Kevin Mackey (born August 21, 1946) is a former head coach of men's
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
at
Cleveland State University
Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...
. His
CSU Vikings upset the
Indiana Hoosiers
The Indiana Hoosiers are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of Indiana University Bloomington, named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Indiana. The Hoosiers participate in NCAA Division I, Division I of the Nationa ...
and the
Saint Joseph's Hawks
The Saint Joseph's Hawks are the athletic teams that represent Saint Joseph's University of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Hawks compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference a ...
to make the Sweet 16 in the
1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
The 1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 13, 1986, and ended with the champions ...
. He is also known for recruiting future
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
player
Manute Bol
Manute Bol (; October 16, 1962 – June 19, 2010) was a Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist. Listed at or tall, Bol was tied with Gheorghe Mureșan as the tallest player in the history of the National Bas ...
.
Early coaching career
Mackey was a successful high school coach at the former
Don Bosco Technical High School in Boston, winning the 1976 state championship and three consecutive Class A Catholic championships. From 1977 to 1983, he served as an assistant coach at
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
under
Tom Davis and
Gary Williams
Gary Bruce Williams (born March 4, 1945) is an American university administrator and former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Maryland, the Ohio State University, Boston College, and American University. I ...
in the early days of the
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...
. He was well known as a top recruiter, and was well known for landing inner-city prospects.
[
]
Collegiate and pro career
Cleveland State
Mackey coached at Cleveland State University from 1983 to 1990 and posted a record of 144 wins and 67 losses. His teams made one NCAA and two National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...
appearances and averaged more than 20 wins per season. His best team was the 1985-86 unit, which won a school-record 29 games and advanced all the way to the Sweet 16—becoming the first #14 seed to advance that far. It was also the first postseason bid of any sort in the program's 57-year history. Before his first-round game against Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, he went up to Bobby Knight
Robert Montgomery Knight (born October 25, 1940) is an American former basketball coach. Nicknamed "the General", Knight won 902 NCAA Division I men's college basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement, and currently fourth all-t ...
saying, "Take it easy on me, big guy." Knight exploded, knowing Cleveland State would likely give the Hoosiers all they could handle with its "run n' stun" style. He became a celebrity in northeastern Ohio, with the local press dubbing him "the King of Cleveland." Cleveland State used the money from the 1986 NCAA run to build what is now the Wolstein Center
The Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Center is a 13,610-seat indoor arena located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the campus of Cleveland State University (CSU). It is home to the Cleveland State Vikings men's and women's basketball ...
.[Bishop, Greg]
Cleveland State’s Healing Begins With an N.C.A.A. Bid
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
, 2009-03-12.
Earlier in 1985, Mackey invited Bol to Cleveland after seeing him in action with a Sudanese team that was touring the United States. However, Bol didn't speak or write English very well at the time. He was unable to improve his English-language skills after months of English language classes at ELS Language Centers on the Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
campus, and never played a game for Cleveland State. Five years later, Cleveland State was placed on two years' probation for providing improper financial assistance to Bol and two other African players. They were also banned from Mid-Continent conference play for the duration of the probation.
Even with the probation, Mackey still reckoned as a rising star in the collegiate ranks. Cleveland State knew this, and signed him to a two-year, $300,000 contract in July 1990 (US$ in dollars). However, on July 13—only a few days after he signed his contract—Cleveland police, acting on a tip, pulled him over after he drove left of center. He was arrested for driving under the influence
Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...
and having an open container. It subsequently emerged that he'd sprayed his mouth with a breath spray before taking a Breathalyzer
A breathalyzer or breathalyser (a portmanteau of ''breath'' and ''analyzer/analyser'') is a device for estimating blood alcohol content (BAC), or to detect viruses or diseases from a breath sample.
The name is a genericized trademark of the Br ...
test at the police station. Since breath spray can alter the results of Breathalyzer tests, police took a urine sample, which revealed traces of cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
.[Dell'Apa, Frank]
Mackey faces ouster; college official cites 'double life'
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
, 1990-07-17
The Wednesday after his arrest, Mackey held a press conference in which he acknowledged a long-running problem with substance abuse. He also announced that he planned to go into rehab, and his lawyer asked Cleveland State to let him go on a leave of absence so he could complete it.[Kropko, M.A]
Mackey admits drug, alcohol abuse
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
, 1990-07-18. However, Cleveland State refused to do so and fired him only a few days after signing his contract. Mackey subsequently pleaded no contest
' is a legal term that comes from the Latin phrase for "I do not wish to contend". It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense.
In criminal trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neith ...
and in lieu of prosecution, he was ordered confined to a rehabilitation center for 60 days.
In 2009, Mackey told the ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' that at the time of his arrest, he'd been an alcoholic for many years and had begun using cocaine shortly after the 1986 NCAA Tournament. He said that he thought he was able to control it, and didn't realize how serious the problem was until his arrest. However, he has remained sober for over 20 years. Many of Mackey's former players later said that they learned from Mackey's experience and how it humbled him. He remains very much in the good graces of Cleveland State fans. During the 20-year reunion of the 1986 Cinderella run, Mackey received a standing ovation.[
]
Pro career
Mackey spent 60 days at a rehab center run by John Lucas, and then went on to a successful career in minor league basketball. In 1991, he was a mid-season replacement coach for the Miami Tropics
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...
of the United States Basketball League
The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to ...
and led the team to the title game. In 1996, he coached the Portland (Maine) Mountain Cats to the Final Four of the USBL. Following his stint with the Mountain Cats, Mackey captured three consecutive USBL Championships from 1997 to 1999, with the Atlantic City Seagulls, something no other coach in the USBL has done.
He also coached Trenton New Jersey of the I.B.C., Jacksonville of the USBL and was National Director of Scouting for Hoops Global and Director of Player Personnel for Pro Basketball USA. In 1999, he again surfaced as a head coach, this time in professional basketball where he led the Mansfield Hawks to the International Basketball Association
The International Basketball Association (IBA) was founded in 1995 by a group of businessmen led by Tom Anderson. The original owners of franchises in the league were George Daniel (Black Hills Posse-Rapid City, SD), John Korsmo, Al Gardner, and A ...
championship in his only season.
In 2004, Mackey was hired as a scout for the Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...
of the NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
. Pacers basketball operations president Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded a ...
, whose early days with the Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
coincided with Mackey's tenure at Boston College, had long admired Mackey. He'd originally gotten in touch with Mackey in 2002 during his abortive bid for what became the Charlotte Bobcats
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populous ...
. Mackey retired at age 74 following the 2020-21 NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
season after working for 18 years as a Pacers scout.
Head coaching record
References
External links
Coach Kevin Mackey's Official Site
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackey, Kevin
1946 births
Living people
American basketball scouts
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Massachusetts
Basketball players from Boston
Boston College Eagles men's basketball coaches
Cleveland State Vikings men's basketball coaches
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Continental Basketball Association coaches
High school basketball coaches in Massachusetts
Indiana Pacers scouts
International Basketball League (1999–2001) coaches
Saint Anselm Hawks men's basketball players
Sportspeople from Boston
United States Basketball League coaches