RIP Charlie Coles

He was hired in 94 to assist Miami, from Toledo Central Catholic. A pure coach and teacher, Coles actually enjoyed college kids, and liked the MAC. That's rare. Also, just hilarious.

 

He was really good at CC, too.

 

I've never heard anything but admiration and adulation for Coles. How many college coaches can you say that about?

 

Charlie got more out of Devin Davis than I think even Davis realized he had...I ran into Charlie after a Cavs practice when Davis was trying to make the team as an undrafted free agent. Thought it was really cool that one of his college coaches would actually come up to Cleveland (four hour drive) to see one of his former players in a RFA camp. That's the kind of guy Charlie was.

 

As someone who had the opportunity to cover Coles, Szczerbiak, Davis & Newble, the notebook was always filled up with great quotes. RIP to a good guy.

 

One of the truly good ones, both as a coach and a person.

 

Not many writers knew him better than Mick McCabe of the Freep.
I remember in the 80s -- back when McCabe used to war with Jim Spadafore of the News and Charlie went at it with Vern Payne at Western Michigan. Remember this exchange vividly from a MAC media day...
McCabe -- "Hey... look. it's Vern Payne. Sit down and tell us about your team."
Charlie -- "Hey! Spad. You're looking good."
Both said at the same time "Fuck You..."

http://www.freep.com/article/20130607/HSS1201/306070115/charlie-coles-miami-of-ohio-saginaw-basketball

 

Will never forget the 10 minutes Coles gave one March night years back after his team was knocked out of the MAC Tournament. He was on his way out of the presser and I approached him for whatever reason, a question, a comment, a clarification after an SID had cut him short. He dived right in and we started to walk and talk, just us, right out of the room. He didn't know me other than the credential around my neck, but he just went on about strategy and plays and the game and life and the offseason. He reached the door of his team's locker room and kept talking. I was left wondering what verbal gifts I had just received.

Also worth noting, his last coaching assignment wasn't Miami. It was his granddaughter's AAU team.

 

Was Coles head coach when Devin Davis was at Miami? I guess my last year covering the MAC regularly was when Sendek was still at MU in 1996. Davis was certainly one of the most memorable MAC players of the era.

The MAC was great in the 1990s/early 2000s. Ball State, Miami, Kent State and Eastern Michigan, in particular, had some outstanding teams. Then they made the big financial push to emphasize football -- with leg-spread wide-open whoring for ESPN TV football dates on weeknights -- and lost the basketball plot. A shame.

 

Davis bridged Sendak and Coles. He had his best years under Coles, just because those were his later years. And I'm pretty sure the whole dreadlocks thing, with all the kids wearing them in the stands happened under Coles.

I had the pleasure of covering Coles teams at CMU, Central Catholic and Miami. Interviewed him in many settings, many places, alone and in a crowd.. including the stage of some high school in Toledo when I was working on a non-basketball story about race. He was always generous, highly quotable and just damn fun to be around. The esteem with which he was held by his colleagues cannot be understated.

He always had such a great perspective. I remember that he left CMU under a cloud (though I don't remember the details of the cloud) and 'rehabbed' at Central Catholic. Wouldn't surprise me if part of his wonderful outlook had to do with the fact that he had been to the mountain and slid down and then got back on it.

 

Man, now we're talking the heyday of MAC hoops! Saddi Washington and James Black at WMU, Charlie's teams at Miami, Bowen Field House at EMU...I cut my teeth during those years. I still think Bowen had one of the greatest atmospheres in college basketball during the Boykins, Theron Wilson days.

Charlie Coles was one of those guys that would take as much time as the reporter needed...from a writer from a metro to the beat writer from a student newspaper. He was special.

As for the push to emphasize football...talk about screwing up. College basketball is the only sport where a team like Kent or James Madison can make a deep run. Shoot, look what Butler was able to do. I guess that Wednesday night Buffalo @ Northern Illinois game in Dekalb is more important than one of the hoops teams doing something on a national scale.

 

Dakich brought up briefly how he and Coles challenged the MAC on screwing up basketball in late 90s, early 2000s.

When Dakich would tee off on the commissioner in meetings about the state of the league, Coles would be next to him, Dakich said, going, "'Keep going Dan, keep going.’ Because he knew what was going to happen to MAC basketball.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/85329/remembering-charlie-coles-1942-2013