Searching for a way out of the cellar

Moments after he had coached what would be his final game on the Yale sideline, a 23-point home loss to Harvard, Dick Kuchen told his team, "Never feel sorry for yourself." Kuchen said he believed in the "finished product"; he wanted to see his players succeed in the larger, more important game--life. That's what mattered to him, not the wins and the losses.

Those losses, though, eventually caught up with Kuchen. This year's team finished a dismal 4-22 (2-12 Ivy), setting a school season record for futility. During Kuchen's tenure, the Elis had only three winning Ivy seasons, most recently in 1991; the Bulldogs have not won the league title in 37 years.

Amid the controversy and criticism that followed the season, with the campus emptied for spring break, the 13-year coach resigned. His office cleaned out, his phone disconnected, Kuchen, both loved and criticized by so many in the Yale and New Haven communities, has made it clear that he wants his exit to be quiet and undisturbed.

This past week, Athletic Director Tom Beckett assembled a small search committee, and the quest for the team's 22nd head coach begins next week. For now, assistant coaches Greg Herenda and Steve Graham are making the final push to secure the recruiting class of '03.

"At first, I felt fear," guard Isaiah Cavaco, JE '01, said, reacting to the program's recent shakeup. "It's difficult not knowing what it's going to be like next season." In this time of uncertainty, one thing is sure: a new era in Bulldog basketball is about to begin.

The Kuchen regime

Just days before he was to leave for spring break, Cavaco was called in to meet with his coach. Kuchen and Cavaco talked about what had gone wrong during the season. They talked about the future, about the need for change, and the need for a player to take charge of the team.

In light of the frank, forward-looking discussion, Cavaco was very surprised by Kuchen's sudden resignation. "There was nothing to indicate that he was thinking about resigning," Cavaco said. Guard Marlon Simpkins,
MC '99, agreed. "It was all very abrupt, I was very surprised," he said.

On Tues., Mar. 23, the team
met with Kuchen for the first time since his resignation; but according to Cavaco, the brief meeting was "not very informative." Ku-chen revealed nothing about his decision to leave the team.

Beckett also would not comment on the specifics of the resignation, saying only that during spring break, the two met to talk about the season and the program, and soon after, Kuchen made his decision. Beckett did say, "I respect what he's done and thank him for his contributions," while at the same time noting Kuchen's disappointing 20-50 Ivy record over the past five seasons. "Yale should not be finishing in last place," he said.

Still, there was a genuine sadness among people who have worked with or for Kuchen. The coach is known for his kind and generous personality, as well as his love of kids. "If he detected anything wrong," Cavaco said, "he would be concerned. It's important to play for someone you respect and who respects you. You want to do well for him."

Players like Simpkins learned much more from Kuchen than just Xs and Os. As a freshman, Simpkins struggled to find his place at Yale. "I went through some tough times," Simpkins said, "but he gave me some advice I'll never forget. I was frustrated, stressed out, and he told me to fight it with everything I had." Kuchen applied that philosophy to his own situation when his struggling team faced harsh criticism. "He was good about showing that [the criticism] was not getting to him," Simpkins remembered.

"He's had some tough times," said ESPN college basketball analyst Digger Phelps, who coached with Kuchen at Notre Dame from 1975-78. In '78, the Fighting Irish advanced to the Final Four. "He's an excellent coach," Phelps added. "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have gotten to the Final Four that year."

This year's Yale squad, however, was never even close to March Madness. The Elis endured a huge blow when Charlie Petit, DC '99, the team captain, suffered a season-ending injury early in the season. "Injuries have put Kuchen in negative situations in a lot of seasons," Phelps added.

Nonetheless, Kuchen's teams have not lacked talent. Seven of Kuchen's former players are playing basketball professionally, including the New York Knicks' Chris Dudley, TD '87, the only Eli currently in the NBA. Dudley was Kuchen's last player to be drafted into the NBA. However, NBA-caliber talent is not a necessary ingredient for Ivy success. "You can still have a great program and not have anyone get to the NBA," Dudley said. "Look at Princeton--they've had about 30 straight winning seasons, and they haven't gotten anyone in the NBA in a while."

COURTESY NEW YORK KNICKS Knicks center Chris Dudley, TD '87, thinks the Elis don't necessarily need star quality to succeed.

Indeed, it is difficult to excuse the team's recent struggles. After last season's third-place finish in the league at 7-7, many expected the Elis to be just as competitive this year. Instead the team floundered. "The roles on the team were very much undefined," explained WYBC ../sports broadcaster Larry Schooler, BK '00, who has covered the team since his freshman year. "You never got the sense that Kuchen knew how to jumpstart the offense."

Throughout this and past seasons, critics have noted Kuchen's erratic substitution patterns. Schooler felt that much of the team's talent, particularly forward Dave Tompkins, SY '99, center Neil Yanke, MC '01, and guard Onaje Woodbine, BK '02, was severely underused.

In the second game of the season, against Notre Dame, rookie forward Brad Reusch, MC '02, broke through with a spectacular performance, hitting five three-pointers. Eventually, at a mid-season contest against Penn, Reusch earned a start, but after missing his first two shots, he was benched for the rest of the game.

While the players refused to second-guess Kuchen's moves, they did express frustration. "[The season] was an absolute disappointment," forward David Huhs, BK '02, said. "We played below our potential and were embarrassed to lose some of the games we did."

In games decided by six points or less, the Bulldogs went a dismal 1-8. Losing game after game by such close margins was devastating for a team searching for wins. The Bulldogs lost four straight games by a combined 14 points. "I think the drive of the players just wore off," Schooler said. "They just lost confidence in the coaching."

A halfcourt prayer

Today's Elis are searching for the type of confidence that inspired 1962 Yale squad. The Bulldogs, coming off an embarrasing 21-point loss to Penn at the Palestra, were playing the three-time defending league champion Princeton Tigers, and the score was tied at 78 in overtime. Sophomore Dick Derby heaved a halfcourt shot at the buzzer. It went in, and Yale went on a nine game winning streak to win the league title--the last time Yale would be league champions.

"That game was the turnaround," the team's leading scorer that season, Rich Kaminsky, MC '64, said. "We just wanted to win so bad, we never backed off. We weren't afraid of any team. It was infectious." That no-fear attitude carried the Bulldogs to a shocking league championship run in a year in which they were not even expected to contend.

Kaminsky lived with three of his teammates. "There were no egos. We never cared about how we won our games, as long as we won. There was a tremendous cohesion." In the NCAA tournament, Yale faced Wake Forest in the first round and took the Demon Deacons to overtime. Kaminsky fouled out in the opening minutes of the extra period. Kaminsky still contends that his fifth foul was an unfair call. "I was ready to cry. I think we would have beaten them." Wake Forest advanced to the Final Four.

After their Ivy championship, the Elis were seen as a top contender entering the 1963 season. But during the summer, tragedy struck: Derby was killed in a car accident days before classes started. It was a devastating loss, and the team never recovered. The drought continues today.

Reeling 'em in

The Bulldogs certainly hope that a new coaching staff will jumpstart the program, but it will take more than a new face pacing the sideline for a turnaround. Penn head coach Fran Dunphy took over the struggling Quaker program in 1989. After two losing seasons, Dunphy's squad posted a 16-10 record in 1992, then went on an unprecedented tear, notching four straight league titles while winning a record 48 straight Ivy contests.

The key to the turnaround? "Obviously, there are many things that are involved, Dunphy said. "There's not a quick-fix solution. But a huge step was getting Jerome Allen."

Allen, an eventual second round NBA pick, was heavily recruited by scholarship schools. But Dunphy, selling playing time and a Penn education, snagged the guard, who would lead the Quakers to Ivy League dominance and along the way, win two Ivy Player of the Year awards. Dunphy added that having Allen play at Penn attracted more basketball prospects to consider the university.

Enter Chris Leanza, who may turn out to become Yale's version of Jerome Allen. Leanza may be Yale's biggest catch in years. He leads an impressive recruiting class that includes two other early-decision standouts. Leanza's matriculation marks one of the first times in recent memory that such a hot recruit chose Yale over other strong contenders, including Princeton and Miami of Ohio, a team that was two wins away from heading to this year's Final Four.

Earlier this week, Leanza was named Ohio's Division II Player of the Year. "I can't say enough about Chris," Frank Novak, Leanza's coach at Cleveland Benedictine High School, said. "He's a born leader. It's like having another coach on the court. In my 25 years of coaching, he's been the hardest worker I've ever seen."

Leanza's team goes for its third straight state title this weekend. Before Leanza arrived, Benedictine had never won a state championship. "To be able to play right away was important for me," Leanza said. "I just had a better feeling at Yale." Like Leanza, Dudley also saw the bright side of joining a losing program when he decided to enroll at Yale 16 years ago. "Starting right away appealed to me," Dudley said. "So did the chance to take a program that was down and help bring it up."

Simply stated, Yale went after Leanza. Herenda flew to Indiana, where he met the prospect for the first time late in the evening after an exhibition game. "When you're competing with a school like Princeton, that's what you have to do," Herenda said.

As time passed, Herenda and Leanza became very close. "Greg was just very straightforward," Novak said. "He was genuinely interested in Chris as a player and a person, and that was very important."

Dudley stressed the importance of aggressive recruiting. Yale was very close to losing the future NBA center to Penn. "For me it was between Yale and Penn," he said. "Penn told me I was in two months before Yale did. They wrote me a letter saying they wanted to have me and Yale made me wait until the last possible minute." In recent years, Yale has done a better job sending out pseudo-acceptance "likely letters" to top recruits. Over the past few years, Yale has mailed the maximum 100 of these letters.

The road ahead

Thirty-seven years later, Eli coaches and recruits have been unable to rekindle the magic of 1962. How are champions born? Start with a team that believes in itself and its coach, add a star recruit and some dumb luck, and you've got a shot.

But for the team's seniors, now is a time of reflection, a look back beyond the four years of on-the-court struggles and disappointment. "It's been tough," Simpkins said, "but I've matured from all of it. When I first got here, Coach Kuchen told me that we would be friends for life. After the season, he told me, `Our relationship is no longer a player-coach relationship. Now you can see and be a part of my personal side and my family life.' He was very sincere."

The story of those who will return is not yet complete. Kuchen has left, but the program goes on. Next month, a new coach will be at the helm. In the fall, one of Yale's strongest recruiting classes in years will arrive on campus.

Though the road is long, the Bulldogs must have hope for the 1999-2000 season. And who knows what can happen when, like 37 years ago, something as simple as a halfcourt prayer is answered.

Cover photos by Julia Tiernan.

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