ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997 TAG: 9702280079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C.
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Say it ain't so, Joe.
The world of college basketball isn't quite as much fun today. It took overtime Thursday night, but Joe Cantafio's coaching career is over.
For a lot of us on press row and elsewhere around the game, we hope it's only for now.
Against VMI, a school for which he worked more than half of his 23 sideline seasons, Cantafio bowed out in an 87-84 Furman loss to open the Southern Conference tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.
"I hope I can still get that overtime pay,'' he said.
Cantafio announced his resignation on Feb. 14 from Furman, where he had three straight 10-17 seasons, following eight losing years as VMI's head coach.
The diminutive Cantafio shouldn't only be judged by his numbers, however. Before he was hired by the Paladins, two big W's called the South Carolina school on his behalf - UCLA coaching legend John Wooden and DeMatha Catholic High icon Morgan Wootten, a former Cantafio boss.
"It's a sad commentary on the state of college basketball,'' said Mac McCarthy, "when we let somebody that good get out of the business.''
McCarthy, the Tennessee-Chattanooga coach and one of Cantafio's good friends and competitors, called his buddy ``a good coach, but an even better person.''
I have to admit that if there is one four-letter word I never thought Cantafio would say, it is "quit.'' Clearly, however, he's made the right decision.
"I'd usually be in there [the locker room] puking my guts out about now,'' Cantafio said, seated courtside less than one hour before the SC opener. "No more.''
Not that Cantafio's life has gotten a whole lot easier since he announced he was leaving a program filled with underclassmen, three players sitting out and an under-construction, on-campus arena to someone else.
In the two weeks since he called it quits, there have been two deaths in Cantafio's family and the Paladins didn't win. In his finale, he eerily found himself coaching against a school he still loves - he worked at VMI 12 seasons, the first four as a Marty Fletcher assistant - and a few players he recruited.
Cantafio disagrees with some who say he never should have left VMI, where his 79 wins are the most for any coach, and his eight seasons in charge rank second only to W.C. Raferty's dozen (1923-34).
"It was time,'' he said. "I was burned out there.''
At Furman, perhaps he is burned up with coaching at the low-major level in a program that just can't forget history and six NCAA Tournament bids in 10 years.
The last of those, however, came in 1980 with a Southern Conference tourney title at the Roanoke Civic Center. Furman has had only one 20-win season since then, and it hasn't helped when neighboring programs like Clemson, South Carolina and College of Charleston are NCAA-bound.
Cantafio can stay at Furman in a to-be-decided role through his contract, which has another year to run. The way he can talk and play golf, Cantafio would be an excellent fund-raiser.
"I don't want to coach anyone older than 7,'' Cantafio said.
He meant as a head coach. "I still love the game, I just don't like what goes with it so much anymore,'' he said. "I've really been struggling with it the last year. When you have to take a pill to go to sleep, it's time to do something else.''
Cantafio has averaged only 10 victories a season in his 11 years as a college head coach and he's 89 games under .500, but he's respected for his teaching ability.
"I'd bet money he'll be back in it someday,'' said a moist-eyed assistant coach Ed Conroy, who moved with Cantafio from VMI to Furman. "He's got to be competing. When his fire gets relit, I think he might come back.''
Perhaps, after a timeout, he will try an assistant's job on some big-time bench. That would seem to be his most likely future in hoops.
Cantafio was in a game he loves to the end, pacing in front of his bench, pounding the corner of the scorer's table after a Paladin turnover, and calling perhaps the last timeout in what would be too-short a career with 2.9 seconds left.
"It's been a great 23 years,'' Cantafio said. "I've been touched by a lot of lives. I hope I've touched some in the same way.''
Count me in.
"If that was the last game I coach, it was a great one,'' Cantafio said.
If it is the last game he coaches, it is the game that loses.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB