Ken Kaufman has attended 42 NCAA men’s basketball Final Fours, and, although the former WPI coach won’t be in San Antonio this week, he will be watching the games closely on TV and his colleagues there will be toasting Kaufman, whom the National Association of Basketball Coaches recently honored with a 50-year milestone certificate.
“Fifty years is a long time,” Kaufman said. “It’s been good.”
The NABC recognized Kaufman’s dedication and commitment to the organization. Kaufman is a past president of the NABC, and during his time on the NABC's board of directors, he played a pivotal role in expanding the NCAA Division 3 Tournament field from 32 teams to 64.
Kaufman, who grew up in Worcester and was an all-city guard at Classical High, coached at WPI for 26 years. He guided the Engineers to an NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 1985.
Kaufman thinks this year’s Final Four, Duke, Houston, Florida and Auburn, all No. 1 seeds for the first time since 2008, is very good, but Duke really stands out to him.
“I think Duke has a special team,” Kaufman said. “(Coach) Jon Scheyer has only three years of experience, but he’s done a marvelous job, just terrific. Everybody knows about (Blue Devils freshman sensation) Cooper Flagg, but the whole team is very good.”
Kaufman’s son, Chris, will attend this year’s Final Four.
Kaufman and his wife, Sue, live in Harwich, but they return to Worcester often.
Kaufman talks to dear friend Bob Cousy weekly, and Kaufman continues as the chairman of the Bob Cousy Award committee. The Cousy award, named in honor of the Holy Cross and Boston Celtics great, is presented to the nation’s top point guard. The award is in its 22nd year.
This year’s finalists are Mark Sears (Alabama), Walter Clayton Jr. (Florida), Kam Jones (Marquette), Braden Smith (Purdue) and Zakai Zeigler (Tennessee). The winner will be announced this weekend.
Kaufman said Cousy took special pride in seeing Payton Pritchard win the award in 2020 as a University of Oregon star, then get drafted by the Celtics.
When Kaufman is in Worcester, he always enjoys stopping by Cousy’s house for a visit.
“I have nothing but admiration for Bob,” Kaufman said. “He’s a special friend.”
Success, milestone for AMC's Briand
When Dan Briand took over as baseball coach at Anna Maria in 2018, the AmCats had not won more than nine games in any of the four previous seasons and hadn’t finished above .500 since 2012.
Briand, who grew up in Northbridge, believed the best way to revive the program began with recruiting locally and procuring Central Mass. talent.
One of his first recruits, former St. Peter-Marian star Kosta Drosidis, graduated as AMC’s career hits leader and helped the AmCats become an annual contender in the GNAC.
“It started with the local guys coming here to play and starting to turn the tide,” Briand, who recently became AMC’s all-time winningest coach, said. “They embodied everything we believed in as a staff when we got here, and that’s been the reason that we’ve been successful.”
Briand, who played at Becker and previously was an assistant at Fitchburg ...
