He’s a Big Boy-lan Now

By: Charlie Danoff

Given that my last two articles have been about deposed leader Scott Skiles, I felt it only fair to do a piece on his successor, Jim Boylan. Although he interviewed for the Pacers head coaching job this summer, not too many fans know much about the man. I dug through what information I could find to see if I could glean any insights into his future with the Bulls. Unfortunately - for some strange reason - data on the University of New Hampshire and 1980’s pro Swiss basketball was nearly impossible to find. Here’s what I did uncover.

…Born Jersey Trash in Jersey City, New Jersey, I assume Boylan’s prep high school career consisted of wishing he was as cool as the “city ballers” across the river. The point guard was recruited to the Midwest for his college career, signing with the Marquette Golden Eagles in Milwaukee.

On the whole, his college career has to be considered impressive - he was a senior leader on the only NCAA championship team in Eagles history. Again, data was hard to find here, but I did discover that he scored 14 points in the championship game against the Tar Heels from Chapel Hill. Based on that huge data sample, it’s safe to say he was an amazing college player…

As usual, though, the real world laughs at the conclusions I draw from statistics, as NBA GM’s were not too impressed with Boylan. By today’s rules he would not even have been drafted, but there were more than just two rounds in the 1978 draft, and Boylan got nabbed in the fourth by the San Diego Clippers.

Boylan’s NBA career was just not meant to be, and he never played a game for the Clips, instead choosing to go the ex-pat route and play overseas, starting in Sweden.

He started his pro career with lvik Basket of Stockholm, but by 1982 he moved south to Switzerland to play for the Vevey Basketball Club. The team is now defunct - having merged with Blonay’s team - and is now known as the Vevey-Riviera Club. On the French side of Switzerland, Vevey is a beautiful city; known for its wine, not its basketball. I assume a young athlete surrounded by amazing wine and French girls managed to have some fun.

By this time, Boylan had begun the move into his second professional career, as he was the team’s player-coach. Just like another famous player-coach, Bill Russell in the first Celtics dynasty, Boylan led his team to their first championship.

Despite the auspicious beginnings to his coaching career, championship success was not to last for Boylan. His first stop was at Michigan State University, to work under Scott Skiles’ college coach Jud Heathcote. Heathcote won MSU’s first national title with Magic Johnson, and won over 60% of the games during his tenure.

The Heathcote coaching tree is legendary. Dozens of his assistants went on to have head coaching jobs, taking his teachings across the country. Some notable members of the tree include current MSU coach Tom Izzo, Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson and former NBA head coach Mike Montgomery. Comparing their tree to other famous ones, Sampson said - “It’s the best tree. Look, coach K and Dean Smith have great trees, but nobody’s tree is better than Jud’s. We all learned from Jud the basic fundamental of coaching and that’s to work hard. I still do bed check at camp because Jud taught me to.”

So, then Boylan is destined for coaching greatness, right? I mean, Izzo won a National Title coaching the Spartans, and Sampson got the Indiana job despite allegations of cheating.

No, unfortunately, that is not how the world works.

Just because someone had a great mentor does not mean they will be great. Especially considering Boylan’s time at MSU was not particularly noteworthy. The years were some of the least impressive under Heathcote, as the team went 39-50 during Boylan’s tenure.

Boylan’s next move was upward, when in 1989 he accepted the head coaching position for the University of New Hampshire Wildcats. Was this destined to be another smashing success for a Heatcote disciple?

No. The Wildcats do not have an impressive history of winning, and Boylan did nothing to change that during his time. Over the three years he coached the team, they never had more than seven wins in any one season. Given that this is Boylan’s only previous head coaching experience, his career winning percentage is under 18%.

I guess the Bulls did win Friday night and Sunday morning, so make that slightly over 18%.

After his stop in the Granite State, Boylan moved into the professional arena, working as Video Coordinator and Advance Scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers. That year, he spent time working with another coaching legend, Lenny Wilkens.

The next season he returned to the bench, on Mike Fratello’s Cavs staff - he remained in that spot for five years. Similar to his period at Michigan State, the team did not do horribly (they never had a losing season) but they also were nothing special, as they never won more than 47 games.

Boylan remained an assistant coach for the next six years, with stops in Vancouver, Phoenix and Atlanta. Phoenix was where he first worked with Skiles, during Skiles’ brief time as the Suns head coach. He was with a lot of bad teams, especially the Grizzlies during the lockout season - like Boylan’s UNH squads, their win total was in single digits.

His first big break came on May 19, 2004 when he was reunited with Skiles and was the lead Assistant coach for the first time. As Bulls fans know, this coincided with a franchise-wide renaissance that saw the Bulls finally able to return to respectability in the post-#23 era.

Now his second big break has come, as GM John Paxson officially named Jim Boylan the interim head coach for the duration of the 2007-08 season. Speaking Thursday about the move, Paxson said, “After sitting down with Jim yesterday and discussing our team, I feel comfortable giving him the interim head coaching position. Jim has paid his dues as an assistant coach and has his own ideas on the way he wants us to play,” stated Paxson. “Many top assistants never get the chance to be a head coach in the NBA and Jim has assured me he will provide the necessary energy and commitment this position requires.”

Interesting that Paxson felt it necessary to mention Boylan’s energy and commitment. That would seem to indicate that the recently-fired coach lacked those qualities. Personally, I never would have thought that; although Skiles was rumored to have quit when he left Phoenix.

Well, thank God the Bulls now have someone with energy who is committed to their franchise - Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich will obviously start making jumpers now, and Ben Wallace will find the fountain of youth.

My sarcastic tone is probably unfair to Boylan. Despite the fact I think firing Skiles was the wrong move, Boylan deserves a fair, impartial chance to be evaluated. Discussing with reporters what he plans to do to improve the Bulls, Boylan said the first step will be reducing the playing time for some young players.

“Basically, what I’ve said to a lot of the younger guys is, they just need to stay patient right now,” Boylan said. “The first task for us is to get our team back on track. So in order to do that, we may have to tighten up the rotation a little bit.

The initial results were good Friday night, as the Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks. Aside from limiting minutes for Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, the biggest change was moving Ben Gordon out of the starting lineup and back into his 6th man role. That is a lot to ask from a proven 20 PPG scorer, but Boylan was confident in his decision. Talking about it after Friday night’s win, he said,

“I didn’t want to make any predictions before the game, but I thought he would [respond] because that is the kind of guy Ben is. He told me he would do it, that I could count on him,” Boylan said. “He came through. I have to applaud him for accepting this role.”

Saturday was similarly successful, and saw similar lack of playing time for Thomas - in fact, he never saw the floor. But Gordon was impressive and efficient as a sixth man for the second straight game, and though beating the Knicks is hardly a major accomplishment, it does keep Boylan undefeated as head coach.

At the end of the day, he seems a fine choice to be the interim head man of the Bulls. His Heathcote pedigree and championship experience are pluses, and despite the poor performance of the NBA teams he has been with, he has been working in the league over 16 years and deserved a shot.

I have no choice but to be optimistic about him turning around the Bulls, otherwise this writing gig could get really depressing.

Boylan himself better be damn excited. Even if it’s only 50 games, almost no one gets the chance to be a head coach in the NBA. It is an amazing opportunity for him - lets just hope he wins a few more games than he did in his previous head-coaching gigs.

Tags: , , , , ,

Charlie is an aspiring writer and a caddy at Skokie Country Club. Odds are you will hear a lot about him in the years to come, so if you want to be the first kid on the block familiar with his work, click here.

Share This Article

No Comments

No comments yet.

Comment On This Article