UTC head coach Jim Foster talks to his players during practice at the Chattem Basketball Practice Facility on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017 in Chattanooga, Tenn.Forty years into the profession, Jim Foster is still learning, observing and trying to become a better basketball coach.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's leader, who ranks 10th all-time in career NCAA coaching victories (men and women), has the same old fire as his latest team prepares to play its season opener today at Green Bay at 1 p.m. EST.
After watching a recent practice that his staff deemed "bad," Foster had a long talk with the players.
"I'm still into every practice," he had said earlier that day. "You can't cheat them."
That hasn't changed from year one to now. UTC assistant Debbie Black, who played for Foster at St. Joseph's and has worked with him at each of his coaching stops after a seven-year stint in the WNBA, said he hasn't changed in philosophy over the years, adjusting only to the new times with student-athletes.
"As we know, technology has changed, but this guy is very cerebral," Black said. "He teaches you a lot of things outside of basketball. Basketball is obviously what we're here for, but he also teaches a lot of life lessons.
"I could tell you numerous stories of what he has taught me in his circle, before and after practice just about life and how you handle it when you go out in the real world. He gets you ready for it; he's a pretty incredible guy."
Said Foster: "Players are more skilled now, but not necessarily better. Real good players 40 years ago would still be good players today; there's more players that have skills, more players that have attributes, more players that can do things because there's been more opportunities. You have to be a real pioneer to play 40 years ago, or live in a progressive area. Today, everybody's got teams, everybody's got camps, everybody's got vehicles. That wasn't the case.
"The players are the same, but parents are different - and I don't think necessarily for the better. You've got to find kids that want to be coached, and sometimes you have to figure out what that means and let it happen."
Foster begins this season 14 wins shy of 900, a feat he won't talk about any time soon. He's already become the first coach to take four different teams to the NCAA tournament and one of two to win 200 games at three different schools, with Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer the other. He's currently at 103 at UTC.
But he's still learning, having recently visited his former assistant and current UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma and former Temple, Los Angeles Clippers and New Jersey Nets coach Don Casey.
"You have to learn as much as you can. Never stop learning," Foster told the Times Free Press this week. "You keep trying to pick up some things and refine things, but 40 years later you have more patience. You know what works and you've got to convince kids that what you're talking about with them is going to make them a better player.
"Some are very open and receptive to coaching; some aren't. If you've been the best player from a small area your whole life, everybody is always patting you on the back and telling you how good you are, this and that."
Foster then furthered his point with an analogy.
"If somebody calls me from a small town in Tennessee and says, 'I just saw the best high school player I've ever seen,' I'm going to send one of my assistants up to go check this kid out," he said. "If someone in Los Angeles calls me and says, 'I've got a kid out here as good as anybody I've seen that wants to go to a small school east of the Mississippi,' I'm probably going to get on a plane. They've seen Diana Taurasi; they've seen Lisa Leslie; they've seen Cynthia Cooper; they've seen Tina Thompson - all kids from L.A. - so that's who you're looking at.
"If you're from a small town, maybe it is the best player you've ever seen, but what you've seen is very limited. You're not lying, but the shelf life needs to be determined."
This season's team is the youngest of Foster's five at UTC, with five freshmen, two sophomores and two active seniors. Some of the younger players will play. Some won't, depending on how things develop throughout the season, but he believes this ultimately could be as good a team as any he's had in Chattanooga - if the Mocs can survive a season-opening stretch that includes eight games in 16 days.
He calls it a "work in progress."
"At a point in time, this will be the ideal roster. Today the answer is, 'We'll see,'" he said. "You can't predict five freshmen and a redshirt. We'll figure things out by who learns the lessons the quickest from their experiences. High school kids play in a tough game once every couple of weeks; college kids play a hard game every time they go out there. Having to show up every day is a new phenomenon.
"We'll see what the end result is, but we have some pieces. This could be a good team."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.