Ray Mernagh, Villanova News

NBE STAFF SUPPORT SERIES: DOUG WEST, VILLANOVA

Doug West Bleeds Blue and White

by RAY MERNAGH

When Doug West was a “little” boy growing up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, he was a football guy. “It’s Western Pennsylvania man,” laughs West, “of course I was a football player!” That is until a man spotted the lanky kid and literally took him off the football field one day, telling West that he should be playing basketball.

“His name was Don Pendelton,” says West, “and he introduced me to basketball.”

Pendelton had two sons older than West although the youngest boy was only a year ahead of the future Big East star. They kept it simple at first, doing drills to develop West’s game and mostly playing fun games like Around the World. Soon after that Pendelton passed West off to a man named Bob Seitz, who became West’s first official basketball coach. “They both were extremely significant in my development,” says West, “they taught me the game that would eventually be my profession.” By the time West left Altoona for college at Villanova, many where wondering if he’d one day be a pro.

West scored 2,037 points at Villanova from 1985-89. In the middle of West’s time at ‘Nova there was a new assistant hired by Rollie Massimino. The new guy’s name was Jay Wright. “He came in my junior year,” says West, “he was the new guy but we could see he was a pretty good player and coach, we developed a pretty good relationship.” That relationship got deeper when West came back to Philly after an up and down rookie year with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

West could really play, obviously, but he also continuously worked on his game. He realized that would have to remain the case if he wanted to stick in the NBA, so he headed back to the place he by then considered his second home. The young Jay Wright was waiting for him, eager to work. “We’d meet every morning at 6 AM at a court that was right next to the football field,” says West.

Those workouts were designed to break strong men. The pair would go one-on-one, do basketball drills, and then run. The gym was hotter than the visitors dressing room at the old Boston Garden — you know the one that always seemed to have heat cranking through the vents come playoff time in May. West returned for the next three summers to work with Wright and their bond was unbreakable by the time Wright left to join Massimino at UNLV. How close were they?

Close enough that when West got married in 1992, Wright wasn’t just invited to the wedding, he was in it.

Close enough that West would visit Wright and Patty (Wright’s wife) in Las Vegas on All Star Breaks during Wright’s time at UNLV (1992-94).

Close enough that he’d do the same once Wright was out on Long Island at Hofstra — from 1994-2000 — whenever the NBA schedule took West to the New York area.

Close enough that nobody was terribly shocked when Wright added West to his staff as an assistant coach in October of 2007. Things were good before West joined his old workout partner, but they’ve been even better since.

This season will mark West’s third year on Wright’s staff. The first two ended in a Sweet 16 and a Final Four. To hear West tell it, the success isn’t about to stop, not with Wright running the show so flawlessly. Asked if the Final Four appearance has ramped up recruiting, West responds like the cool customer that is his boss. “It’s business as usual really,” says West, “once they get here, they still have to learn our system, whether they’re high school stars or McDonald’s All Americans.” What is that system?

“Tough, man to man defense, basically forty minutes of all out chaos,” says West, “our guys train to play forty minutes, diving on the floor, just being straight-up basketball players.” There’s really no 1 through 5 positional designations with ‘Nova under Wright, who, West says, understands there’s no “perfect possessions” in basketball.

Everyone learns all facets, everyone does everything at a Jay Wright practice (similar to John Wooden’s at UCLA). To hear West tell it, there’s a reason and a point to it all. “When you get into games,” says West, “it puts the bigs in position to understand what the guards are experiencing and vice versa, it helps a ton that they know what the other goes through.” West thinks his Villanova experience helps him with his players more than his NBA experience. That may be surprising to those who don’t understand the depth of West’s connection to his alma mater.

“I was Corey Stokes,” says West, “I’ve been them, I know what school is like, what the professors are like and I think that’s more valuable than me telling them I know what it takes to get to the NBA.” That message is only reinforced by the photos of West that dot the walls of the Wildcat’s practice facility, the Davis Center. Pictures of West hang in other buildings around campus as well. If it seems like Villanova and the city of Philadelphia — he’s a member of the Big Five Hall of Fame — love West, that love is returned ten-fold. This is clear when West is asked about his coaching aspirations.

“I really think I’m weird,” says West, “because I fell in love with this place when I came here from Altoona at 18, and in a lot of ways, I’ve never left — nor do I want to!”

For West, a guy Villanova, and Wright, helped develop so well that he played eleven years at the highest level, it really is about giving back.

“I’m blue and white,” says West, “I bleed it.”

Enough said.
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Also, be sure to check out our Villanova Summer Report for an early glance at this year’s Wildcats.
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Previous Staff Support Features:

Cary Collins, Providence
Tony Benford, Marquette
Rasheen Davis, Pittsburgh
Rob Murphy, Syracuse
Josh Eilert, West Virginia