On ever-charming Kim English, former Mizzou star, taking his George Mason team to KU
With COVID-19 still inflicting havoc on the college basketball calendar, here’s how first-year George Mason coach Kim English (that’s still awesome to type) has learned to navigate the new normal of revising schedules in real time:
When seeking a new game after a postponement or cancellation, as his team has had to do repeatedly this season, the priorities range from a so-called guaranteed win to minimal travel to a “really, really quality opponent … that helps you move the needle with your resume.”
So when its Dec. 23 game against Coppin State was canceled and replaced with Wisconsin and that was canceled, and then the Virginia Commonwealth game set for Dec. 30 was postponed, English and assistant coach Nate Tomlinson scrolled schedules around the nation on the ESPN app.
The two former Big 12 players and assistant coaches landed on the idea of Kansas — which had an opening on Saturday, Jan. 1 since its previously scheduled Big 12 opener against Texas Christian had been postponed. And sixth-ranked KU (11-1) was all-in.
Presto, “really really quality opponent” it is for the Patriots, who are 7-5 under the former Mizzou star, with wins over Maryland and Georgia and a Navy team that won at Virginia.
It’s a challenge English relishes for his team in what will be just his second trip back to Allen Fieldhouse since KU’s epic rally from 19 down to beat Mizzou 87-86 in overtime in their last meeting as Big 12 rivals.
“It’s a church, it’s a religion out there. … I’ve seen it at its absolute best in 2012; I don’t think it’s ever been better,” said English, who previously returned as part of Rick Barnes’ Tennessee staff when the Jayhawks beat the Vols 74-68 at Allen in 2020.
“I think it’s the best place to play a college basketball game in America.”
Even all these years later, KU fans may feel inhospitable to the former Tiger. But Kansas coach Bill Self has made English feel like a valued peer for years now since English entered into collegiate coaching as an assistant to Frank Haith at Tulsa in 2015.
At the coaches’ headquarters hotel in Houston in 2016, English was walking through the lobby when his eyes met Self’s as Self was in a conversation with Larry Brown.
Not wanting to interrupt, English said in a phone interview on Wednesday night, he figured it was best to walk on by …
Only for Self to excuse himself from Brown and hurry to him.
“He went out of his way to come grab me and catch up,” said English, who hadn’t seen Self since his final season at MU in 2012. “He’s amazing. He has an incredible ability to make everybody he encounters feel like he knows you really well. He’s always gracious and kind.”
Noting that Self and Barnes are friends who are inclined to brings gifts to each other when they play, (Self perhaps with a tie for Barnes; Barnes with beef jerky for Self), English joked that if Self wants to send him back with some Jack Stack or Q39 barbecue he’ll bring along some crab cake for Self.
Also a nurturing force to English, a “major, major, major, major, major aid in my development,” as he put it, has been Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin. English got to know Martin in trials for the World University Games in 2011, and they’ve stayed close since.
“He’s a great man,” English said.
In his first season as a head coach, though, English says it’s the men he played and worked for that have “their fingerprints” on his program: Mike Anderson, Haith, Tad Boyle, Barnes.
Channel them as he might, the 33-year-old knows he’s a work in progress even as he knows the foundation will be tough and aggressive play and his team respecting the game, opponents and officials.
“You prepare as an assistant coach as much as you can for this opportunity, but what you learn quickly is that there are just some things that you can’t prepare for,” he said. “When to use time outs. Your substitution pattern, rotation. What kids can play with two fouls in the first half, which kids can’t. What’s maybe too much practice and when to call off the dogs …
“It’s things that you only can learn in the moment when you’re doing it. So I’ve made mistakes and tried to learn from them quickly.”
One mistake he won’t make, though, is to try to be anything but himself.
“I am who I am,” he said.
Good thing.
He’s a special guy, to be sure, one of the most candid and cerebral and engaging athletes I’ve covered in 35 years in the business … and a man who remains just as charming and thoughtful today.
Back then, he often provided remarkable insights to the inner monologue of an elite athlete.
When he was battling a slump in 2011, for instance, he recited “The Serenity Prayer” as something that helped him through it.
“‘Give me the power to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference,’” he said then. “I think that was huge: the wisdom to know the difference. And that just kind of freed my mind. …
“I played a lot freer, and that’s important. Because now that my mind is free, my game will follow. Easily. I didn’t pray to God, ‘Let me make every shot I shoot.’ All I’ve been asking for is a clear mind. And if I have that, things could be really good.”
More poignantly, I’ll never forget speaking with him about how he learned to reconcile his agonizing stutter, and how it spurred his intellectual curiosity and helped him form one of the most magnetic personalities you’ll ever encounter.
To try to avoid humiliation in elementary school in Maryland, English at the time said he went days without speaking during classes or recess. He went into details such as the misery of struggling with the word “hypocrisy” as he tried to read from “Sounder” in third grade.
Support from his family and speech therapy helped. Broadcasters also served as therapists to English, who frequently sat alone and repeated the words he’d hear over TV or radio. He learned to master synonyms so he could jump into another word quickly if he got stuck and found other ways to create a rhythm for himself.
“Once I became confident in my thoughts,” he said then, “then the words really started to flow out.”
That was a beautiful, life-changing development for him. And it was and is a delight for everyone in his sphere, from teammates to coaches to media then … and surely now to his administration, assistants, media and players, etc.
Entering their sudden game at Allen, then, his message to his team will coincidentally reflect his own growth and ascension in the profession.
“You just have to be,” he said, “your best self.”