Do Not Mess With NESS

On occasion we find some some very smart people who make educated and key decisions in college athletics.

I would like to applaud the decision makers who last week decided not to extend the contract of head coach George Nessman at San Jose State, but instead do even better and give him a NEW three year contract.

Nessman earned it.

Despite the fact that San Jose State went only 17-16, last season, Nessman has the Spartans on the rise and it is time to start paying attention to the Spartans in college basketball.

If you have watched Nessman over the years it is obvious that he can coach the game of basketball. Sometimes even the best of coaching, doing all the right things and making key moves in a game, is not even enough to win the game. That has happened at San Jose State over the years in basketball, but expect that to continue, but to now translate into wins, instead of losses.

George Nessman took over the Spartans head coaching job in the 2005-06 season. His first couple of years were not the best, but since that time San Jose State is on the move and I think headed to being a force in west coast college basketball.

To prove how good of a job Nessman has done with the Spartans program, here is a little documentation.

The 17 wins last year were the most wins in basketball for the Spartans since 1981. Going 17-16 was the first winning season for the program since 1994. With their appearance in the post season at the CBI, it had not happened for the Spartans since 1996, playing after the regular season. Since joining the Western Athletic Conference in 1996, last season was the first time for San Jose State to make it to the semifinals of the WAC tournament.

Even with the above mentioned it improvement, it might have been easy for the Spartans to change coaches and not show patience. For the good of their program they chose not to do that and instead stick with a very good basketball coach.

George Nessman does not get the flashy headlines like many coaches do. His teams have not been on TV that much, so not many people know about them and very few people have been paying attention to Spartan basketball.

Warning: You better start paying attention. Nessman is a very good coach, who is making a difference at at a school with very little basketball history, very little sports history and at present very small fan base.

Nessman has taken over what many thought would be an impossible task and has made it possible for San Jose State to succeed in basketball. He is a rising star in the coaching ranks and he has a program on the rise.

It will be lots of fun to watch his program not only this year, but in the future. I have a feeling it will not be disappointing.

emails crawscorner@gmail.com