Passing of Jack Kraft - Villanova Coaching Legend

[billyjack]

Jack Kraft, legendary Villanova coach, passed away at the age of 93.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/sp ... .html?_r=0

Great coach and great guy, took Villanova to the '71 Finals vs UCLA.
I'm a little younger, so just remember him as the Rhode Island Rams coach in the late 70's. URI had Sly Williams back then, in what was maybe the most intense era of the Providence-URI rivalry. Funny story with Sly's recruitment that made the rivalry crazy. URI in 78 lost in the NCAAs by 1 point to eventual runner-up Duke... Rhody missed a last second jump shot.

Anyway, would be great to hear stories about Kraft from our Villanova friends.

[Bill Marsh]

Thanks for the info. Kraft was an excellent coach, known as a great teacher of defense. His Villanova teams were known for their scrappiness. Being from CT, I'm familiar with the Sly Williams recruiting saga. Hilarious.

When people talk about Kraft's career, they always point to his 1971 Final Four team, but his 1965 team may have been just as good although it is now largely forgotten,

1965 was in the peak period for Philly Big 5 basketball. St. Joe's with Matty Guokas, Billy Oakes, and Cliff Anderson was ranked #3 in the country. Despite being ranked #8, Villanova was passed over for the NCAA tournament. Times were different then. They went on to reach the finals of the NIT before losing to St. John's in a very exciting finals when that was a much better tournament. That Villanova team was led by Billy Melchionni, a great guard whom some may remember from his playing days with the Nets. That was the team that put Villanova on the national map.

To show how deep Eastern basketball was back then, Providence was ranked #4 right behind #3 St. Joe's and Princeton went to the Final Four with Bill Bradley scoring a record 58 points in the national consolation game. Wichita State is remembered for going to the Final Four, but they got there by winning an extremely weak Midwest region, which didn't include a single team ranked in the top 20. St. John's win over #8 Villanova for the NIT title was much more significant.

That 1965 season is one of the best examples of why "Final Fours" in the pre-open era (pre-1975) shouldn't be regarded as the accomplishment that they are today. Teams were locked into their region, so some regions would have top ten teams matched up in early rounds and other regions wouldn't have a single ranked team. The Midwest region was always notoriously weak because it's automatic bids were football conferences, the Big 8 and the Southwest, plus the Missouri Valley. The other spots went to at-large teams but only if they were in that region and there weren't a lot of independents in the region to fill those spots. The Big Ten was in the Mideast region in those days, not in the Midwest.

In that era, the NIT champs were almost always better than one of the NCAA Final Four teams and their title was almost always earned against better competition than one of the Final Four teams. Spots in the NCAA tournament were limited - especially for independents - while winners of automatic bids got in even if they were bad, as the winners of the football conferences often were. One year Texas got in with a losing record (14-15).

Catholic schools were almost all independents so they often went to the NIT despite being NCAA caliber teams. But those NIT titles are never mentioned as part of their history at tournament time today while " Final Fours" like the one that Wichita won that year will always be mentioned as though it was some kind of significant accomplishment. It always irks me because NIT champions form that era like that St. John's team & its 1959 champs as well as Providence (1961, 1963), Dayton (1962), and Xavier (1958) were every bit as good as the Final four teams in those days - often better.

Going back even further, there were NIT champs that should be regarded as national champions but never are. The 1949 San Francisco team won the NIT over a field that included NCAA champs Kentucky, but UK is always mentioned as national champions that year. Same thing for the 1944 St. John's NIT champs, winning over a field that included NCAA champs Utah. Those are years when there was incontrovertible evidence. But even in seasons when teams didn't play in both tournaments, there are seasons when there was clearly no basis for recognizing one tournament champ over the other. In 1954, Holy Cross won the NIT. The 3rd place NIT team, Niagara, had beaten NCAA champ LaSalle twice that year by a combined 27 points. Holy Cross would seem to have a good case for being the better team. In 1953, Indiana (23-4) and Seton Hall (31-2) were ranked 1-2 in the country simply because Seton Hall's last loss had come later in February than Indiana's. Since the 2 teams had never met and both had won their respective tournaments, there was no basis for choosing one over the other. They should have been regarded as co-champs as they do in football.

The NCAA has such a straggle hold on college basketball that they write their own history and treat everything else as second best or as though it never happened. This is often at the expense of the Catholic colleges, their history and traditions. Jack Kraft is part of that history and should be celebrated as one of the pioneers.

[novahoops11]

Despite being ranked #8, Villanova was passed over for the NCAA tournament.

Nova declined an NCAA bid in 1965.

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