FROM SHAGGING BALLS FOR CLYDE LOVELLETTE TO COACHING AGAINST DAMON BAILEY
by David Hudson
In 1987 Jennings County Basketball Coach Joe Null would begin an association with an opponent who would become a nemesis for the next four years. This association would haunt many high school basketball coaches in Indiana, and Joe would not be alone in his battle. Can a fifteen year old boy really be a nemesis to a grown man? If you understand the history and dynamics of Indiana high school basketball and the fifteen year old named Damon Bailey, the answer of course is yes!
Hoosiers who know the legend of Damon Bailey will quickly remember his dominance of high school basketball while playing for Coach Danny Bush at Bedford North Lawrence High School. Let’s do a brief review of Bailey’s legendary status for the Hoosiers who are unfamiliar with his game.
Bailey appeared in three state final fours in his high school basketball career. When he was a senior, he led Bedford North Lawrence High School to finally win the state title in front of 41,000 fans at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. That historical game still holds the record for the most attended high school basketball game in the country. Overall in his high school career, Bailey played in 110 varsity games and scored double figures in all of them. He scored an astounding 3,134 points with an average of 28.4 points per game, earning him the title of all-time boys scoring leader in Indiana.
However, that title would be one of many held by Damon Bailey. His accolades include being named Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1990, a McDonald’s All-American, and the Gatorade National Player of the Year. Obviously, Damon Bailey was a challenge to any coach and team that crossed his path during his high school days.
I met with Coach Null on a cold winter’s day in January. He shared with me about growing up in Terre Haute, his high school days, his early work history, and how he got into teaching and coaching. We discussed if he found Damon Bailey to really be a nemesis, but the question that made me pump the brakes was when I asked him, “Was Bailey the best player he had ever seen, or ever coached against?”He never gave me a real answer. I thought it would be a slam dunk for Bailey, but it wasn’t. In reality, Damon Bailey might not have been the best player Joe faced while at Jennings County.
Besides Bailey, Joe battled with two other noteworthy opponents while at Jennings County. Floyd Central star Pat Graham also squared off against Joe. Graham averaged 32.4 points per game his senior year and was named Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1989. Bailey and Graham teamed up at IU to play for Coach Bob Knight.
Due to a scheduling difficulty during the 1988 season, Jennings County was going to lose a game. Joe agreed to cross the Ohio River and pick up a game with powerhouse Louisville Ballard. Allan Houston was a starter for Ballard and was making his mark on Kentucky high school basketball history. Unfortunately, Jennings County severely lost the game and Houston poured in 30 points. The next year Houston was selected to be Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball. Selected as a Parade and McDonald’s All- American, Houston then went on to an outstanding career at Tennessee playing for his Dad, Wade. Drafted in the first round, Allan played nine seasons in the NBA and was a two time NBA All-Star.
CLYDE LOVELLETTE, OSCAR ROBERTSON, AND JOE’S TEAMMATES
As a young boy growing up near Lange Elementary in Terre Haute, Joe would “shag” balls for Clyde Lovellette and his Garfield High teammates during their summer workouts at the Lange schoolyard. A few years later, Null was photographed with Lovellette when Clyde spoke at the McLean Junior High basketball banquet. Clyde also attended McLean Junior High. After playing at Garfield, Lovellette was named to the Indiana All-Stars. He went on to the University of Kansas and led the Jayhawks to the 1952 NCAA Championship. Later the same year he won a gold medal at the Helsinki Olympics. Clyde was the first person to win a NCAA title, an Olympic Gold medal, and a NBA Championship. His thirteen year career in the league included three NBA titles.
Joe Null played for Terre Haute Gerstmeyer’s legendary coach Howard Sharpe. He started one game, but consistently saw playing time. Like Damon Bailey, Joe experienced playing in multiple state final tourneys. Bailey’s three state final appearances tops Joe’s two, but that’s what a nemesis is all about!
While playing for Gertsmeyer, Null faced Oscar Robertson, yes that Oscar Robertson, in two games.
Robertson played for Crispus Attucks and won two state titles. Robertson had an outstanding career at the University of Cincinnati and was the National College Player of the Year three times. He also won a gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Oscar played for fourteen years in the NBA and was selected to the All-Star team twelve times. In October of 2021, Robertson was honored as one of the league’s greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. Joe’s association with Lovellette and Robertson would be a special experience for anyone associated with the game.
Joe was fortunate to play with some very talented friends. Four of Joe’s teammates went on to play college ball. Howard Dardeen went to the University of Kentucky. Bob Hickman and Bill Newton went to Kansas. Ron Greene ended up at Murray State. Joe was a solid player and Coach Sharpe told others Joe could play college ball. Unfortunately at that time, it wasn’t common for non-starters to receive college offers.
THE WORK FORCE, COLLEGE, AND FINALLY COACHING
Joe Null was not afraid of hard work. Often, while playing for Gertsmeyer, the team bus would stop at the Chesty Potato Chip plant and drop Null off to work the night shift after returning home from road games. Young Joe had his own key to the plant. He continued working at Chesty after his graduation in 1957. A year later, he was working for Columbian Home Products where he discovered his talent for mechanical/technical drawing. Later, he became a successful draftsman for Allis-Chalmers. In 1961 with a wife and two kids, he decided to attend Indiana State University majoring in Physical Education and Mechanical Drawing. He continued working while going to school. Joe explained to me he got his degree because he wanted to teach industrial arts and he had NO plans for coaching. I thought he was joking.
According to Null, he “fell” into coaching. During his first year of teaching at Seegers High School he was asked to coach the seventh grade basketball team. In just a few years he became the B-team coach and assistant to Gene Morrison. Joe was promoted to head coach after Morrison left and held that position for three years. Joe then had an eight year stint at Edgewood High School in Ellettsville. While at Edgewood, Joe coached against Martinsville’s Jerry Sichting. Chosen for the Indiana All-Stars in 1975, Sichting played his college ball at Purdue. Jerry enjoyed a ten year career in the NBA and a NBA Championship with the Celtics in 1986. Bob Heaton who played for Clay City also went up against Joe while he was at Edgewood. Heaton played with Larry Bird at Indiana State University and was a member of ISU’s 1979 squad that finished runner-up to Magic Johnson and Michigan State’s National title team.
Joe’s next coaching stop was at Jennings County. He was with Gene Morrison again, but this time their roles were reversed. Joe was now the head coach with Morrison being his assistant.
In Joe’s third year at Jennings County, the Panthers won the Seymour Sectional beating Bedford North Lawrence 81-61. Null was selected Hoosier Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year for 1986. The Panthers were 16-6 and Null predicted next year’s team would be better and they were.
FINALLY-DAMON BAILEY
Jennings County had won their first seven games in the 1986-87 campaign. The eighth game was with Bedford North Lawrence. Probably not a nemesis yet, the amazing freshman Damon Bailey put up 26 points in a 58-48 win for the BNL Stars. “ We didn’t gear anything special toward stopping Bailey,” Null said of the Panthers’ defensive strategy. He went on to tell the Bedford Times Mail, “He got a lot of his points at the free-throw line because of poor positioning on our part”
After reeling off thirteen straight wins, Null and his team got another shot at Bailey and the Stars. Joe’s second match up was in the 1987 Seymour sectional final game. This time Null shifted his focus on Bailey and the Panthers. Bailey only scored twelve points that game.
In Damon Bailey’s book, “Damon: Living a Dream,” he recalls the game against Null quite vividly.
“Null’s teams were tough for me to play against and that night would be no exception. He used a variety of zone defenses that limited me to six shots and twelve points.” Pretty good praise coming from Damon. Would he now be considered a nemesis?
A ZONE MAN
I asked Coach Null about his defensive strategy. He explained to me that he was a zone man. “It seemed every high school coach was trying to be like Coach Knight and play man-to-man. I kind of went against that and played zone. It wasn’t the norm”.
He went on and asked me, “Have you ever seen a 1-1-3 zone defense?” He got excited and started drawing it out and showing me how the players would rotate and who was responsible for which area. It was fascinating. He shared that his assistant Gene Morrison had ran it back at Seeger and Morrison was the originator. Null said they would shift back and forth from their 1-1-3 to a 2-1-2 or a 2-3. Morrison would stand at his side and yell, “One! Two! One! Two!” The players would quickly scramble into different positions on defense. Joe started laughing, “It was a little confusing”.
Null told me someone once told him, that at times, he and Morrison looked like two Keystone cops out there trying to direct traffic. Joe was asked by a sportswriter what defense he was using and he told him, ”It was our flip, flop, double switch”.
Interesting enough, the king of man to man defense, Coach Bob Knight was watching the Seymour sectional final game. I asked Joe if he remembered anything about Knight being there and he said, “He was sitting down from us and Wayne Sullivan one of our players took a charge, but the ref didn’t call it that way, and Knight stood up and clapped for the kid”. I wonder what Knight thought about the flip, flop, double switch.
In 1989, Bailey’s junior year, the Stars would again face Null’s Panthers in the final game of the Seymour Sectional. Bailey writes again in his book: “I was more concerned about what kind of defense Coach Joe Null would throw at me when we faced Jennings County for the sectional title. It was not just one defense but several. The Panthers stopped me, but not my teammates, and we were on our way to another championship when I broke the small finger on my left hand attempting to deflect a pass. I had scored a season low thirteen points. It had been a team victory and I could wait a few minutes to be concerned about my finger.”
Coach Null never defeated Bailey. A nemesis? In this story yes, but Null never called him that. My unofficial records have Damon scoring 168 points in eight games against Null and Jennings County. In his career Bailey averaged 28.4 ppg. Against Joe Null and his teams, Bailey’s average was seven points less. When told, Joe was not that impressed about my research findings. I am sure the eight losses stung Joe more.
For the record, Larry Bird never faced the flip, flop, double switch!
And in case you were wondering, Joe never shagged for Larry, played against him, or coached against him!
POSTSCRIPT
Joe Null coached for twenty-four years. He retired in 2000 and spent his last eight years in education teaching mechanical drawing. He was proud to say he even taught some computer assisted drawing.
Joe and his wife Pat have been married for 68 years. There is no doubt Pat has been Joe’s biggest fan and supporter through his basketball coaching career and life. She even washed and organized the uniforms for every varsity team Joe coached.
When I asked Joe what he missed about coaching, he said, “I miss the associations I made with so many people and players.” I asked any highlights? “Being able to coach both my sons was very special.” David played four years for his Dad at Edgewood and Sam was on the varsity two years with Joe at Jennings County.