ShareThisEast Tennessee State coach Murry Bartow has experienced the NCAA tournament from just about every imaginable perspective.
Bartow played in four consecutive tournaments as a player at UAB and was a member of the Blazers' team that advanced to the Elite Eight in 1982. As a graduate assistant coach under Bobby Knight at Indiana, he earned a national championship when the Hoosiers were a No. 1 seed.
And now, in his sixth season as East Tennessee State's head coach, Bartow has the near impossible task of winning a game as a No. 16 seed against top-seeded Pitt.
"When you're a college basketball coach, this is where we all want to be," said Bartow, back in the tournament for the first time since 2004. "We all have high expectations, hopes and dreams. But, at the end, only 65 teams get into this thing. As kids, you grow up watching March Madness and the NCAA tournament. It's what we all think about as coaches."
Pitt and East Tennessee State will play an NCAA East Region first-round game Friday afternoon at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio.
The Panthers will be facing a coach who can draw on his previous tournament experiences and his years as an assistant under two of the game's most-decorated coaches.
Gene Bartow, the former coach at Memphis, UCLA and UAB, is Murry Bartow's father. Gene Bartow led Memphis to the national championship game in 1973, took UCLA to the Final Four in 1976 and later led UAB to seven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.
"My dad has been my biggest influence as a coach," Bartow said. "I played for him at UAB, was an assistant under him and then he was my boss when I was the head coach there. He was a great coach. He just had a great feel for the game. He was a tremendous player's coach. I was able to watch him and learn from him."
His apprenticeship under Knight was a big influence as well. In his only two seasons at Indiana, he got to experience a bitter disappointment in the tournament the first year and a national championship the next.
In 1986, No. 3 seed Indiana was upset by No. 14 seed Cleveland State. One year later, the Hoosiers cut down the nets after Keith Smart made a baseline jumper as the clock wound down to beat Syracuse, 74-73.
"I had two unbelievable years under Coach," Bartow said. "I loved it. Just from a preparation standpoint, Coach is incredible in terms of dissecting opponents, figuring out ways to attack flaws. He saw the game at such an incredible level. As a graduate assistant, you maybe see one thing. He saw five or six different things in the same play."
Imparting his tournament experience and coaching wisdom in the NCAA tournament will be an important part of preparing his team for Pitt. None of the Buccaneers has played in the NCAA tournament.
"I can talk to my players about (my experiences), but that's about it," Bartow said. "They're going to have to experience it for themselves. As a coach, you worry about the deer-in-the-headlights look because it's their first time. You are concerned about that. I can talk to them about my experiences. I can't talk to them about our past experiences at East Tennessee. But it will be different for them."
East Tennessee is 23-10 and earned the automatic bid from the Atlantic Sun Conference by winning the conference tournament. They average 78.6 points per game and have three players who average more than 15 points per game.
Senior forward Kevin Tiggs leads the team with a 21.5 scoring average. Senior guard Courtney Pigram averages 17.6 per game and junior forward Mike Smith 15.5 per game.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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