American Stories – Dunleavy Leading Green Wave Resurgence

NEW ORLEANS — Mike Dunleavy, who played in the NBA for seven years and coached five different teams in the league for 16 more, looked like a pro basketball lifer. He played in the NBA Finals as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets, coached the Los Angeles Lakers to the 1990 finals, was selected NBA Coach the Year in 1999 at Portland, and spent seven years as head coach with the Los Angeles Clippers until 2010.

Then, he disappeared, working on Wall Street until 2016 when he got the coaching itch, resurfacing as the new head coach of Tulane, trying to restart an emerging program in The American. Dunleavy liked the city, liked the university, loved the food and thought Tulane had the potential to succeed long term at an academically prestigious school in a competitive league.

The 63-year old Dunleavy is one of 10 former NBA coaches who are now coaching in college.

”It was an easy decision to go to college,“ Dunleavy said. ”When I left the Clippers, the owner, Donald Sterling decided not to pay me.  I went through a two-year process to get my money, doing all the legal processes. A win is a win, but it took time. My third year, I was in a group that wanted to buy the New Orleans Pelicans. We had the Pelicans — $338 million dollars. Then, in the last few days of negotiations, it fell though.

”The good news was, I met a lot of people around here. My brother went to school here. We got to meet a lot of members of the Board of Directors here. We were looking for local investors.

”So, then I went after the USC job. I was living in L.A. Everyone was saying, ‘You got to do this.’ But I didn’t understand everybody uses search firms to hire guys. After that, I went to New York, Atlanta and Dallas and met with search firms. And I talked to Fran Fraschilla from ESPN.  He asked me if I would be interested in this job, set me up. A week later, I had the job.

“I look at it this way: I love to teach, so if I get a job in the NBA, it’s four-to-five years, and if it doesn’t happen, you are in no-man’s land because of your age. I was spending time with my son Baker (the new coach at Quinnipiac), who was Jay Wright’s assistant at Villanova, and with Larry Brown at SMU, and I was ‘Oh my god, I really love teaching.’ I felt if I can find a good spot where I can land, be there 10-15 years and be happy doing it. I wanted to compete at a big level. I felt I could recruit here. Our practice facilities are as good as any. Good school, good city. My expectations are very high as to where we can go.

“My expectations are, I think I can compete with anyone.”

Dunleavy didn’t understand how good The American was when he took the job.  Dunleavy’s first year was a 6-25 struggle, but it is obvious he is making progress with the rebuild, coaching Tulane to an 11-6 record, matching the second-largest improvement in the country this season – with a championship in the Jamaican Classic in Montego Bay and meaningful early conference wins at Temple and against SMU.

The American has two nationally ranked teams—Wichita State and Cincinnati—that have the potential to go deep into March. A healthy Wichita State team has a chance to win the national championship. At least three more from The American could be NCAA material.

Tulane is ready to be competitive with players like 1,000-point scorer Cameron Reynolds, who scored 20 points in the Green Wave’s 73-70 win over SMU; guard Melvin Frazier—who had 25 points in a wire-to-wire, 85-75 win over Temple; 6-9 shot blocker Blake Paul and point guard Ray Ona Emo, who has a 2.33 assist-to-turnover ratio.

”We’re a lot further along than last year,” Dunleavy said. ”Our second year, we know they’re doing good. Hasn’t been often we get outworked. Our whole goal last year was to play at a fast pace and improve players. Cameron was the most improved player in the league last year. We played the fastest pace of anybody in the league.

“Unfortunately, what happens with us we need key players to put up big numbers and the rest of the guys to fill in. If your main guys don’t have great games, you’re at risk. A few years from now, I’m hoping I’ll be able to tap in to bring couple guys off the bench who are flame throwers.

“We have a kid coming in Moses Wood whose dad, David, played in league. He’s 6-8; a lot of guys who have down-the-road interest because we can prepare you better to play in the league. Dunleavy’s biggest asset is his teaching skills. He is an old-school gym rat who played for Nazareth High the New York Catholic League and then played for the late Frank McGuire at South Carolina. He made a loaded Sixers’ roster as a rookie because he knew how to make the right play and had a high basketball I.Q. which translated into coaching.

”Who’s better at knowing now to get players to the league?” he asked.

“Practices are hard. I teach you everything you need to play at that next level. And we improve players. Mel Frazier has a chance to be the most improved player in the league this year. He’s already had six or seven 20-point games. He couldn’t shoot or pass with his left hand. Now he can do those things.”

Dunleavy is learning on the job. When he first arrived in the Garden District, he didn’t understand RPI. “We ramped up our schedule this year to help the league,” he said. “And I think we could get as many as five teams in the brackets.”

Dunleavy is making strides in recruiting, too, with his evaluations.

“Last year, we targeted kids who weren’t being highly recruiting but we got in with some good ones,” he said. “In the end, I lost a guard to Duke, a power forward to Alabama and a center to Oklahoma. The biggest detractor they were using against us was, ‘Yeah, he’s a good coach, but it’s going to take him time to build a team and you will never see the NCAA Tournament. So right now our time is spent building it up to where we get the players and can say, ‘No, no, we’ve got the pieces.’ Their questions they have are, ‘Can we be good enough?’ I say, ‘No, no, my question is, ‘Am I right about you? Because if I’m right about you, I’m right about everybody else.’ Look at what we’ve achieved. We’re playing at pace. Everybody can see we’ve improved. They can see our players are getting better.”

This has already been a wild season for the Wave. Tulane started the year by going on a summer tour to Spain in August and was 4-0 in exhibitions against club teams from Madrid and Barcelona. While in Barcelona, they survived a tragic terrorist attack on Los Ramblas.  A van plowed into pedestrians on the famous boulevard, killing 13 and injuring 100, 15 of them seriously. Fortunately, all Tulane players, coaches and staff were unharmed.

They would like to end the season on a high note, making a run at the postseason for the first time since 2013-14.