Kevin Mackey, the primary Division I males’s basketball coach to win an NCAA match recreation with a so-called “Cinderella” staff, died Tuesday from an obvious coronary heart assault, his son, Brian, instructed ESPN. Mackey was 80.
On March 14, 1986, Mackey coached the Cleveland State Vikings in a first-round recreation in opposition to the No. 3 seed Indiana Hoosiers, coached by Corridor of Famer Bob Knight and led on the ground by All-American Steve Alford.
However the scrappy No. 14 seed Vikings, from a convention few individuals had been acquainted with (the Affiliation of Mid-Continent Universities) and enjoying an in-your-face model of ball generally known as the “run ‘n’ stun,” upset the closely favored Hoosiers 83-79, a yr earlier than Knight, Alford, Keith Sensible and Indiana would return to win the 1987 NCAA match.
Led on the court docket by guard Ken “Mouse” McFadden and forwards Clinton Smith and Clinton Ransey, Mackey’s Vikings superior to the second spherical of the 1986 NCAAs and subsequent defeated Saint Joseph’s. The Vikings had been inside seconds of advancing to the Elite Eight, however a last-second basket by David Robinson upended CSU’s run with a 71-70 loss to Navy. The silver-tongued Mackey had all the time referred to the Vikings’ 1985-86 season as a “magic carpet experience.”
In the summertime of 1990, Mackey had simply signed a two-year, $350,000-a-year contract to stay coach at Cleveland State. Round city, he had acquired the nickname “the King of Cleveland” 20 years earlier than LeBron James would get that very same moniker as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
However by then, Mackey had acquired an dependancy to crack cocaine and alcohol, he instructed ESPN and different media shops later. He was in a crack home for 9 hours on July 13, 1990, when somebody referred to as the Cleveland police and a neighborhood tv station. Mackey stumbled out of the dwelling carrying his forest-green Cleveland State basketball polo shirt, excessive on cocaine and alcohol. He tried to drive away however was pulled over and arrested. It was all on tape and performed in a loop on the native information, ending his school basketball teaching profession.
In jail after his arrest, Mackey as soon as instructed ESPN, the opposite inmates did not even let him sleep on the mattress. “I am now not the King of Cleveland,” he stated he thought to himself sitting on the chilly, concrete flooring. He underwent substance abuse remedy with former NBA participant John Lucas and coached minor league basketball earlier than Larry Chook, then president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers, employed him as a scout.
Earlier than coming to Cleveland, he had been an assistant below Tom Davis at Boston Faculty, the place he recruited future NBA gamers John Bagley and Jay Murphy, each of whom had been neglected by different coaches.
“He had an incredible eye” for expertise, Brian Mackey stated.
Kevin Mackey had been sober for 35 years on the time of his loss of life. He leaves behind three youngsters — Brian, Cheryl and Kristy — and was most happy with his seven grandchildren. He was dwelling in Walpole, Massachusetts.
Dwayne Bray is the Vice President of Manufacturing at Andscape.