Basketball Hall of Fame coach Lefty Driesell died Saturday at the age of 92, his family told the Baltimore Sun.
Driesell won 786 games with Davidson (1960-1969), Maryland (1969-1986), James Madison (1988-1997) and Georgia State (1997-2003) and was inducted into basketball’s Hall of Fame in 2018.
Driesell spent 17 seasons at Maryland, leading the Terrapins to eight NCAA tournament appearances and the 1972 NIT championship. His 348 wins in College Park are second in program history behind Gary Williams, who led Maryland to a 2002 national championship.
Maryland hadn’t reached the NCAA tournament for 11 years before Driesell was hired, and he famously said his new program was the ‘UCLA of the East.’
Driesell is often credited with inventing the ‘Midnight Madness’ tradition in college basketball, with fans turning up to see the team’s first practice of the season.
‘Lefty Driesell was a transcendent figure in college basketball and the man who put Maryland basketball on the map,’ Maryland athletic director Damon Evans said in a statement on Saturday. ‘A Hall of Famer, Lefty was an innovator, a man who was ahead of his time from his coaching on the court to his marketing off the court. From starting Midnight Madness to nationally-televised games with sold out Cole Field House crowds, Lefty did it all.’
Driesell was forced out in 1986 after the death of Len Bias, the No. 2 overall draft pick that year who died after a cocaine-induced heart attack. He was reassigned to an administrative job at Maryland after his ousting but returned to coaching two years later at James Madison.
Maryland had seven first-round picks during Driesell’s tenure: Bias, Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Brad Davis, Albert King and Buck Williams.
“His contributions to the game go way beyond wins and losses, and he won a lot,” former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said when Driesell made the Hall of Fame. “It’s an honor he’s deserved for a long time.”
