Bobcats' Vincent offers skinny on Skiles
Scott Skiles believes he has been unfairly characterized at times as a coach who drives his players relentlessly.
Well then, what about the reputation he carried back in his college days at Michigan State as kind of a punk with an attitude?
"Scott was always a cocky little son of a gun, but I think that's what made him competitive," said former MSU teammate Sam Vincent. "That's what gave him a little bit of the edge that he needed to be as successful as he's been in the sport of basketball."
Vincent is now head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats and claimed before Saturday's game that he and Skiles never saw this night coming when they were college teammates.
"We never sat around the dorm room talking about coaching in the NBA," Vincent said. "We sat around from time to time talking about other things, but not coaching in the NBA."
Vincent played 99 games for the Bulls from 1987-89 during an eight-year NBA career. His first job when he stopped playing was to find events for Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Florida.
After that, Vincent entered the wide world of coaching, taking jobs in South Africa, Greece and the Netherlands. He headed both the men's and women's team of Nigeria. More recently, he was head coach of Fort Worth in the D-League and an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks.
"We talked before or after he got the job," Skiles said. "We've talked since then, too. He kind of took a long way to get there. So perseverance. I'm happy for him."
Rest about to end: The Bulls have played fewer games so far than any other NBA team. They had three breaks of at least three days during the month of November and have two more in December.
Then for the rest of the season, the only time they have more than two days off between games is the all-star break.
"I don't know if that's hurt us or not," Scott Skiles said of the excessive time off. "It's good that we're getting into more of a regular routine. I'd like to think that two or three days off don't hurt us in between games, because there's going to be a time later in the season when we wish we had two or three days, either to heal up or get some rest or whatever."
Bull horns: Charlotte started the night ranked last in the league in free-throw percentage at .683, then hit 12 of 23 attempts against the Bulls. ... Joakim Noah sprained his left ankle in the second quarter and did not return.