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Honorable Mention to Andy Enfield and George Raveling, for bringing the program back from obscurity to the national stage, and Forrest Twogood, though he gets dinged for not recruiting African American players. The question of the top SC coach of all time comes down to Sam Barry vs Bob Boyd.
SAM BARRY
Sam Barry has to be considered one of the legends of coaching, both at SC and nationally. He was an innovator of the game, pushing for the end of a jump ball after each basket and free throw, and the creation of the mid court 10 second line. This was still the infancy of the game, with the first time it was played in the Olympics being 6 years after he came to SC, so he is part of the game's foundation. His impact at SC was immediate. In Year 1 he went 15-5, winning SC's second conference title. In his first 11 years he won 3 Full Conference and 8 Southern Division Titles. In that stretch he won 20 games three times when the average total number of games played was between 21 and 25. USC also had three first team All Americans in Jerry Nemer, Lee Guttero, and Ralph Vaughn, most PCC players to be AA in that period. Guttero was the top player in college hoops in 1935, when SC lost just one conference game. Vaughn led the Pacific Coast Conference in scoring at 15 points per game in 40, and hung 36 points in a single game against UCLA, which was a conference record that stood for 21 years. Vaughn appeared on the January 15, 1940 cover of Life magazine, which was a pretty big deal.
His greatest season ever came in 1939-40. The previous year SC went 20-5, but finished second in the South behind 24-8 Cal, and third in the Conference behind 29-5 Oregon, which won the first even NCAA tournament. So, in the Winter of 1939 the Trojans embarked on what was described by the Daily Trojan as a barnstorming tour, and one can argue it was one of the most successful road trips in college basketball history. The first game of the year was at DePaul, and SC pulled it out in OT. Then they won at Purdue, and then at Notre Dame. Then came the big show…. Madison Square Garden. USC faced off against Long Island, then a power house coached by the legendary Claire Bee, in a sold out Garden. Long Island had been undefeated the year before, and was the Helms National Champion. This was truly the Big Time, and USC beat Long Island by 8, and then moved on to Philly where they beat Temple by 16. This Road Trip, before ever playing a home game, put SC Hoops on the map. SC would go on to only lose two games that regular season, away at Stanford and Cal, thus winning the South Division. They would then walk over Oregon State in the best two of three Conference Championship. As Conference Champs SC was invited to the second ever NCAA Tournament, an eight team affair with the Western Regional and Final Four being held at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. SC's quarterfinal opponent was Colorado, and SC won 38-32, so on to the second ever national semi-final against Kansas. That game was a back and forth affair. SC led 21 to 20 at half, and held a one point lead at the end of the game. Kansas, coached by Phog Allen, hit a shot pretty much as time expired to win the game. The disappointment was somewhat soothed later when the Helms Foundation, pretty much the recognized authority in naming the National Champion for college basketball before the NCAA tournament came about, named USC the National Champion of College Basketball in 1939-40, one of six times they named a champion other than the NCAA winner, most likely because SC beat defending champion Long Island at MSG.
Barry never recreated the success of the 39-40 season, primarily because his life, as well as everyone else's, got very complicated very quickly. After the attack on Pearl Harbor Barry immediately made plans to join the war effort, and would not coach SC hoops again until the war was over in 1945. The results when Barry got back were good, but that period should be remembered more for the individuals who went through his programs and later would become hall of fame coaches. Barry would coach four players who would later be hall of fame coaches, primarily because of the Triangle offense, or Triple Post as Barry called it. You can lose a week learning about the Triangle, which in essence is a motion offense with players having the ability to make certain moves and cuts out of it based on what the defense gives them. The first coach of note is Jack Gardner who was a three-year lettermen at USC (1930-32) and was captain his senior year. He learned well from Barry and became one of the most successful college coaches ever. Known as “The Fox”, Gardner became the only coach in history to lead two different schools to the Final Four twice each. Next are three players who would become coaching legends in the NBA; Alex Hannum, Tex Winter and Bill Sharman, who also was Barry's last consensus All American player. When you look at the NBA teams with the most wins ever in a season, these three coaches account for four of the top five seasons ever, all ending in an NBA championship. If you ever get a chance to view some of that grainy video of the 71-72 Lakers, it is a beautiful representation of Barry's offense, with Wilt in the post and both West and Goodrich cutting off of him. One other notable accomplishment in Barry's career is the Streak. His 40-game winning streak in basketball against UCLA, compiled from 1932 to 1942, and continued in 1946, stands as the longest winning streak by any coach against a single opponent in the history of college basketball. It was primarily because of this Streak that when in 1948 UCLA needed a new basketball coach they looked to the Midwest like USC had done with Barry, and hired the Indiana State coach, John Wooden.
The fate that befell Barry's good friend Howard Jones would end his life too. While scouting Cal for the football team on September 23, 1950 he suffered a heart attack while climbing the hill to Memorial Stadium, and died before reaching the hospital. He was 57 years old. This tribute says it all:
"For 34 of his 57 years the genial coach, whose name ranked with the Staggs, Warners and Joneses as bywords of the intercollegiate sports world, had engaged in one of athletics' most successful careers. ... Barry is the man most responsible for basketball as it is played today, a game that leads the nation in attendance." – Jack Geyer, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1950
SAM BARRY
Sam Barry has to be considered one of the legends of coaching, both at SC and nationally. He was an innovator of the game, pushing for the end of a jump ball after each basket and free throw, and the creation of the mid court 10 second line. This was still the infancy of the game, with the first time it was played in the Olympics being 6 years after he came to SC, so he is part of the game's foundation. His impact at SC was immediate. In Year 1 he went 15-5, winning SC's second conference title. In his first 11 years he won 3 Full Conference and 8 Southern Division Titles. In that stretch he won 20 games three times when the average total number of games played was between 21 and 25. USC also had three first team All Americans in Jerry Nemer, Lee Guttero, and Ralph Vaughn, most PCC players to be AA in that period. Guttero was the top player in college hoops in 1935, when SC lost just one conference game. Vaughn led the Pacific Coast Conference in scoring at 15 points per game in 40, and hung 36 points in a single game against UCLA, which was a conference record that stood for 21 years. Vaughn appeared on the January 15, 1940 cover of Life magazine, which was a pretty big deal.
His greatest season ever came in 1939-40. The previous year SC went 20-5, but finished second in the South behind 24-8 Cal, and third in the Conference behind 29-5 Oregon, which won the first even NCAA tournament. So, in the Winter of 1939 the Trojans embarked on what was described by the Daily Trojan as a barnstorming tour, and one can argue it was one of the most successful road trips in college basketball history. The first game of the year was at DePaul, and SC pulled it out in OT. Then they won at Purdue, and then at Notre Dame. Then came the big show…. Madison Square Garden. USC faced off against Long Island, then a power house coached by the legendary Claire Bee, in a sold out Garden. Long Island had been undefeated the year before, and was the Helms National Champion. This was truly the Big Time, and USC beat Long Island by 8, and then moved on to Philly where they beat Temple by 16. This Road Trip, before ever playing a home game, put SC Hoops on the map. SC would go on to only lose two games that regular season, away at Stanford and Cal, thus winning the South Division. They would then walk over Oregon State in the best two of three Conference Championship. As Conference Champs SC was invited to the second ever NCAA Tournament, an eight team affair with the Western Regional and Final Four being held at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. SC's quarterfinal opponent was Colorado, and SC won 38-32, so on to the second ever national semi-final against Kansas. That game was a back and forth affair. SC led 21 to 20 at half, and held a one point lead at the end of the game. Kansas, coached by Phog Allen, hit a shot pretty much as time expired to win the game. The disappointment was somewhat soothed later when the Helms Foundation, pretty much the recognized authority in naming the National Champion for college basketball before the NCAA tournament came about, named USC the National Champion of College Basketball in 1939-40, one of six times they named a champion other than the NCAA winner, most likely because SC beat defending champion Long Island at MSG.
Barry never recreated the success of the 39-40 season, primarily because his life, as well as everyone else's, got very complicated very quickly. After the attack on Pearl Harbor Barry immediately made plans to join the war effort, and would not coach SC hoops again until the war was over in 1945. The results when Barry got back were good, but that period should be remembered more for the individuals who went through his programs and later would become hall of fame coaches. Barry would coach four players who would later be hall of fame coaches, primarily because of the Triangle offense, or Triple Post as Barry called it. You can lose a week learning about the Triangle, which in essence is a motion offense with players having the ability to make certain moves and cuts out of it based on what the defense gives them. The first coach of note is Jack Gardner who was a three-year lettermen at USC (1930-32) and was captain his senior year. He learned well from Barry and became one of the most successful college coaches ever. Known as “The Fox”, Gardner became the only coach in history to lead two different schools to the Final Four twice each. Next are three players who would become coaching legends in the NBA; Alex Hannum, Tex Winter and Bill Sharman, who also was Barry's last consensus All American player. When you look at the NBA teams with the most wins ever in a season, these three coaches account for four of the top five seasons ever, all ending in an NBA championship. If you ever get a chance to view some of that grainy video of the 71-72 Lakers, it is a beautiful representation of Barry's offense, with Wilt in the post and both West and Goodrich cutting off of him. One other notable accomplishment in Barry's career is the Streak. His 40-game winning streak in basketball against UCLA, compiled from 1932 to 1942, and continued in 1946, stands as the longest winning streak by any coach against a single opponent in the history of college basketball. It was primarily because of this Streak that when in 1948 UCLA needed a new basketball coach they looked to the Midwest like USC had done with Barry, and hired the Indiana State coach, John Wooden.
The fate that befell Barry's good friend Howard Jones would end his life too. While scouting Cal for the football team on September 23, 1950 he suffered a heart attack while climbing the hill to Memorial Stadium, and died before reaching the hospital. He was 57 years old. This tribute says it all:
"For 34 of his 57 years the genial coach, whose name ranked with the Staggs, Warners and Joneses as bywords of the intercollegiate sports world, had engaged in one of athletics' most successful careers. ... Barry is the man most responsible for basketball as it is played today, a game that leads the nation in attendance." – Jack Geyer, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1950
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