Flip Saunders

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Philip "Flip" Saunders (born February 23, 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States[1]) is head coach of the NBA's Detroit Pistons and one of the most successful coaches in the history of the Continental Basketball Association.

Contents 1 High school player 2 Coaching career 2.1 College 2.2 Minnesota 2.3 Detroit 3 External links

[edit] High school player

Flip Saunders was an All-America basketball player at Cuyahoga Heights High School in Cleveland. In his senior season, 1973, he was named Ohio's Class A High School Basketball Player of the Year, leading the state in scoring average with 32.0 points per game. At the University of Minnesota he started 101 of his 103 career contests and as a senior teamed with Kevin McHale, who would be part of the Boston Celtics legacy of the 80s, and more recently, has been the Minnesota Timberwolves' vice president of basketball operations. Together they led the Gophers to a school-best 24-3 record.

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] College

Saunders began his coaching career at Golden Valley Lutheran College where he compiled a 92-13 record, including a perfect 56-0 mark at home, in four seasons. In 1981, he became an assistant coach at his alma mater, Minnesota, and helped guide the Golden Gophers to the Big Ten championship that season. After five seasons at Minnesota, he became an assistant coach at the University of Tulsa where he worked for two seasons before heading to the pro ranks.

Saunders would leave after seven productive seasons as a head coach in the CBA, where he ranks second with 253 career victories. He began his CBA career in 1988-89 with the Rapid City (SD) Thrillers, then moved to the La Crosse (WI) Catbirds for five seasons (1989-94), where he won two CBA Championships, before coaching in 1994-95 with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He also served as general manager (1991-93) and team president (1991-94) of the Catbirds. Saunders' impressive CBA tenure included seven consecutive seasons of 30 or more victories, two CBA championships (1990, 1992), two CBA Coach of the Year honors (1989, 1992) and 23 CBA-to-NBA player promotions.

[edit] Minnesota

Saunders joined the Minnesota Timberwolves on May 11, 1995 as general manager, working under his former teammate at the University of Minnesota, Kevin McHale. On December 18, 1995, Saunders was named head coach of the Timberwolves, replacing Bill Blair.

This happened shortly after McHale took over basketball operations for the Timberwolves. He added the coaching duties to his GM responsibilties after the team got off to a 6-14 start. The Timberwolves went 20-42 the rest of the year, but the emergence of young Kevin Garnett as a front-line NBA player was a major plus over the second half of the season.

He guided the Timberwolves to their first-ever playoff berth in the 1996-97 season, his first full season as an NBA head coach, and to a franchise-record 50 victories in 1999-2000 which was duplicated in 2001-2002.

After the Timberwolves' success in the 2003-04 NBA season, in which they made the Western Conference Finals, they struggled in the 2004-05 season, winning fewer than half of their games. On February 12, 2005, Saunders was fired and replace by then-Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale as head coach. Many fans believed that the firing was unwarranted, citing instead the contract troubles of Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell as the reasons for the team's failure. However, many also acknowledged that Saunders had already coached eight seasons in Minnesota, and perhaps a new voice was needed.

[edit] Detroit

Saunders replaced Larry Brown as coach of the Detroit Pistons on July 21, 2005. Under Saunders, the team set a new franchise record for wins during the regular season, finishing with a 64-18 record. Saunders coached the Eastern Conference All-Stars in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas.

Despite the successful season, however, Saunders has been a target of criticism for the Pistons' playoff performance, in which the Cleveland Cavaliers pushed them to 7 games in the 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals. The worn-out Pistons then lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat in 6 games. Saunders has received criticism for the poor defensive showing by the Pistons in the East finals. This has been speculated as a deciding factor in Ben Wallace's decision to sign a free-agent contract with the rival Chicago Bulls in the 2006 offseason.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• Profile at NBA.com

Preceded by Bill Blair	Minnesota Timberwolves Head Coach 1995–2005	Succeeded by Kevin McHale (interim)
Preceded by Larry Brown	Detroit Pistons Head Coach 2005–present	Succeeded by Incumbent