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George Raveling Booking Profile

About George Raveling

Raveling guided the Washington State men's basketball team from 1972-1983 with two NCAA tournament appearances during his 11 years. The first appearance was in 1980 and marked the first time WSU was included in the NCAA bracket since finishing second in 1941. Three years later Raveling returned WSU to the NCAA tournament. Raveling was one of the winningest coaches in Washington State basketball history, finishing his WSU career with 167 wins, 136 losses, and seven winning seasons, including five straight from the 1975-76 campaign through the 1980 season. While at Washington State, Raveling was an assistant coach for the USA team at the 1979 Pan American Games and the West Regional coach at the 1979 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival. He also was an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1980. Among his outstanding players were James Donaldson, Craig Ehlo, Don Collins, Bryan Rison and Steve Harriel, who all earned All-Pacific-10 Conference first team honors. Donaldson went on to play in the NBA for 14 years and was on the 1988 NBA All-star team. Collins went on to play in both the NBA and CBA after setting the WSU record for career steels and finishing third in scoring. Ehlo was selected in the third round of the 1983 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets. He played 14 NBA seasons with four teams, amassing respectable career totals of 7,492 points, 2,456 assists and 3,139 rebounds. Raveling was the UPI Pac-8 Coach of the Year winner in 1976, and was the league's coach of the year winner in 1983. Coach Raveling was honored by WSU with his induction into the Pac-10 Basketball Hall of Honor. Raveling replaced Lute Olson as head coach at the University of Iowa in 1983, guiding the Hawkeyes to back-to-back 20-win seasons and NCAA tournament berths in 1985 and 1986. In 1984, he served as the assistant coach for the USA Olympic men's basketball team. Bob Knight served as the head coach, and Steve Alford and Michael Jordan were guards on that team. Shooting 63.9 percent from the floor, the US team captured the ninth Olympic title with a convincing 96-65 victory over Spain in the gold medal game. During his 4-year tenure at Iowa, Raveling is probably best known for his recruits and outstanding players, including B.J. Armstrong, Kevin Gamble, Ed Horton, Roy Marble and Greg Stokes, all of whom went on to play in the NBA. In March 1986, he returned to the Pac-10 as head coach for the University of Southern California (USC). Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble were recruited to USC by Head Coach Stan Morrison and his top assistant, David Spencer. They were joined by high school All-American, Tom Lewis, and Rich Grande as the Four Freshmen" star recruiting class. Following an 11-17 season coaching USC, Morrison and Spencer were fired after the 1985-86 season was over, despite winning the Pac-10 the previous year. It was reported that the players would not remain unless certain conditions were met, including having a say in the next coaching staff. USC hired Raveling as the next head coach of the Trojans. Raveling gave the players a deadline to respond whether they would remain on the team. When they did not respond, he revoked the scholarships of Gathers, Kimble, and Lewis. Raveling's controversial statement was, "You can't let the Indians run the reservation," he said. "You've got to be strong, too. Sometimes you have to tell them that they have to exit." Kimble and Gathers transferred together from USC to Loyola Marymount. Lewis transferred to Pepperdine. Grande remained at USC. During Raveling's career at USC, the Trojans advanced to the NCAA tournament in 1991 and 1992 and competed in the NIT in 1993 and 1994. On the morning of September 25, 1994 his Jeep was blindsided in a two-car collision. He was seriously injured suffering nine broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and clavicle and a collapsed lung. He was in intensive care due to bleeding in his chest cavity for two weeks. Citing the automobile accident and planned lengthy rehabilitation, he retired as head coach of USC at the age of 57 on November 15. Raveling has worked as the Director for International Basketball for Nike[15] since his retirement from USC, and has authored two books on rebounding drills, War on the Boards and A Rebounder's Workshop. He has served as a color commentator for CBS Sports and FOX Sports Net, often drawing assignments for Pac-10 conference games."

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