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08/28/2010 -
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -Quin Snyder was in a basketball nowhere land. He rode the bus on those three-movie road trips on the NBDL circuit where everyone in a uniform believed they were one big break away from a look at the big time.
He was several years and 800 miles removed from his days as the next bona fide coaching wonderboy at Missouri. Stripped of all the first-class amenities of a major D-I program, Snyder says he was happy in the minors.
``Pure basketball,'' Snyder said.
No recruiting trips, no late-night phone calls that a star player was in trouble. There was scant media attention, no announcers delivering bad news, and definitely no NCAA investigation into every nook of the organization.
``Everybody wants to get out of there,'' Snyder said. ``But unless you can be there body, mind and spirit, it's tough to get out.''
Snyder is out and back on a national stage. The coach who led the Tigers on a trip to the final eight before a precipitous fall knocked him out of the game, then into Austin, Texas, was hired this summer by the Philadelphia 76ers. He's part of a revamped coaching staff led by Doug Collins trying to mold a young nucleus into a playoff contender.
If his path toward the NBA was long and winding, Snyder's actual hire was like a breakneck bucket off the fastbreak.
``He said, 'Hey Q, do you want to come?''' Snyder said, laughing, of Collins' pitch.
``I know him and I trust him. He said, 'Be a coach.' I think I've got a pretty good idea what that means. If I'm screwing up, I'll get it right.''
He gets his shot at the NBA because of a longstanding friendship with the Collins family.
Snyder and Chris Collins, Doug's son, became close at Duke. Snyder was an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski and Collins a 3-point shooting guard. At the time, Doug Collins enjoyed talking basketball and player development with Snyder on frequent trips to watch games in Durham, N.C.
When Snyder was hired at only 32 to replace Tigers legend Norm Stewart at Missouri, Doug Collins was invited to practice and offered advice and input. When Snyder went through a messy divorce with the school, it was Collins who offered moral support and a place to crash.
Collins and his wife invited Snyder to spend some time with the family in Phoenix. ``That was a very important time for me and I'll always be grateful to him for that,'' Snyder said.
Collins called it the right thing to do for a friend getting ripped in the national spotlight. ``Quin is like a son to me,'' Collins said. ``My wife and I, we sort of put our arms around him. We love Quin.''
Snyder's career had imploded only four years after his NCAA tournament success. His program was plagued by off-the-court problems that began with the 2003 arrest of point guard Ricky Clemons on domestic assault charges. Clemons subsequently accused a Tigers assistant coach of paying him cash, charges that an NCAA investigation failed to substantiate.
The NCAA did identify 42 violations, from improper meal purchases for amateur coaches to improper contact with recruits by Snyder and two assistants.
Missouri was placed on three years of probation, lost three scholarships and was barred from off-campus recruiting for one year. His defense wasn't helped by the only thing worse than NCAA sanctions: losing. Snyder was 42-42 and missed the NCAA tournament his final two-plus seasons
Snyder resigned in a two-sentence statement 21 games into the 2005-06 season, although he still claims that he was fired.
``Those are semantics in my mind. Technically, I resigned. In my mind, I was fired,'' Snyder said. ``Any time you're asked to resign, it's the same thing.''
Snyder had a compensation package of over $1 million a year and went 126-91 with six postseason appearances. He passed on other marquee jobs because he loved his players and is proud of his team's high graduation rate.
``I felt like we were building something that was pretty special. That ended,'' Snyder said. ``It put me through some things that made me really ask myself tough questions about whether I wanted to coach.''
An academic All-American with Duke law and business degrees, Snyder considered all types of jobs during his yearlong sabbatical, like investment banking or entrepreneurial endeavors. He just couldn't shake the coaching bug.
David Kahn was a friend of Snyder since the early 1990s. Now the GM for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Kahn owned the Austin Toros in 2007 and offered Snyder a second shot at coaching far from the spotlight of March Madness.
He took over in a pinch after coach Dennis Johnson's sudden death and led the Toros to the D-League finals in his first season. Snyder insists he never wanted to use the Toros as a steppingstone job and was content in the NBDL.
The Toros were affiliated with the San Antonio Spurs, allowing Snyder a rare and welcomed opportunity to work with an NBA staff. He traveled with coach Gregg Popovich and the Spurs during the postseason. He sat in on team meetings, participated in coach retreats, and stayed involved in San Antonio's summer league and preseason games.
``I had a great opportunity with people who were very supportive,'' Snyder said. ``I had the opportunity to work in the NBA. It was one that was pretty unique.''
Snyder sidestepped a question about how much longer he was willing to coach in the developmental league. It's not his worry anymore.
He moved into a house with his wife and two dogs this week and joked that he is only looking for a good cheesesteak. Snyder, who successfully recruited 76ers forward Elton Brand at Duke, knows he can make a difference on a team that hasn't won a playoff series since 2003.
``There's no fear of failure,'' he said. ``That's empowering in my mind.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
<< Francesco leads Edoardo in battle of Molinaris
Perthshire, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Francesco Molinari shot a four-under
68 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead over his older brother Edoardo after
the third round of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
Francesco Molinari f
<< 2010 World Basketball Championship update - August 28th
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) -
Group C: Greece vs. China, 9 a.m. (Ankara)
Final: Greece 89 China 81
Group D: New Zealand vs. Lithuania, 9 a.m. (Izmir)
Final: Lithuania 92 New Zealand 79
Group A: Australia vs. Jordan, 9:30 a.m. (Kayseri)
Gro
<< Cards try to make it two straight wins in Washington
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals will try move closer towards a
playoff berth tonight in the third test of a four-game series against the
homestanding Washington Nationals.
The Cardinals are one game off the wild card l
<< First-place Reds aim to continue mastery of Cubs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first-place Cincinnati Reds can make it 12 wins in 15
games with the Chicago Cubs tonight, when the clubs meet for the second of
three weekend games at Great American Ball Park.
On Friday, Jay Bruce slammed a c
Nebraska's Pelini mum on starting quarterback >>
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -Nebraska coach Bo Pelini has hinted he's picked a starting quarterback, but he isn't saying who got the nod.Pelini said after Saturday's practice that the coaching staff has a plan for the position. But everyone else will have to
Devils submit new Kovalchuk contract >>
Hackensack, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Jersey Devils have reportedly
submitted a new contract with Ilya Kovalchuk to the NHL.
The Bergen Record reported that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed
Friday that the league is
Miller continues hot start for Rangers >>
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kenny Miller continued his fast start to
the new Scottish Premier League season on Saturday, scoring the decisive goal
11 minutes from time in a 2-1 Rangers win over St Johnstone at the Ibrox
Stadium
No perfect way to split a conference >>
A conference was expanding and splitting into divisions, and nobody knew what would happen to its two most bitter football rivals. Would they stay in the same division or be split apart?No, this isn't a tale about Michigan and Ohio State. It's about
NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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