D'Antoni, Pendry get to catch up
Jun. 14—Dan D'Antoni loves to come to events close to his hometown of Mullens — such as Monday's 32nd annual Big Green Golf Outing — to catch up with friends and family.
That includes the likes of Joe Pendry, an Oceana High School graduate who went on to a successful career as a coach in both the National Football League and at the collegiate level. He and D'Antoni were grouped together Monday and were able to talk about their Wyoming County battles.
Times that didn't work out in D'Antoni's favor.
"He beat my (butt) in every game we played (when I was) at Mullens and he was at Oceana," D'Antoni said with a smile. "They were state champions, undefeated, and beat us three times that year (26-0 in 1965). I go back a long way with Joe. He came down from Buffalo (Bills) when he was coaching there to Myrtle Beach (where D'Antoni was a high school coach) and we'd go out to a restaurant and get together. It was the first time I had seen him since, I guess, he went to Alabama. It was pleasurable just talking and catching up with him.
"But I always enjoy it. That's why I came back to West Virginia. I like the people. It's fun to be around them. My golf game has gone steadily downhill, but I'm going to hope my coaching goes uphill this year. We'll see what happens."
D'Antoni was likely taking a shot at himself after the Thundering Herd's disappointing 2022 season, D'Antoni's eighth as head coach. After a quick start, the Herd finished 12-21, including a meager 4-14 record in its final year in Conference USA before heading to the Sun Belt Conference.
The Herd played the season with a young roster, and players were out of position to make up for it.
D'Antoni has been encouraged by how the offseason has played out thus far.
"It's going good," he said. "We're working out the freshmen right now. We had 12 practices with the team that's coming back, got two freshmen in this week (versatile 6-foot-8 Jacob Conner out of Dayton, Ohio, and Micah Handlogten, a 7-foot center out of Huntersville, N.C.) and they'll all be back the end of July."
In a rarity in today's college athletics, D'Antoni's team was not hurt by the transfer portal.
"All of our guys came back," he said. "That speaks well of my coaching staff (Cornelius Jackson and Marc Cline, joined by recently hired Adam Williams) and their teammates, that kids that had a lot of opportunities to go to bigger places stayed with us. We're looking forward to it. It should be a great year.
"We think we got better, and needed to get better. A lot of it was the age difference. Last year we were probably playing every team two to three years younger per man. Now it's one or two, and they're (opponents) scrambling to get some players in and we've got everybody coming back."
D'Antoni's coaching career brought him back to the Mountain State in 2014 when then-Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick hired him to take over the program. His overall record is 140-120 and his 2018 team won the Conference USA Tournament to secure its first NCAA Tournament berth in 31 years. The 13th-seeded Herd upset No. 4 Wichita State in the first round before falling to West Virginia.
Prior to his tenure with Marshall, D'Antoni had several stops in the NBA as an assistant to his brother Mike D'Antoni, whose name has been linked to the vacant head coaching spot with the Charlotte Hornets.
D'Antoni also left his mark as the head coach at Socastee High School in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a position he held for 30 years. He racked up over 500 career wins and led the Braves to 12 regional championships.
He made such an impact that the school announced recently it will name its court "Coach D Court." He said he will have to get a free Friday in December to attend a ceremony.
"Yeah, I got a court named after me. I didn't do a bridge in West Virginia, but I got a court in Myrtle Beach," he said, with another smile.
"I guess I earned it, because I had real good players and those players made me a good coach. I happened to be around at the right time. A lot of memories. There's an old saying, 'Once you're a Brave, you're always a Brave,' so I guess I'm always a Brave."
The same can probably be said of a Mullens Rebel. D'Antoni and Pendry had plenty to reminisce about, partaking in the lore of Wyoming County basketball, but also expressed a common regret over the current direction of college athletics.
"Just talking about the different players and how super they were, how you admired some of the things they did," D'Antoni said. "You really stood in awe of a lot of those (eventual) pro players, and the coaches. Just the camaraderie part of it. It's a lot better than you would imagine. But he agreed and I agreed toward the end, money started getting into it and started breaking that down. Maybe he's (retired) at the right time; I'm getting ready to but not quite there yet — hopefully. But we both agree things are going to have to be done on that end to just keep what college sports are about.
"We'll see what happens. I don't think the story's totally written on the portal and how to use it. I don't think the story's totally written on the (name, image and likeness) and how it's going to affect recruiting. It's going to be an up-and-down, feel-out time slot. We'll see how it works out and hopefully we'll be on top of it."
Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5
