Avery Johnson learns from fellow former pro coach at Alabama

Avery Johnson has been a coach, on and off, since 2004.

At one point he was the NBA Coach of the Year after leading the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals.

Though he’s an experienced coach — Alabama’s second-year coach who has brought his team to Las Vegas to compete in the Men Who Speak Up Main Event this week — he still seeks advice frequently as he adjusts to the college game.

One of those main advisors happens to be his football counterpart at Alabama, Nick Saban.

“I’ve probably met with Coach Saban literally 50 times since I’ve been on campus,” Johnson said.

The best advice concerns taking care of the ball — be it a football or basketball.

But Saban, who like Johnson has coached both at the collegiate and professional level, dishes on more than just that.

“We talk all the time about recruiting. We talk about the craft of coaching. Communication skills with young people and (helping) them maximize their potential,” Johnson said. “We’ve had extensive conversations.”

Johnson seems to be picking up on the college game quickly, especially on the recruiting end of it.

He got a good sense of the recruitment process when his son, Avery Johnson Jr., was being recruited. Johnson Jr. settled on Texas A&M before transferring to Alabama to play for his father.

“I had an idea because I was on the other side and he was a kid that was being recruited, so I had a chance to go visit a bunch of schools and talk to coaches and he had teammates that were being recruited, so I got a little bit of a wake up on the recruiting process and took a lot of mental notes,” Johnson said.

When Johnson took the job at Alabama in 2015, he knew exactly what he needed to do — go to work on the 2017 recruiting class.

Johnson and Antoine Pettway, a holdover from the previous coaching staff, got to talking about how to put a competitive team on the floor and knew that the 2017 class would have to be their breakout class.

“We were already late to the 2015 class so we were able to retain some kids from 2015. We were late to 2016 so 2017 we felt was kind of our coming out party,” Johnson said. “A lot of our wisdom and knowledge and the way (the coaching staff has) taken that challenge on getting out there to recruit as hard as we can without anybody outworking us, it’s all coming together.”

The class is headlined by Collin Sexton, the No. 10 player in the country, per ESPN’s rankings.

ESPN currently has Johnson’s 2017 recruiting class as fourth in the nation, ahead of even Kentucky.

Things seem to be coming along well for the second-year head coach, who has seemingly adapted well to college.

“The biggest differences are with the kids, you’ve got to just make sure that you’re patient,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot more practice time and you’ve got to make sure that you clearly communicate and articulate what you want and then you have to be repetitive. There’s no skipping steps.”

In his first year at the helm, the Crimson Tide went 18-15 and at one point looked like they might have a chance at the NCAA tournament before losing six of their last eight games.

This year’s team, which was was predicted to finish seven in the SEC in the preseason media poll, is 2-2 after losing to Valparaiso in the first round of the Men Who Speak Up event. The Tide plays St. Louis University at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Heavyweight consolation game.

Next year’s team should be even better, and so as Avery continues to adjust to a new game, his team’s future is bright and he’s enjoying where he’s at.

“I still love the NBA,” he said. “The NBA was great to me for 20-plus years as a player, coach and an on-air personality and NBA analyst so sometimes people mistake that even though I am enjoying myself and loving college, that doesn’t mean I feel no love for the NBA.

“I wouldn’t have been here without my NBA career.”

Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @BetsyHelfand