Well, as they say in Casablanca, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Just in case you fast forwarded past the About Me on the HomePage, your Coach on a Couch is Jim Harter, a former college coach of nearly 30 years, including 16 years as the head men’s coach at Pace University. I’ve been around basketball virtually my entire life, as my father, Dick Harter, was a college coach at Penn, Oregon and Penn State and a longtime assistant in the NBA. What a treat as a kid having the opportunity to watch games at the Palestra in Philly and the Pit out in Oregon, unbelievable college basketball environments! Began as an assistant at the Division I level and had the joy of experiencing March Madness three of the four years I was at UAB and Tulane before settling in at Pace. While a graduate assistant at UAB, I even had the chance to freelance a Hoop Magazine cover story on Charles Barkley, one of my favorite college basketball commentator these days.
At Pace, I am sure I was second-guessed by many fans and parents along the way. Before that, I had a chance to do a little second-guessing of my own, as a sports journalist (hence the Barkley piece) of seven years. Now, I come full circle, with this blog offering me the opportunity to second-guess the sports talk radio out of anybody. However, understanding the many difficult decisions that go into coaching, I will try to be as fair and balanced as possible. But I do promise you my honest opinions and insights that I am sure you will find interesting. You will know the coaches and players that I think are doing the best jobs (might not always be the winningest) and the ones that are missing the mark. Same for broadcasters and commentators. No more Pandora escapes during halftime shows I sometimes find as pleasurable as a root canal.
So here it begins. With a new career as a real estate agent, not enough time to be too much of a Coach-on -a-Couch-Potato, but I promise to watch a Game of the Week (my choice) and post at least once a week.
So, with the season off and running, let’s get ready to rumble!