The John Wooden Legacy: Be Quick, but Don't Hurry

One might assume from this article that I was a big UCLA basketball fan back in the days when the Bruins were winning the NCAA Basketball Tournament every year from 1967-1973.

One would be wrong. You know what they say about assuming, right?

I don't remember UCLA's NCAA basketball championships of 1964-65 as I wasn't a basketball fan yet at that time.

When the UCLA Bruins won the NCAA Tournament from 1967-73 with finals against Dayton, North Carolina, Purdue, Jacksonville, Villanova, Florida State and Memphis...I rooted for the UCLA opponent every time except the Dayton game which took place the year before I started following college basketball.

As a matter of fact, I hated the UCLA Bruins until well into the 90s as a result of that team dominating college basketball to the tune of 10 national championships in a 12 year period.

So, how is is that I'm writing a tribute to the author of all those UCLA championships, John Wooden? It's not that complicated.

While hating the stranglehold that UCLA had on college basketball from 1964 until the mid-70s with everyone else basically playing for 2nd place, I never had anything but the utmost respect for the UCLA coach John Wooden.

Out of all the great players John Wooden had at UCLA, really surprisingly few had a great impact on the NBA, I always contended that Bill Walton was by far the most overrated player in college basketball history. I consider Walton and his flapping gums on TV to be the most overrated pro as well.

To put Bill Walton in the same category as Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Simply absurd. In any event, three of UCLA's championships were won in Alcindor's reign, two in Walton's career, providing fodder for those who contended that any competent coach could have won championships every year during those two eras.

So, how do you explain the other 5 UCLA championships? There was no dominant big man for half of John Wooden's NCAA championships and few NBA stars. So what gives?

A big part of John Wooden's success could be attributed to Wooden's zone press and uptempo brand of basketball in an era when so many NCAA coaches such as Henry Iba of Oklahoma State played watching-paint-dry, halfcourt, dull basketball.

It has always been my opinion that Dean Smith of North Carolina with his "four corners" offense so much of the time did more for the NCAA's introduction of the shot clock than anyone else. There was a game between UNC and Virginia in the Ralph Sampson era in which the halftime score was something like 13-8 and ended with UNC winning 47-45.

The essence of the John Wooden philosophy was my favorite John Wooden quote. "Be quick, but don't hurry." Short, concise and to the point. You see, when we hurry we are much more prone to make mistakes and John Wooden understood that. "If you don't have time to do it right, how will you find the time to do it over?" was another Woodenism.

John Wooden had a book called Be Quick, But Don't Hurry. My copy is on order from Amazon. In spite of all his NCAA championship rings, John Wooden seemed more concerned with the way he lived his life and equally concerned with the development of his players off the basketball court.

"All goals aren't ten feet high" was a quote used by Nolan Richardson when hired at Arkansas in 1985 and Nolan was a great admirer of John Wooden, both in basketball and in life.

Be quick, but don't hurry. Words to live by.