Tulsa World: OSU to take on Mercer

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OSU to take on Mercer

By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 12/17/2008 2:25 AM
Last Modified: 12/17/2008 2:51 AM

Question: Whatever happened to former OU assistant coach Bob Hoffman?

Answer: He's in the giant-slaying business.

Hoffman is in his first year as head coach at Mercer, which plays a Wednesday game at Oklahoma State.

The little school from Macon, Ga., will come to Stillwater carrying significant pelts from early-season hunts.

In a seven-day November span, Mercer won consecutive road games against Alabama and Auburn, then lost to Georgia Tech in overtime.

"We were up 18 in the second half at home and I started coaching and we got in trouble," Hoffman said. "That was a great week anyway, but it would have been an amazing week if we had won all three of those in the same week."

Mercer briefly was king of the college basketball universe, rocketing to the top of collegerpi.com. Losses to Dayton and East Tennessee State tarnished the Cinderfella story, but the Bears still could contend for an at-large NCAA Tournament berth.

OSU coach Travis Ford is educating his players that Mercer can't be taken lightly.

"I know Mercer may not be a Big 12 team, but they have beaten SEC schools on the road convincingly," Ford said. "I watched them play Auburn and play Alabama and they were in front pretty much the whole game and controlled the game."

If Mercer continues to excel, Hoffman will be a contender for bounce-back coach of the year. He was part of Kelvin Sampson's staff when OU landed in the NCAA doghouse for impermissible

phone calls. Hoffman's role was deemed to be so minuscule that he will not have an individual record maintained in the infractions office.

Was Hoffman concerned he might suffer from guilt by association when applying for another college job?

"That's what everybody asks me," he said. "Coach Sampson had a great career and won a lot of games and had some things that didn't go right at the end, but he was a great basketball coach. We were fortunate to win the Big 12 together and that was a lot of fun and we had some good players.

"But I think the bottom line is I was hoping I had coached long enough that you just want to be measured on what you had done in those previous stints and I was blessed to get an opportunity to come here. I am still thankful Coach Sampson gave me the chance to come to Oklahoma."

A Putnam City High School graduate, Hoffman's body of work includes coaching the Southern Nazarene women's team to an NAIA title and guiding the Oklahoma Baptist University men's team to an NAIA runner-up trophy. He also was head coach at Texas-Pan American and, between OU and now, was an NBA Development League coach.

Hoffman said the tough part about coaching in the D-League is the changing cast of players (27 last season). Hoffman said he lost or gained a player before seven games. He said "all those little tricky plays you want to run are not really effective" when you get those kind of surprises.

Hoffman said he enjoys building relationships and teaching lessons that go beyond hoops. Coaching at the college level allows him to do that. He said he has a good situation now because of great facilities, a great administration "and there are basketball players all over the place here."

Judging by the Alabama and Auburn games, some of those players are on campus.

"We have got some good pieces," Hoffman said.

"And college basketball is not like it used to be. There are certain teams that are unbelievable, but I think there are a lot of teams that are about the same. ... You can be at a mid-major, so to speak, and have older guys that are tough-minded that have a chance to go win (against) a BCS or big-time school that might have young guys who are still just trying to feel their way. And I think that is what has happened a lot this year already, all over the country."

Jimmie Tramel 581-8389
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer

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cowboy4ever, Tulsa (12/17/2008 7:56:27 AM)

give em a good spankin cowboys!

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