LITTLE ROCK — To the right, just inside the double doors to the small lobby, is a beautifully framed picture of the 2010 women’s basketball team with the NCAA Tournament ring prominently displayed.
Past the entrance to the offices of the women’s coaches, a picture of the champion ’09 team is on the wall opposite the receptionist.
Coach Joe Foley is not in either picture. Out front is not his style. In his perfect world, coaches would get out of the way and let the teams play.
“That’s how much practice means to me,” said the ultrasuccessful Foley. “You get to talk to your kids, you get to explain things to them.”
Now 55 and in his 32nd year of coaching, Foley isn’t up off the bench and hollering as much during a game. It’s not that he’s lost his stinger; his demeanor is part of a maturation process.
Once, he said, he was as bad as anybody about getting on both players and officials. He has come around to the idea that it is the players who must make on-court decisions. “I’m not out there with them,” he said. “You let them play. Sometimes, it’s not the way you want them to play and you come back and watch film and explain this is what you’ve got to do to get better.”
Politics pushed Foley into the women’s game and his affinity for the team concept kept him there.
An assistant to John Widner at Morrilton high school, Foley accompanied the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame coach when Widner moved to Russellville to right the program at Arkansas Tech.
Three years later, believing his mission was accomplished, Widner stepped down. Foley was supposed to keep his job as an assistant, but the new coach brought in his own man. The women’s job at Tech came open about that time and Widner lobbied for his former assistant to get the position.
At the time, Tech people probably figured Foley would move on after a couple of years.
He, too, believed he would return to the men’s game.
Instead, under Foley, the Golden Suns had 16 consecutive 20-win seasons, won two NAIA national championships, and was the NCAA Division II runner-up.
During his first eight years at UALR, he has won four straight Sun Belt Conference Western Division titles. Last year, the team made the NCAA Tournament for the first time. On Sunday, UALR improved to 12-1 in the league by handing Middle Tennessee its second conference loss.
Such success has attracted attention from athletic directors looking for a men’s coach. Foley is not interested.
“You’ve really got to get on guys to get them to understand, to get them to do what you want them to do,” he said. Women, he said, “you’ve just go to talk to them and tell them what you want them to do. That’s the difference. Women try to please, try to do what you ask them to do.”
Sticking to the script can be a detriment. At times, he wishes his players would freelance more and takeadvantage of the one-on-one opportunities available in the motion off ense.
He has caused players to cry on occasion, but the tears dry quickly because they know the reprimand is not personal. That communication skill is particularly appreciated by a writer who lasted one day as a volunteer assistant with a girls’ junior high team.
HARRY KING IS SPORTS COLUMNIST FOR STEPHENS MEDIA’S ARKANSAS NEWS BUREAU.
Sports, Pages 6 on 02/22/2011