Cracked Sidewalks and French Pastry The Wit and Wisdom of Al Mc Guire Tom Kertscher FOREWORD BY DEAN SMITH My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk. Al Mc Guire Al Mc Guire was the Will Rogers of college basketball. Never was there a figure in the game so quot;d and so quot;ble, on sports and on the human condition. This book collects more than a hundred of Mc Guire's most colorful quot;tions, plus photographs from his life and career, in a tribute that is funny, poignant, and brimming with his streetwise sagacity. Mc Guire, a brash and fiery New Yorker who grew up working in his parents' saloon, played a rough and tumble game of basketball at St. John's University and briefly in the NBA before entering the coaching ranks. He reached the pinnacle of his profession and gained national fame at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where in thirteen seasons he compiled a 295-80 record, appeared in nine NCAA tournaments, and won eighty-one home games in a row. He was a fine coach who cared deeply about his players and was beloved by his teams and fans alike, but his flamboyance and his mouth sometimes got him into trouble. The end of his coaching career captivated the nation: Mc Guire wept on the bench as his Marquette Warriors won the national title. Mc Guire then began a ground-breaking career in network broadcasting, adding a zest and unconventionality that the college game had never seen. His sometimes bizarre and always entertaining commentary kept viewers tuned in even after the outcome of a lopsided game was a foregone conclusion. When Al Mc Guire died of leukemia in 2001, the sports world lost a true original. Tom Kertscher's bookboth words and pictureshelps shed additional light on the complex, complicated, and intelligent man that was Al Mc Guire. Dean Smith, coach of the University.
I was able to go to all of the NCAA games on the Elite 8 run last year, which turned out to be a lifeline during a very rough personal stretch. Last week I went to my first Big East tournament ever. After the loss, I started to feel like I was in the crowd that went from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, with comments going around about people being glad this senior class was leaving less than a year after praising them as part of the second EVER three-year run of Sweet 16s. Are you kidding? We had gone 30 YEARS with TWO Sweet 16 appearances, 19 Then after a bad year, some want to slam the door on kids who were part of three Sweet 16s in four years? The only other time in Marquette history we have won three straight titles was the four straight from 1971 to 1974. Did people want Jerry Homan to leave in 1975 because the streak ended? I could hardly fight back crying when the Three Amigos walked by me in the Boise airport after having their career end with no Sweet 16s. If you had asked me then if I’d take three Sweet 16s in four years but in the fourth year we had to go 0-32 I would have taken it in a heartbeat. I went to New York to watch the guys who have been part of BY FAR the greatest career run in MU history since Al Mc Guire left. The towering shot of Davante Gardner above me on the Bradley Center scoreboard will be part of my love for this squad. We want these guys gone? Jamil Wilson: yes a disappointing year as he was double teamed with our whole backcourt gone and even tried to play the point. During the 13-game run through the Sweet 16 win over Miami, he had a 128 Offensive Rating. That was better than any player in the country for the season. If Jamil had not transferred here you can turn back in the Elite 8 run. I have to believe even as a practice opponent his first year he had to help the team prepare for athletic opponents en route to that most.
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