Charlotte Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap once stood where Derrick Clark stands now. He was the highly successful coach at Metro State, a commuter school of 23,000 in downtown Denver that will play Sunday for the Division II national championship at Philips Arena.
Dunlap knows that Clark sooner or later will have a decision to make — whether he wants to stay at Metro State or make the jump to Division I.
“A lot of guys don’t have that problem, but he’s going to have to figure that out,” Dunlap said.
Fans who attend Sunday’s game — which, along with the Division III game, will be played for the first time in the same city as the Division I Final Four — may be seeing a star on the rise on the Roadrunners’ bench. Metro State will play Drury, a liberal-arts school in Springfield, Mo., for the national title.
The Roadrunners, who employ a suffocating full-court defense and started their season with 22 consecutive wins, have a coach who came from modest means, has paid his dues, earned the respect of peers and may be approaching the next step of his career.
Said Clark, “I want to do the best job I can do at Metro State, first and foremost.”
Wake Forest coach Jeff Bzdelik, who hired Clark as an assistant at Air Force in 2005 and brought him to his next job at Colorado, merely describes Clark’s potential as “unlimited.”
“I mean that,” Bzdelik said. “He has a great presence. He has a great way with people, and he has a great knowledge of the game and, again, the integrity piece and the energy piece is unparalleled.”
Clark, 42, played for Dunlap at Division III California Lutheran and then coached for him for eight years at Metro State, where Dunlap put the team on the Division II map with a pair of national titles. His first three years, Clark worked as a volunteer coach, rising at 4:45 a.m. for 6 a.m. practices, going to work as a substitute teacher making $105 a day, then returning to the basketball office until 8 or 9 p.m. His first two years, Clark and a fellow volunteer lived in Dunlap’s basement, sometimes baby-sitting his children.
Said Clark of his career decision to work for free, “I loved ball too much.”
From Dunlap, he learned his defensive style and how to handle players.
“I can’t really tell you how many lessons I’ve learned, just being very organized and being very good at your craft,” Clark said.
In 2005, working off a recommendation from Dunlap, Bzdelik hired Clark inside of an hour of meeting him and wife, Laurie. Clark continued his basketball education under Bzdelik for five years until Bzdelik left for Wake Forest and chose to retain the Demon Deacons assistants. On Tuesday, Bzdelik raved about his meticulous teaching, his connection with players and his integrity.
“He may say that I’ve done a lot for him, but he’s done more for me than I for him,” Bzdelik said.
Clark has been at Metro State as head coach since 2010, compiling a 79-17 record and reaching the Elite Eight last year before breaking through this season. In the national semifinals Saturday, the Roadrunners thwarted West Liberty, which entered the game leading Division II in scoring at 103.6 points per game, in a 83-76 win.
Clark said he and his family love Denver — his four jobs have all been in Colorado — and calls athletic director Joan McDermott “one of the best.” He also saw Dunlap wait nine seasons before leaving Metro State for an assistant job with the Denver Nuggets. But, the door eventually will knock, perhaps several times.
Said Clark, “I’m a competitor. You always want to see how high you can climb in this business.”
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