"You have to be a little bit crazy to keep from going insane."
It's one of Max Good's favorite sayings, even though it's not his own. The Loyola Marymount coach knows all too well the truth behind that statement. He got his current gig when former LMU head coach Bill Bayno had to take an extended leave of absence due to the stress and anxiety partially associated with head coaching duties.
"I think a lot of times coaches take themselves way, way, way too seriously. I think we're overrated." said Good, as he continued with a saying of his own.
"I've never seen a good team with bad players."
And maybe he has a point. His first year at LMU didn't go so well.
"In some respect, that is the year we are most proud because we had a terrible, terrible talent deficiency just in numbers and we were playing awful," remembered Good. "We had three scholarship freshmen. I think we had literally seven scholarship players, two of them were given to them because they were managers and were in their fourth year."
Good coached 28 of the 31 games after taking over for Bayno in 2008 and won three of them.
"Players win these games. Nobody is taking bad players and winning games. It's impossible."
So it was the players who apparently were responsible for going 18-16 overall and 7-7 to tie for fourth in conference play, posting the second best turnaround in the nation in 2009-10. When they beat No. 9 Gonzaga, they logged their first win over a ranked team at home in program history and their first overall since 1990. Three players earned All-WCC honors for only the 10th time since 1956.
But the players listen to the coach. That is, if he has anything good to say.
"As a team, as a whole, we really respect him and listen to he has to say," said current senior forward Drew Viney.
"If we were to get going into battle and we need someone in the dark trenches with us, then we want him right on our side. He definitely has that kind of personality and we respect him for that," said Viney.
It's a kind of personality that Good would say is just…different.
"I've just been around a while and I've lived in Maine and Kentucky. They're different places obviously and they have a lot of characters in both places. I've just been exposed to a lot of different people and a lot of different sayings I guess," said Good.
Good makes it look like a happy accident. But his almost crazy-genius persona has become the driving force to what some might call the method to the madness.
"With my coaching style I really get after players. I'm not always easy to play for so at least sometimes in practice – not by design, I think its instinctive now – you have a sense or a feel when things are getting a little tight. You can't play this game uptight," Good said. "You want them focused and concentrating, but sometimes you'll get some paralysis if you overthink it."
So right before two of the biggest games of this season he told a joke. A "ridiculous" one according to Good.
Viney laughed, slightly embarrassed, then declined to share it.
"We all look at him like he's our Grandpa – just somebody that we can look up to and he's had a major influence on our lives definitely off the court. He's just very calm and laid back. He's just a story teller," said Viney.
At least he is off the court. On the court, it's a delicate balance.
"If you're driving on the street and a cop follows you for two or three miles, you're going to make a mistake just because you're so uptight just from seeing him in your rear view mirror," explained Good.
So Good – who worries more after a big win than after a loss – does his best to find it.
"I've discovered you can work your players harder after a win than after a loss. I think a lot of people tend to want to do their opposite to get their pound of flesh. It's almost vindictive," said Good. "After a win, you can really get after them.
"I tell them all the time, after a win there is something for everybody. When you lose there is nothing for anybody."
The LMU players hear a lot of things from Good all the time. The first conversation Viney ever had with his coach revealed all his idiosyncrasies.
"He's definitely a character."
Sometimes when practice gets tense, Good will whip out one of his own jokes. His players just grin and shake their heads. They're used to it by now.
"I probably haven't made a bit of sense in anything I said here today," said Good after the interview.
But if you think about, it all makes perfect sense.
Mad Max is a little bit crazy sometimes to make sure his players don't go insane.
