The Hockey Stop

I know this is a hockey blog and I'm not supposed to be writing about college basketball. But as a George Mason University alumnus and longtime supporter of the Patriots men's basketball program, I felt compelled to write this tribute to one of the greatest coaches to ever step on the hardwood -- Jim Larranaga.

The sad news comes today that Larranaga is leaving Mason to take over the head coaching duties at the University of Miami. CAA for ACC. Northern Virginia traffic for hurricanes. Pine trees for palm trees. The Patriot mascot for Sebastian the Ibis mascot.

When I attended George Mason's suburban Fairfax campus from 1997 to 2002, it was very much a commuter school that was sorely lacking in any school spirit. I was one of the few students who lived on campus, and many nights I would walk around Patriot Circle to see the basketball team play at the Patriot Center. And on most nights it was me and a dozen foreign exchange students cheering on the home team. And that was it.

While I was an undergrad at Mason, we went to the NCAA tournament twice -- losing to the Cincinnati Bearcats in the first round in 1999 and losing by only three points to the Maryland Terrapins in the first round in 2001.

My friends and I had school spirit. We went down to Richmond both years to witness Larranaga and the team tear down the nets as Colonial Athletic Association champions. I'll never forget storming the Richmond Coliseum court both those years to celebrate.

We even went so far as to drive from Fairfax to College Park in the middle of the night to plaster Maryland's campus with Mason's colors -- Green and Gold. It was reported in the Washington Post that before the game against the Patriots, Terrapins player Juan Dixon found out that Maryland's campus was vandalized by Mason students and that he was pissed.

But our school spirit was the exception, not the rule. I graduated from Mason in 2002 and headed out to California. I was living in Los Angeles in 2006 when the Mason Miracle happened. Coach Larranaga did the improbable. He took a no-name, rinky-dink commuter school and made Mason a household name by leading the Patriots to the Final Four -- destroying powerhouses Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut before losing to eventual champion Florida.

I was doing cartwheels in my apartment in L.A. and then driving down Wilshire Boulevard honking and screaming about the Patriots going to the Final Four to anyone within earshot. It was a magical moment. And where else would I have rather been for a Hollywood ending then Hollywood itself?

Since that amazing run that shook the sports world, when I tell people in California or Canada or anywhere for that matter that I went to Mason, they immediately mention "oh yeah, that school that went to the Final Four!" So thanks, Jim Larranaga, for the 2006 Final Four run and for putting Mason on the map.

Since then Larranaga has been a tireless advocate for the school itself. He touts its construction boom and world-class faculty to anyone that will listen. And as a result the stories aren't just about the Patriot Center now being filled to the rafters with nearly 10,000 fans on a weekday night for a game, but also the spike in applications from across the country and the tougher admissions process to get into Mason. In short: George Mason is now not only a basketball powerhouse but an academic heavyweight as well. So thanks Jim Larranaga for being the best ambassador Mason has ever had.

And just this past March Madness, he made Mason Nation believe again in miracles when the Patriots beat Villanova at the buzzer for the school's first tourney win since 2006. Once again I was going crazy, but this time instead of lonely Los Angeles, I was at a downtown Washington, D.C. bar cheering on the team with my fellow Patriots.

This loss will sting for awhile. But I wish Larranaga nothing but the best at Miami. I've tried to describe some of Larranaga's enormous legacy he is leaving in Fairfax, but there is so much more he has done for this community that it is beyond words.

All I can say is thanks.

You know a franchise is in trouble when just before the All-Star Break the rumor mill is heating up about a big trade, a head coaching change and selling the team.

The focus should be on a successful first half of the season a year after making the playoffs for the first time in nine years. But the Kings are mired in a three-game losing skid, have lost nine out of their past 11 games, and are looking up at the top eight in the Western Conference. At 49 points they are in last place in the Pacific Division and are in 12th place in the conference -- five points behind eighth-place Colorado for the final playoff spot.

The Kings are going to need a big second half to make the playoffs after their unexpected struggles so far. The bad news just keeps piling up for the team:

-- GM Dean Lombardi is facing a steep $50,000 fine after apologizing for comments he made last night after the Kings' 2-0 loss to the Coyotes. Lombardi questioned the objectivity of league exec Mike Murphy following a Phoenix goal that went to video review. Lombardi said Murphy was not happy about being denied the Kings' GM job.

-- Left wing Marco Sturm has been placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, putting the spotlight again on the team's apparent deficiency at the left wing forward position. Talented rookie Andrei Loktionov is manning the first line next to Anze Kopitar, but L.A. Times' columnist Helene Elliot postulates that what is preventing Kopitar from reaching the next level is the lack of a veteran, creative, scoring left winger on the first line. That is one reason the Kings could be keen to make a trade soon.

-- The website L.A. Observed reported today that the Kings could be up for sale. Apparently ownership group AEG is shopping the team for around $350 million. AEG has been publicly pursuing an NFL stadium in downtown L.A. to lure a team back to the city. Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of AEG, refuted the report to the L.A. Times later today, saying "We are neither looking at or in talks to sell. Very focused on the NFL."

It seems to me that all these off-ice distractions could be resolved by one thing: winning hockey games. This team is too talented and has made too much progress to not rebound from this slump and make the playoffs. So will the playoff appearance last year be a blip on the radar for a perennial losing organization? Or is this slump the blip on the radar for a once-proud franchise in the middle of a rebuild that will turn them into eventual Stanley Cup contenders?

What would John Wooden do?

Coach, player, business exec, volunteer, politician. It doesn't matter. If you ask yourself that question every time you do something, it will be the right thing to do.

I found out legendary UCLA basketball head coach John Wooden died Friday at age 99 when I was biking in Venice Beach. I knew it was coming but the reality of it was somewhat emotionally overwhelming. While I was riding the bus back from Santa Monica to my home in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles, my friend called me and we decided to meet in front of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center where Wooden passed away. There was a small gathering of UCLA students across Westwood Boulevard -- the leftovers from a bigger gathering earlier that evening. While I didn't attend UCLA (I did get a certificate in print journalism from UCLA Extension) I had family members that graduated from the school. I'm glad I got the chance to pay my respects to Wooden. At the bottom of this story there are pictures I took with my camera phone from the gathering at the UCLA Medical Center.

This humble Midwestern man, who led the Bruins to 10 championships and 88 straight wins, was genuinely a good person. I'm sure he had his flaws like everyone, but they certainly were not greed or putting winning above everything else -- sadly two of the qualities that have tarnished college basketball since the Wizard of Westwood worked his magic.

Wooden personified everything that is good and right about sports. He was loved by the UCLA community and will be missed tremendously.

I attended George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and have to believe that Wooden set the blueprint for Patriots coach Jim Larranaga's magic carpet ride to the Final Four in 2006. Wooden and Larranaga share many of the same coaching philosophies, namely putting integrity, honesty and hard work above the win-at-all-cost mentality that is so pervasive in competitive sports.

Of course since this is a hockey blog, I'd be remiss not to make some connection to the sport. I found this story on PennLive.com about Hershey Bears (the Washington Capitals minor league affiliate currently battling the Texas Stars in the Calder Cup Final) coach Mark French and his affinity for Wooden.

French keeps a copy of Wooden's book "They Call Me Coach" on the bookshelf of his Giant Center office.

Here is the brief story from PennLive.com. Click here for the link to the article:

A copy of John Wooden's "They Call Me Coach" is on the bookshelf in Mark French's Giant Center office. French coaches hockey as head coach of the Hershey Bears, but he has drawn guidance and inspiration from the lessons of the basketball coaching legend, who died at 99 Friday.

"One of first coaching books I read, and I read it my first year getting involved in coaching," French said Saturday. "I’d heard one guy say every time he had to make a decision as a coach, he thought, What would John Wooden have done in these situations? After reading his book, I’m not so sure that’s not a blueprint of how you want to live your life.

"He was more than a coach. He changed his players' lives by the lessons of life that he taught them. I think all coaches aspire to have a greater impact than maybe just on the game and truly affect their athetes’ lives. He was a true philosopher-coach. He did that. He saw beyond the game. And he was very successful, too.”

French often talks about focusing on the process of a season instead of fixating on results. He said that's something he adopted from Wooden's philosophy.

“You can drive yourself nuts as a coach if you worry about wins and losses," French said. "But if you worry about, as Wooden did, a very patient way of just doing things the right way day in and out and repetition, you’ll get the desired result.

"I think that’s the only way a coach can look at a situation. It’s the only thing you’re in control of is the process. You’re not in control of wins and losses. I think he was the first one to really put those into defining terms.”

In a shocking development, Los Angeles Kings assistant coach Mark Hardy has been charged with sexually assaulting his daughter in a Washington, D.C. hotel room. His daughter Jessica, 21, attends Georgetown University in D.C. The alleged incident took place at the Mayflower Hotel.

Washington Post story:

Hockey coach charged in hotel sex assault

A former Los Angeles Kings hockey player and current assistant coach was charged Friday with sexually assaulting his adult daughter at the Mayflower Hotel.

Mark Hardy, 51, was charged with fourth-degree sexual abuse in connection with fondling his daughter in the hotel room after the two walked from a bar on 19th Street around 1 a.m. The daughter reportedly attends college in D.C.

The victim told police that she and her father were “very intoxicated,” and after she had changed her clothes, got into bed and fell asleep, she was awakened by her father laying next to her and touching her inappropriately, according to documents filed late Friday in D.C. Superior Court.

After first denying that anything happened, Hardy apologized to his daughter, the court papers said. She then ran from the room to the front desk for help.

At his initial hearing Friday, prosecutors said Hardy declined to be interviewed by pre-trial services. Magistrate Judge Karen Howze ordered Hardy released, but ordered him to turn in his passport, undergo alcohol evaluation and to have no contact, verbal, physical or electronic with his daughter.

Hardy was represented by the District’s Public Defender Service and declined to comment after the hearing. Hardy’s next hearing is scheduled for June 4.

Hardy played for the Kings from 1979-1988 and again from 1992-1994. He also served as assistant coach for the team. Hardy also played for the New York Rangers and Minnesota North Stars, and was an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks.

-- Keith L. Alexander


L.A. Times story:

Kings' Mark Hardy charged with felony sexual abuse

Hardy, a Kings assistant coach, was arrested after a complaint by a family member in Washington.

May 21, 2010
By Helene Elliott

Mark Hardy, a former Kings defenseman and current assistant coach, was arrested early Friday and charged with felony fourth-degree sexual abuse after a complaint by a family member at a hotel in Washington.

Hardy, a Manhattan Beach resident, was taken into custody and appeared before a judge Friday afternoon in the District of Columbia Superior Court. The 51-year-old was released with conditions, including the surrender of his passport and a prohibition against having any physical, verbal or electronic contact with the family member.

He is due to appear in court again June 4.

The Kings issued a statement saying they were aware of the charge and would not comment because of the "legal nature of this matter." A team spokesman declined to say whether Hardy remains on the payroll or has been suspended or placed on leave.

According to court documents, the person who filed the complaint and Hardy had been at a bar before returning to the Mayflower Hotel. The family member went to sleep and awoke to find Hardy sharing the bed and making inappropriate sexual contact.

Second District police were called and two detectives arrived at 2 a.m.

After being interviewed Hardy was arrested.

It is The Times' practice not to name alleged sexual abuse victims.

Hardy played for the Kings from 1979-80 through 1987-88 and returned for the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons. He also played for the New York Rangers and Minnesota North Stars. After he retired as a player, he was a member of the coaching staff of the minor league Long Beach Ice Dogs before joining the Kings as an assistant coach for the 1999-2000 season.

He left after 2005-06 for an assistant coaching job with the Chicago Blackhawks before returning to the Kings in August 2008. He has been in charge of the team's penalty-killing unit in addition to working closely with the team's defensemen.


NHL.com profile:

Coach Hardy's Playing Statistics

Mark Hardy returned to the Kings on August 4, 2008 after spending two seasons with the Blackhawks, where he successfully oversaw the development of a young blueline that played a major role in Chicago's team goals-against-average dropping from 3.40 in 2005-06 to 2.82 in '07-08. Hardy, 49, had served as an assistant coach with the Kings for the previous seven and a half seasons (1998-99 to 2005-06). His responsibilities while in Los Angeles focused on defensive play, penalty killing and overall play without the puck. Hardy's penalty killing unit ranked third in the NHL for the 2001-02 season with an 86.6% success rate which marked the second best in Kings history.

After enjoying a 15-year NHL career as a defenseman for the Kings, New York Rangers and Minnesota North Stars, Hardy turned to coaching as an assistant coach with the Long Beach Ice Dogs (IHL) prior to joining the Kings coaching staff.

Hardy was originally selected by the Kings in the second round, 30th overall, in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. He played his junior hockey (QMJHL) in Montreal with current Blackhawks Head Coach Denis Savard. Hardy was twice named the Kings Outstanding Defenseman (1984-85 and 1986-87). He stayed with the Kings until 1988. After two stints with the Rangers and a short run with the North Stars, Hardy returned to the Kings in 1993 and helped the team advance to the Stanley Cup Finals that season. He concluded his NHL playing career the following season (1993-94) with the Kings.

In 915 career NHL games, Hardy, a native of Samedan, Switzerland, recorded 368 points (62 goals, 306 assists) and 1,293 penalty minutes.

Mark and his wife, Kristina, have two children, a daughter, Jessica, and a son, Kevin.