John Wooden (1910-2010): The More Things Change . . .

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John Wooden, who passed away at age 99 last week, was the college basketball coach other coaches looked up to.  His style of play, philosophy of life and the way he handled his players from Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to Bill Walton were factors in his UCLA teams winning 10 NCAA titles between 1964 and 1975.

Since Wooden retired from coaching after a 27-year career in 1975, college basketball has changed plenty.  It is no longer possible to do what he and his players did, whether it's all those championships, or the 88-game winning streak.  Here's why:

• How many coaches stay at the same school 27 months, let alone 27 years?  If they're not coaching, then they usually go on TV as game analysts.
• Players aren't required to stay in school and graduate, like they did in Wooden's day.  Now if they happen to be phenoms and their families need the money, they could go into the NBA after one year.  LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant are NBA stars who never bothered with college.
• After Wooden, the most national championships in men's basketball ever won by a coach is 4.  That's shared between Adolph Rupp of Kentucky and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, who just won his fourth title this past spring.
• Players (and sometimes coaches) aren't always on the straight-and-narrow.  This can sometimes lead to recruiting violations and legal problems.
• The NCAA men's tournament is a much bigger deal than it used to be when Wooden was coaching, with the field now expanded to 68 teams and a new TV contract with Turner and CBS.  Which makes all those regular season and conference tournament games rather meaningless, doesn't it?

Here's what hasn't changed.  John Wooden may have been an old-fashioned basketball coach, but winning was the one thing that never got old.  And college basketball is all the better for it.