SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Kerr stepped to the podium on Thursday night with a small smile on his face and an extra pep in his step. The longtime coach of the Golden State Warriors has acquired something within his team that he hasn’t had at any other point in his 12-year tenure: bragging rights.
That arrived last week when the University of Arizona Wildcats beat the Purdue Boilermakers to advance to their first Final Four trip in 25 years. The Wildcats face Michigan in Saturday’s second semifinal in Indianapolis, and Kerr, who played in Tucson from 1983-88, has been beaming with pride ever since.
“It’s fun to be a Wildcat this week,” Kerr said Thursday, while wearing a familiar Arizona T-shirt, prior to the Warriors’ 118-111 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Kerr attended the Wildcats’ Sweet 16 win over Arkansas in San Jose, but won’t be in Indianapolis to watch his team try to capture its second national championship. With a Sunday game against the Houston Rockets to prepare for, the Warriors’ coach plans to watch from his Bay Area home, on his couch, with his dog.
What he’ll see is a dramatically different style than he’s seen most of the season with his own team.
“It’s funny, the Wildcats are the exact opposite of the Warriors,” Kerr told The Athletic earlier this week, laughing. “They get to the foul line. They dominate the interior. They never turn it over and they don’t shoot 3s.
“We do the exact opposite: We launch 3s, we turn the ball over left and right. We try to outscore people.”
“The college game is so different than the NBA,” Kerr continued. “It’s like a different sport almost. I think we’ve gone so far over the top in the NBA with 3-point shooting … The college game reminds me a little bit of FIBA, when I was coaching in the Olympics, where every possession matters.”
Kerr sat right behind the bench in San Jose and clearly loved being a spectator.
Regarding the Wildcats’ semifinal matchup against Michigan, Kerr said his initial thought was, “Both teams are bigger than the Golden State Warriors, that’s the truth. These guys, Michigan, too, are massive!”
Much has been made about the fact that Arizona almost entirely ignores the 3-point line, playing more of an old-school, bruising style focused on points in the paint (and getting to the foul line). Kerr loves it — but he does have some concerns.
“Michigan shoots more 3s, and as an NBA guy, I do worry about the math working against us,” Kerr said. “If you can hammer the ball inside and control the paint like we did against Arkansas (in the Sweet 16), you don’t have to worry about the 3 as much.”
Kerr has had high praise for Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd and appreciates the style that this iteration of the Wildcats plays with. He’s also a big fan of UConn coach Danny Hurley, whose team faces Illinois in the first semifinal Saturday. Kerr noted that when he visited Hurley and his staff a couple of summers ago, he learned that they use a lot of the same sets that Fenerbahçe uses in Turkey. He appreciates the precision with which Hurley’s teams play.
“I love him,” Kerr said of Hurley. “He’s authentic. He’s exactly the guy you see on TV. I don’t know him that well, but I’ve visited with him and really impressed with their execution, the stuff they run, how he made some changes as a coach and elevated his team the last few years to really amazing heights. He’s a great coach.”
Kerr said he spent part of his time before Thursday’s game on the phone with another great coach, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. The pair has gotten to know each other well through the years, thanks to their shared connection of having coached Draymond Green. Kerr said he didn’t even ask Izzo about the report that Izzo turned down the chance to coach the Phoenix Suns last year, but did note that he doesn’t believe a lot of college coaches are looking to make the jump from college to the pros.
“I don’t get that sense that college coaches are clamoring to come to the NBA,” Kerr said.
Kerr is just hoping his Wildcats can cut down the nets in Indianapolis — and he can enjoy watching a team he cares about that plays nothing like the one he coaches.
“It’s so great, and honestly, it’s good for the game,” Kerr said of the Wildcats’ style. “Because you want variety, you want different styles. There have been some really successful college coaches who, like Nate Oats at Alabama, who have kind of brought the NBA style to the college game. I don’t know Michigan well enough but I sort of sense that Dusty May has brought some of the spread, pick-and-roll, spacing bigs who can shoot 3s, that stuff to the college game. Illinois seems to have done some of that, too.
“There are really different styles in this Final Four. I think it’ll make for a great weekend.”