CECIL HURT: Pelphrey ready to get to work with Tide basketball team
The University of Alabama men's basketball team celebrated the 2015-16 season at Coleman Coliseum on Thursday night, but for the newest member of the program, it's all about the future, not the past.
That's true even though John Pelphrey has spent a good part of the last quarter-century in SEC basketball, playing at Kentucky and coaching (among other stops) at Florida and Arkansas, where he was head coach for four years. ("Good thing I kept all the red ties," he joked on Thursday.) But despite his strong SEC ties, Pelphrey said after the banquet that it wasn't a desire to return to the league that led him to take a spot on the Alabama staff. Instead, it was the man he is now working for.
"The reason I am here?," Pelphrey said, repeating a media question. "It's Avery Johnson.
"I didn't know him before this season," Pelphrey said. "The SEC Network (where Pelphrey worked as a color analyst) gave me chance to do that. I worked their games three times here and five times overall. I was impressed with what I saw on the court and also with what I heard from Avery when we would talk about his team.
"But our conversations weren't about me taking a job here until about a week before I got on campus."
Pelphrey said that Johnson didn't go through the "friend-of-a-friend" network, or rely on a search firm.
"That impressed me," Pelphrey said. "He handled it himself. He took the time to get to know me first, then asked what my interest level was. He said to make sure we get the wives together, and that wasn't just talk. We did that the first time we went to dinner and he spent more time talking to my wife than to me. That was genuine."
Pelphrey said that in his short time here, he has seen Johnson have the same effect on other people.
"After a couple of nights recruiting in the prospects' homes, you can see the way people gravitate to him," Pelphrey said.
One thing Pelphrey didn't need was a crash course in Alabama basketball. Through a variety of connections, he has been close to most of the Crimson Tide coaches of the last half-century, from C.M. Newton to Wimp Sanderson (who tried to sign him out of high school), Mark Gottfried to Anthony Grant. His Arkansas teams played Alabama frequently.
"We had Riley Norris on campus for a visit at Florida," Pelphrey said. "We had Nick King (who started his career at Memphis) on campus at Arkansas. So I have a preliminary relationship. I've seen them a lot, played them a lot and have a good feel for this roster."
Even though Retin Obasohan, to no one's surprise, walked away with most of the 2015-16 hardware at the banquet, Pelphrey is optimistic about the future -- and ready to contribute.
"I think it is great timing to be coming into the league right now," he said. "There can be a lot of movement at the top. I'm excited to be a part of it. One thing I'm not is half-in and half-out. I'm in it all the way."
Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@tidesports.com or 205-722-0225.