak first chatted about the job at the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando. They then met with owner Herb Kohl and after only a short period of time, Krystkowiak was a member of Stotts' staff.We saw what he did with Strait, I'm looking forward to see how Bogut's game develops under LK.
Krystkowiak called the Bucks' roster "solid" and said he was looking forward to working with Andrew Bogut and the Bucks' other big men.
“He called us in and just told us straight out that he would never leave Montana for another college job,” junior Matt Martin said of the team's meeting with Krystkowiak. “It's a chance to coach at the highest level, which he can't pass up and we all understood that. He loves this place ... it was hard for him to let go.
“He's going to be missed, but by the same token I think the guys have a sense of relief and pleasure that Tinks is going to step in and be our leader.”
one knew for sure when the Takeover would happen, but everyone knew it would. To return to Jim "cliche" O'Day, this from a piece in the Missoulian:“Wayne has earned his stripes,” UM Athletic Director Jim O'Day said while introducing Tinkle at a press conference at the Adams Center Sky Club. “This is his time to shine.”Many will doubt Tinks' promise to "not lose any momentum;" I don't. I stand by him as a fellow Cubs fan (another example of his dedication) and a coach who I know has the respect of both the players and the fans.
"I've had a hand in recruiting every player that is on the roster, as well as the incoming players, and that will help with the transition," he said. "Our players are excited about the direction we are heading. I am humbled and proud to pick up the torch, and we're not going to lose any momentum."Tinks in the Missoulian:
“I think I have a better understanding of what makes 18- to 22-year-olds tick,” Tinkle added. “How to motivate them. X and O-wise, I have a better understanding of the game. The big thing is, in the five years I've been here I've worn a lot of different hats. Coaching is not just about running a team during a game. It's preparing them in the classroom to become better students, to become better people in their community so that when their playing days are over they can succeed."What does he not have? Respect, knowledge, leadership abilities, dedication; all there. He doesn't have the glamour that was "Coach K." Not yet.
