Boston College Athletics
Skinner, Bibby Go Head-to-Head As Coaches
March 17, 2001 | Men's Basketball
March 17, 2001
By DENNIS WASZAK Jr.
AP Sports Writer
UNIONDALE, N.Y. - Al Skinner and Henry Bibby are going head-to-head again.
After years of playing with and against each other, Skinner and Bibby are getting the chance to go 1-on-1 as coaches.
Skinner, Boston College's coach, and Bibby, Southern California's coach, forged a friendship that developed when they were teammates on the Philadelphia 76ers in the late 1970s.
"Our friendship hasn't changed over the years," Skinner said. "As a matter of fact, it's improved over the years. It's nice to have someone who has a very similar history to yourself that you can talk to. Henry is someone I can confide in and get honest answers and advice from."
Their friendship was strengthened by hours of pickup basketball games they played to keep in shape during the offseason.
Many of those were played at Hempstead High School on Long Island, located just minutes from the Nassau Coliseum - the site of Saturday night's NCAA tournament second-round game between the third-seeded Eagles (27-4) and sixth-seeded Trojans (22-9). Second-seeded Kentucky (23-9) will play seventh-seeded Iowa (23-11) in the other second-round game.
"Obviously if you ask me, I'll tell you I won most of the time," Skinner said. "But if you ask him, he'll probably tell you he won. But I'll tell you what, it was tough chasing him full court because he was a little waterbug bouncing around the floor, so that's what got me in shape. I don't know what I did for him, but I know I had to chase him all over the court."
When asked about their head-to-head matchups, Bibby took a playful jab at his friend.
"It didn't make me any better playing against him, that's for sure," Bibby said, drawing laughs.
Bibby, in his fifth year at Southern California, led the Trojans to their first 20-win season since 1992 and first NCAA tournament appearance in four years.
Skinner led the Eagles to a remarkable turnaround, bringing Boston College from a last-place finish in the Big East a year ago to the conference tournament championship.
Bibby anticipates a difficult game, just like those hard-fought 1-on-1s 20 years ago.
"I think his team is very much like him," Bibby said. "His team is tough, they're gritty, they're very physical and they play hard on every possession. And that's the way Al played."
Boston College has a small lineup with 6-foot-8 Uka Agbai, its tallest player, at center. The Eagles still managed a season-high 52 rebounds in their 68-65 victory over Southern Utah on Thursday. USC counters with 6-9 Brian Scalabrine and 6-7 forwards Sam Clancy and David Bluthenthal.
"I wouldn't say we really have that much of a height advantage over them," Scalabrine said. "We're not really a big team, we're a wide team. Like, Sam is 6-7 but he plays like he's 7-3. That's how we control the boards, by playing big."
Bibby was an assistant at USC and Skinner an assistant at Rhode Island in 1995 in the only other game that both were on the sideline as coaches. Now there's a trip to the regional in Philadelphia on the line.
"We're going to be good friends before and we'll be good friends after," Skinner said. "But during the competition, we know the business at hand. I'm happy that we're both here. The nice thing is that one of us is going to move on and play next week."
In Saturday's other game, Kentucky thinks a 72-68 near-upset against Holy Cross has prepared them for Iowa.
"Iowa is a very solid squad that uses a lot of screens and a lot of motion offense," Wildcats coach Tubby Smith said. "I felt our rebounding and pressuring of the ball was poor against Holy Cross. We've addressed those issues."
Iowa forward Glen Worley said Kentucky's strong basketball tradition will not be an intimidating factor.
"We're not going to be afraid of them just because they have a "UK" on their uniforms," Worley said. "We're just going to go out there and try to compete with them."
