CU Associate Head Coach Steve McClain

[Sexton Hardcastle]

I'm going to start up a few threads on some coaches. It's a good way to learn more about these gentlemen representing CU. :thumbsup:

Interview With Steve McClain

October 26, 2008
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Steve McClain


Interview Conducted 10/21/2008

AP/Isaac Brekken
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Steve McClain, now in his second season as Colorado’s Associate Head Coach, has not been a stranger to success throughout his coaching career.

McClain compiled a 157-115 overall record in his nine seasons as Head Coach at Wyoming from 1998-2007. He led the Cowboys to one NCAA Tournament appearance and three NIT bids.

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He was noted for his ability to recruit talented out-of-state players to a school that a Chicago Tribune sportswriter once referred to as “The Siberia of Division-I college basketball.”

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Larimie, Wyo. is a remote town of just over 27,000 residents. Laramie has long, cold winters and is over 100 miles from Denver, the nearest large city. None of these factors were conducive to landing highly-touted recruits. In addition, few Few Division-I basketball recruits hail from the state of Wyoming.

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MCCLAIN: “We tried to go find kids who had a great desire to get a college degree, but were more worried about how they could become a better basketball player, how they could develop the goals they wanted to reach, and they weren’t worried about how big the city was or how the night life was.”​

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[Sexton Hardcastle]

Re: Associate Head Coach Steve McClain

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_bHimziBPg"]YouTube - NCAA Tournament First Round Upset[/ame]

 

[Sexton Hardcastle]

Re: Associate Head Coach Steve McClain

1994 National Championship Recap

After six long years, the NJCAA national championship trophy returned to Hutchinson.

Hutchinson Community College took the lead for good late in the first half and held off a frantic Three Rivers, Mo., comeback for a 78-74 victory in the 1994 NJCAA Tournament championship game at the Sports Arena.

Ben Davis had 20 points, including two decisive free throws with 4.1 seconds left, to lead the Blue Dragons, who finished the season with a 35-4 record, the second-most wins in school history.

Tournament Most Valuable Player Roy “Pooh” Hairston added 18 points, while John Sweet had 13 and Craig Duerksen had 12 points for HCC.

For Three Rivers, coached by legendary junior college coach Gene Bess, Willie Walker had 17 points. Sunday Adebayo had 12 and Lonzell Gowdy had 11 for the Raiders, who finished 33-5.

“It’s a relief it’s over,” said Hutchinson head coach Steve McClain, who was an assistant coach for the Blue Dragons’ 1988 national championship team coached by David Farrar. “This one feels a lot better right now.


“I’m awfully proud of these kids. This is a great accomplishment. They beat a good ball club. They had a lot to prove to people who doubted them, but they never stopped believing in the system, the coaches and each other.”

http://www.hutchcc.edu/dragons/redsite/Basketballmen/NJCAA Tournament/1994 Recap.htm

 

[Mick Ronson]

Re: Associate Head Coach Steve McClain

up 3, i love how Wyo takes it to the hole after the in-bounds on the final possession to make it a 2 possession game ("the jugular")...with under .30 instead of futzing around and bleeding clock or getting flat-footed late in the shot clock.

i like McClain.

 

[Sexton Hardcastle]

Career Summary
9 Seasons 157 Wins, 115 Losses
1 NCAA Tourney Team (since 1980)
0 Final Four Teams (since 1980)
0 NCAA Tourney Titles (since 1980)
0 NBA Draft Picks


http://statsheet.com/mcb/coaches/steve-mcclain

 

[aik]

He did get J-Straight to Laramie, after all. Was at that game at the Pit, no one there expected Gonzaga to drop the game. The game right after was a near-upset of Arizona by UCSB. New Mexico fan hates Lute Olson for backing out of a yearly game the two state schools used to play.

 

[Mick Ronson]

seems like New Mexico fans hate a lot of people.

 

[Sexton Hardcastle]

McClain's Wyo Bio.

Steve McClain enters his ninth season as head coach at the University of Wyoming. In his eight previous seasons at the University of Wyoming, Steve McClain has led the Wyoming Basketball program through one of its most successful periods in school history. When you begin to list the accomplishments over the past eight seasons, one begins to realize how far the Cowboy Basketball program has come.

In four of the last eight seasons, Wyoming has appeared in postseason play. The Pokes advanced to the Second Round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament and the Second Round of the 2003 National Invitation Tournament. UW also advanced to the Second Round of the 1999 NIT and appeared in the 2001 NIT.

At the conclusion of the 2005-06 season, McClain's Cowboys came within one overtime period and four points of earning their third NCAA Tournament bid, as the Pokes took Mountain West Conference regular-season champion San Diego State to overtime in the MWC Championship Game before falling 64-69.

Coach McClain has posted the fifth highest winning percentage in school history -- 58.3 percent (140-100 record). His teams have averaged 17.5 wins per season through his first eight seasons.

In conference play, McClain's teams have captured two of the first seven MWC titles, sharing the title for the 2000-01 season and winning it outright in 2001-02. The back-to-back regular-season conference titles were the first since the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons. The outright title in 2001-02 was Wyoming's first outright championship in 20 years. Wyoming possesses a winning percentage of .530 (53-47 record) in Mountain West Conference regular-season games.

McClain has coached two All-Americans in his first eight years in Laramie. Josh Davis was an Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American in his senior season of 2001-02. Prior to the 2002-03 season, Marcus Bailey was one of only 50 players nationally named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason All-America team. Bailey tragically saw his senior season and his college career come to an end in the ninth game of that season in a win over South Carolina when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee.

In five of the seven seasons that Steve McClain has coached in the Mountain West Conference, at least one Cowboy has been named First Team All-Mountain West Conference: Josh Davis (1999-2000 and 2000-01); Marcus Bailey (2000-01 and 2001-02); Uche Nsonwu-Amadi (2002-03); Donta Richardson (2002-03) and Jay Straight (2004-05).

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