It was announced Saturday that Charles “Lefty” Driesell, who coached college basketball for more than 40 years, had died.
He was 92 years old. Driesell was the coach at James Madison University from 1988 to 1997. Ty Anderson, Driesell’s grandson, told The Washington Post that he died at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
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What does Lefty Driesell do?
Charles “Lefty” Driesell was a college basketball coach for more than forty years and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on Christmas Day, 1931. Before going to Duke, he was a star basketball player at Granby High School in Norfolk.
Driesell worked at the Ford Motor Co. before becoming a junior varsity football and basketball coach at Granby in 1954. He was finally made head coach of the varsity team. After that, he went to Newport News High and won 57 straight games there.
He got a job at Davidson in 1960, after the team had lost 11 straight seasons. In his first season as a college coach, he went 9-14, which was only one of two times he would end the season with a loss record.
The University of Maryland, James Madison University, and Georgia State University all had teams that Driesell was in charge of.
His teams made it to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight four times, and the Associated Press put eight of those teams in the top ten at the end of the season.
He was most successful as a coach at Maryland, where he worked from 1969 to 1986 and led the Terrapins to the NIT title in 1972.
There has only been one coach in NCAA history with at least 100 wins at four different Division I schools. That coach is Driesell. Driesell was named into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.
He retired as a college coach in 2003 with a record of 786 wins. He passed away at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on February 18, 2024. He was 92 years old.
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What caused his death?
Lefty Driesell passed away at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the age of 92. Sportskeeda says that the exact reason he died has not been made public.
No information is known about whether or not Lefty Driesell had any illnesses before he died. Pam Driesell, his daughter, told The Baltimore Sun that his health had been getting worse since his wife Joyce died in 2021.
But the exact reason for his death has not been made public.
How people felt about the news that Lefty Driesell had died?
When people heard that Lefty Driesell had died, they were sad and mourned. A lot of people, like fans, past players, and coaches, have sent their condolences and talked about how Driesell changed college basketball.
Driesell was “a transcendent figure in college basketball and the man who put Maryland basketball on the map,” according to Damon Evans, who is the athletic director for Maryland.
Former Maryland player Tom McMillen said Driesell was “a legend both on and off the court and instrumental in my life.”
Jeff Bourne, the athletic director at James Madison University, said that Driesell “made a big difference wherever he went, especially at James Madison and with our men’s basketball program.” Jim Phillips, the head of the ACC, called Driesell “a legendary coach who meant so much to college basketball.”
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