Pat Riley hopes Heat coaching obligations won’t distract his NCAA scouting efforts

March 26th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

It was a pleasant surprise seeing Pat Riley in the stands of the Indiana-Penn State game in Happy Valley earlier this month. I’m sure he no doubt found Eric Gordon to be a poor man’s version of Dwyane Wade, with the missed shots, turnovers and general lack of control. (Although, they both get fouled a lot.) We all know Riley has forgone some of his coaching duties to scout a few college games, including the first games of the tournament this past weekend. Warranted, I guess. The future is now.

But at this point, it’s sort of comical how little he cares about coaching the team.

“The games are getting bigger,” he said. “The ones that I like are starting to play against each other, which is good. If that happens, then that’s the matchup you want to see.”

That could mean more lost time on the bench for Riley, who holds the dual role of team president. He already has missed three games while scouting, including two over the weekend, and could miss Thursday’s game at Detroit and Sunday’s game at Boston that are scheduled head-to-head against the tournament.

“If I have to miss ‘em, I’ll miss ‘em,” he said. “I don’t want to. I will try to get back. I will try to squeeze everything in Friday and Saturday if I can.”

This was exactly the attitude I had with every class last year in college. I tried to be there, but sometimes my sleeping/drinking/general malaise towards sitting in a lecture hall sometimes made me miss ‘em. Pat, trust me, this is a good philosophy. I graduated with a GPA somewhere between Joel Anothy’s rebounds and points per game.

{HT: Sports Frog.}

The old soul arises for another title run

August 23rd, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

After hemming, hawing, then hemming and hawing some more, Pat Riley officially announced his return as coach of the Heat today.

Which, I think, is nice.

What concerns me, though, is the dude’s health. He put off hip-replacement surgery this past season to coach the team and, I don’t know, he just sort of looks like he’s about to keel over and have a heart attack at any moment. And at 61, he isn’t getting any younger.

I think it’s a solid move for Miami, (although as president and coach, it wasn’t so much them coming after him, it was him making the decision on his own) keeping around a proven veteran coach with five NBA titles to his name.

So yes, this is a nice and all for D. Wade and crew as long as Riles doesn’t go into cardiac arrest out on the court.

(Oh, and, how sweet is that photo? Never played that game for Genesis, but now I really want to.)