I'll criticize head coaches. I'll question them. But I'll never claim to know what it's like to be one.
This despite pretty much living next door to one these days.
Bob Lilley, the new head coach of Riverhounds SC and already a United Soccer League Hall of Famer who's won big-time wherever he's been, operates with a motor unlike anyone I've seen. And I strongly suspect that's just because he's the only one I've witnessed this closely, since his office is immediately adjacent to ours at Highmark Stadium. If Mike Tomlin, Mike Sullivan or Clint Hurdle were working over there, I'm sure the perception would be no different.
Lilley rises with the sun, reports before rush hour, begins planning the day's training hours before the athletes arrive, runs a vibrant and vocal practice -- seriously, the man shouts inconsistent striker Romeo Parkes' name loudly enough to echo off nearby Mount Washington -- and his day's only beginning. He and longtime assistant Mark Pulisic, father of U.S. national team wunderkind Christian Pulisic, lock themselves up in the office in meetings to discuss the training, the depth chart and potential moves. On those rare occasions that Lilley emerges, because he's also the de facto general manager, he's on the phone with some agent or another, still seeking to add to the roster.
Somewhere in there, he eats, I presume. But maybe not, since he's picked at enough of the candy in our office that, the other day, my wife Dali surprised him with a big tub of that same candy on his office desk.
That should be the end of it, but it isn't close. He's around all night, too. Well past dark.
And he's human. This is my favorite facet to see up close.
The Hounds open their 2018 regular season tomorrow in Nashville. It'll be a huge challenge on several fronts, as the opponent's city was just accepted into Major League Soccer for either 2019 or 2020. So many tickets were sold for this match that it was moved to Nissan Stadium, the home of the NFL Titans, and so much money's been spent on the roster that they'll be tough on the pitch, too.
Lilley deals with all this as a person day after day. Yesterday, he popped into the office to say hello and opened up about some of his emotions, his nerves, his anxiety about this match. He won't look or sound that way once the ball is kicked or when he faces cameras or microphones, but he can and does like this.
And when it happens, I find myself again wondering about Tomlin, Sullivan, Hurdle and all the rest, what their lives are like in the little time they have to enjoy any real life.
A week ago at Madison Square Garden, the Penguins were wrapping up their morning skate when Sullivan saw me watching from a corner behind the glass. He walked up to say hello, asked how I was doing, all that. After I replied, and having Lilley's workload and burden in my thoughts, I asked Sullivan how he was doing, how he was holding up through the grind.
He seemed surprised that I'd ask, or that anyone would ask.
And he then, of course, remarked that he was just fine and that he really liked the way the team was coming together.
• Speaking of Pittsburgh and Nashville and Sullivan, in that specific moment that Sullivan raised the Cup after Game 6 last summer, he looked in the direction of his cheering players and shouted out, "You guys are the best!"
That's what makes guys like him special.
It's also what gets them rewarded:
• The Hounds can win that opener. Lilley has legitimately amassed contender-level skill, speed and depth. My concern after covering most of their preseason matches is a lack of size on the back line -- Joe Greenspan's 6-6 in the center, but he's about it -- and that the group's had so little time to gel with so many new faces, including those Lilley brought along from Rochester after the bankruptcy up there made them all nomads.
"I think we're ready," Lilley told me yesterday, "but I don't know if it's where we'll need to be right away. We'll see."
Our Matt Grubba, who's traveling to Nashville to cover the opener for us, sat with Lilley yesterday for a special Morning Java:
• I understand and appreciate fan impatience on almost every front. Not with coaching hires. Pitt's basketball program isn't in need of a quick fix, and it sure isn't in the condition where it can make a quick turnaround. Pick the right person. Get it right. Then pay up. No rush at all.
• Plant me squarely in the corner of the younger-coach faction, by the way. Again, this won't be a quick turnaround. Get someone with resolve and staying power.
• Old friend Al Riveron, author of all those catch-or-no-catch NFL replay decisions, tweeted this out Wednesday with a tangible tinge of pride:
After much deliberation & input from coaches, players, @NFLLegends, & club executives, the @NFL Competition Committee will recommend the following language simplifying the catch rule at the Annual Meeting next week. pic.twitter.com/hJwH5YYBRK
— Al Riveron (@alriveron) March 21, 2018
This, I'm assuming, is the clarification?
What constitutes control?
Who's got three feet and, if they do, how'd that help at the Combine?
Good luck, gentlemen!
• The NHL's general managers decided not to discuss altering the guidelines for the Hart Trophy, and good for them. No need.
For those who don't know, the NHL's MVP has a somewhat different definition than other major sports in that it goes to the player "judged to be most valuable to his team." And while that's obviously open to interpretation, it still basically comes down to the best player on a team that doesn't stink. Case in point: Not since Mario Lemieux in 1988 has anyone won the Hart on a non-playoff team, so that's the precedent at hand. Thus, Connor McDavid's got virtually no chance this season even though he's third in the scoring race solely because the Oilers once again stink.
That's fine by me. McDavid's putting up points right now pressure-free, playing in games that don't matter. It's still a team sport, and the team component should be at least a part of it.
But if that definition is being applied correctly, including precedent, then the Avalanche's Nathan McKinnon deserves to be a finalist, if not more. He's been enormously responsible for the NHL's biggest improvement by any team -- from 48 points to the current 88 -- and he's tied for second in the league's points race with 91, just three behind the current leader, the Lightning's Nikita Kucherov.
With all due respect to Kucherov and Evgeni Malkin, both those guys had a ton more help.
• A player in town tonight, the Devils' Taylor Hall, fits this category, too. He's logging more than 25 minutes a night in New Jersey's bid to get back into the playoffs, he's the foundation for their entire speed-based system, and he's 15th in the league in scoring. That's not in McKinnon's class, obviously, but it's similar thinking.
• Genuinely eager to see the Penguins presented with a real task tonight after four games of figuring out how to not sink to the opponent's level. New Jersey's youth and speed -- not just Hall -- have given them as much trouble as anyone this season, right up there with Florida's. One of Sullivan's many consistent mantras is to "play on the right side of the puck." That'll be critical against these guys, and it'll require backing off the blue line rather than prioritizing gaps.
Remember what the Rangers' Chris Kreider did to them last week in New York?
Yeah, that times 10.
• Not just because there's still several inches of snow out on our balcony, but it feels mind-blowing that we're less than a week away from the Pirates' first pitch in Detroit.
A few spoken words on that: