Great Name, "Good" Coach?

I have always liked great names. I like it when parents name their children with slightly different names than we constantly see, as long it does not cause that child some hardships growing up or later in life.

One of those great names that I like in coaching is Max Good. It just kind of jumps out at you. And as coach of the Loyola Marymount Lions of the West Coast Conference, Max Good occasionally does a little bit of jumping up and down on sidelines. To say the least he can be active and boisterous. He is fun to watch. He is also very quotable, one of his favorites, "prisons and cemeteries are full of people who made bad five-second decisions."

Is Max Good a good basketball coach? I think he is, despite the fact that he had a horrible year with Lions in 2010-11, when many people picked his team to finish second in the conference , then going 2-12 in league play, they did upset Portland in the conference tournament, then lost to Santa Clara in the quarterfinals.

Good became the Loyola coach in 2008-09, when head coach Bill Bayno resigned during the season for  personal reasons. Ironically, Good also replaced Bayno as the head coach at UNLV in 2000-01, when Bayno was dismissed. After that year and prior to coming to Loyola, Good had a great run at D-2 Bryant  University, including losing in the D-2 championship game in 2004-05. In Good's first full year with the Lions in 2009-10, his team won 18 games and he was named WCC coach of the year by the respected College Basketball Insider.

So, to the FUTURE. Loyola has a good recruiting class coming in for 2011-12 and has a players in senior Drew Viney, who is capable of going for 30-40 points on any given night. I personally think that Loyola will be the "shocker team" in the WCC next year, surprising everyone and possibly finishing as high as second or third.

If you get a chance, watch Loyola play next year. They will have an entertaining team, for sure they have an entertaining coach, who often reminds myself of an ice cream store owner who gets all excited to see a family of six pull up, only to see them go into the dry cleaners next door, then drive off and all he can do is slap his head in disappointment and wait for the next set of customers.

And by the way, if you can't see the Lions in person, they have an outstanding broadcaster in Jeff Lampe, give him a listen on the radio and you will not be disappointed. Nothing better than a great basketball broadcast on the radio.

No matter what happens at Loyola, I will always like the name Max Good, Loyola basketball just needs at some point to be better than GOOD.

emails to crawscorner@gmail.com or comments always welcome