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Dispatch

4/22/06

DISPATCH COACH OF YEAR

Foster content to let players do talking, winning

Laid-back tack led to 29-3 season for OSU

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Mark Znidar
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Because players come and go within a four- and five-year period, it has been said coaches are the enduring face of college basketball.
Those faces often are splashed across television screens as they rant, carry on like cheerleaders and wander so far onto the court it seems they want to guard someone.
Jim Foster of Ohio State isn’t one of the bunch.
When OSU defeated Penn State with a shot by Marscilla Packer with two seconds left, he stepped to the side and let the players celebrate.
When they won the regularseason and tournament Big Ten championships, Foster again watched with pride but from the perimeter.
"No. 1, when you’ve been doing things for a long time, I think you become more comfortable," he said of his demeanor. "No. 2, I think this should always be about the players. It’s a players’ game and it always has been a players’ game. With the growth of the women’s game and television, I think theater has become part of the game. I don’t have much time for that."
The quiet gentleman from Philadelphia was responsible for Ohio State making a lot of noise this past season. He was voted The Dispatch Women’s Ohio College Basketball Coach of the Year by his peers for leading the Buckeyes to a 29-3 record and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The team won 20 straight games before losing to Boston College in the NCAA second round.
What you see is what you get, Buckeyes assistant Debbie Black said. She played for Foster when he was an up-and-coming coach at St. Joseph’s in the late ’80s.
"He might have been a little more animated then, but he’s not a whole lot different," Black said. "He can motivate you in different ways. He has a subtle approach and has a different way of getting his point across."
Black recalls one game that was out of character for Foster.
"He actually fell backward on the sideline," she said. "He was just lying there. It was doubleovertime and it was his reaction of having finally won the game."
Coaches have poked fun at Foster’s studious approach, earning him the nickname "The Professor."
"Coach has his game plan and knows what he wants us to do," center Jessica Davenport said. "There’s a certain level of play he wants from us. But coach doesn’t get animated and he doesn’t expect us to get animated. He just wants us to play the way we are capable of playing."
That doesn’t mean Foster is a robot.
"Coach has his days," Davenport said. "He can get upset. He’ll come out of that calm demeanor. It’s just that he isn’t into the hoopla of the game. He works hard and he demands results. We’ve learned that even after the game, you celebrate with your teammates inside the locker room as a group."
One of Foster’s pet peeves is the media devoting too much time to the so-called game within a game.
"I really dislike some of those clichés like, ‘He’s working the officials’ or ‘He’s into the game because he’s up (walking the sideline),’ " he said. "There’s so much emphasis placed on stuff that really doesn’t matter during a game. I’ve learned that after 28 years not a whole lot will catch you by surprise. You know what’s coming by the amount of tape you watch. Then it’s the players’ turn to perform."
mznidar@dispatch.com