The Ultimate Homecoming

Sporting News, The, Feb 22, 1999 by Bill Minutaglio

All year this is exactly what Drexler has been doing: tweaking, adjusting, teaching, earning small victories--ones that have hardly amounted to a wholesale change in the won-lost column.

And all wretched season, Drexler has remained remarkably consistent. There are no wrinkles in the cashmere. He is handling it, never veering from his promise that better things are to come.

"He is a very intelligent guy. He has never lacked confidence," says television analyst Jack Ramsay, who coached Drexler in Portland and once called him a "coach's nightmare." "He has instant prestige with his players. But, having said that, coaching for anyone, coming into it cold, is a huge task."

Adds longtime coach and analyst Hubie Brown: "You cannot look inside his heart, because that will dictate whether he can continue to take losses while trying to build a competitive program in a very tough league. That (Conference USA) is a league that has some of the best coaches in America. Can he withstand the pressure?"

Drexler's friends see that pressure--the pressure that Drexler claims not to feel.

"This is probably the first time in Clyde's life that he has ever attempted something that he can't win immediately at," says Lynden Rose, a former Cougars teammate who works as Drexler's attorney. "Mentally, it takes a lot from him. It's a lot more than he ever anticipated."

Mentally, Drexler also knows he is an immortal in Houston sports history. He knows the wolves will take longer to circle him--longer than they would for most coaches.

"I can see that his window to succeed will be open a lot longer. His honeymoon will last maybe three or four years," says Birdsong, one of four Cougars whose numbers are retired (along with Drexler, Olajuwon and Elvin Hayes). "No one expected Clyde to win 20 games this year--or next year."

Two prominent alumni who asked not to be named say Drexler has a window but might not use it. They wouldn't be surprised if he disappeared as easily as he appeared. Before those five years are up he might well walk away from the endless hours, recruiting trips and other hassles of college coaching.

"He has been overwhelmed," says one of those alumni. "He didn't realize the total responsibilities. I can't see him being there in five years. I expect Clyde, because he likes to be with his family, if he can get the program back to respectability next year and then he got to the NCAA (Tournament), if he sees that the program is going the way it should be, he'll leave."

The Gray Eminence of Houston Cougars basketball lives two blocks from the university. Guy V. Lewis attends every practice, every game, offering a reassuring nod to the man he coached during the Phi Slama Jama glory days. Drexler wanted his old coach to join him as an assistant. But Lewis, who went to five Final Fours in 30 years, gently demurred. Instead, he said he would work for free--and without the endless expectations.

"You can't judge performance, really, on your record. To start with, he has brought a lot of enthusiasm," says Lewis one day in a dank hallway alongside the basketball arena. "What I'm saying, to be a first-year coach, he is about as qualified as any person I have ever known."