A coaching tree that needs to be planted and grown

The media makes a great deal out of "Coaching Trees", coaches who's assistants go off and become head coaches at other franchises or schools. Much is made of Tom Izzo with Tom Crean, Brian Gregory, and Doug Wojick all becoming fairly successful coaches at their schools.

Watching the Minnesota Timberwolves last night reminded us of a coaching tree that has failed. Coaches who have used the Sideline Triangle not named Phil Jackson have had little success in the NBA, Kurt Rambis will struggle to succeed with this group of personnel and Jim Cleamons and Tim Floyd failed miserably with the triangle. It's similar to the missteps people had with Pete Carril at Princeton, how the system was great, etc etc. Yet teams who run the Princeton offense tend to hover at or below .500. Guess it's easy to forget for that entire time the Princeton offense was en vogue, Princeton was also consistently getting the best players in the Ivy League.

This begs the question, why do we not hear about coaches born of Jerry Sloan's tree? Granted tonight wasn't a great night for the Utah Jazz but his teams have always run consistently good stuff (coaches language for play sets), they rarely beat themselves and seemingly win 48+ games a year. Yet are there ANY notable coaches who were assistants under Sloan? It goes without saying that a UCLA screen for a jumper is not exciting but if you have effective shooters it wins games. In Sloans 20+ years at the helm of the Utah Jazz, he's had 2 sub .500 seasons. That's an incredible feat.

True to his quiet nature, you won't hear about Jerry Sloan's excellence but remember this coach, when you run your UCLA into a Rip, into a Back screen for a lob out of a time out, us coaches are watching and appreciate your team's execution and your longevity.