Nobody at the SEC Network has messed with Andy Landers’ hair.
So far.
A day might come when a network stylist decides to try to change the former Georgia women’s coach’s look to something that’s not as slick as the greens at Augusta National, but not yet.
They’ll quickly find it’s too labor intensive.
“Once I get it set, you’d have to have a chisel and a hammer to mess with it,” Landers said.
His hair doesn’t move, but Landers is a blur.
If he’s not tending to his 60 cows and one donkey at his farm just south of Watkinsville, he’s flying to College Station, Texas, where he’s the analyst for a women’s basketball game televised by the SEC Network.
If he’s not driving to Charlotte, N.C., where he does studio work for the network’s women’s basketball show, he’s washing the windows or painting walls at his Athens home.
And if he’s not assisting the SEC by scouting locations around the Southeast for possible future women’s basketball conference tournament venues, he’s driving to watch his former Georgia players and assistants coaching at their current schools.
And he’s supposed to be retired.
“I can’t sit still,” Landers said.
Nine months into his retirement as coach of the program he built, molded and guided for 36 years, Landers has packed his days with plenty of activities.
Something was needed to fill the void created when he didn’t have practices to run, strategy to devise or high school players to woo.
Landers and TV seemed a perfect match.
Carla Williams, who played and coached for Landers and later became his boss as Georgia’s deputy director of athletics, has watched Landers a couple of times on the SEC Network.
“Basketball is a natural for him, and he’s a people person,” she said. “He’s got this wonderful personality, which is why he was so successful as a coach and as a recruiter. So that comes across quite naturally on TV when he’s interacting with the folks he’s working with and talking about basketball. He knows a lot of the coaches who are coaching, so he has that insight as well. That helps it come across as something that’s very natural for him.”
Landers is limiting his analyst assignments, which would require more travel than he’s willing to commit, but he will make the weekly drive to the SEC Network studio in Charlotte. He’ll co-host the women’s basketball show every Thursday night with Maria Taylor, another one of his former players.
Naturally long-winded, Landers has “tailored his talk to TV,” Williams said.
“He’s done a great job.”
Landers was 26 when he was hired by former Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley on April 24, 1979, with just four years at Roane State Community College on his resume.
He became Georgia’s first full-time women’s basketball coach.
The Lady Bulldogs qualified for their first NCAA tournament in his third season.
They won the SEC and advanced to the Final Four in his fourth.
Thirty-six years later, Landers retired with 862 wins at Georgia (944 overall) and innumerable accomplishments and accolades, but no national championships.
“That’s the piece that’s missing,” he said. “On one hand I feel blessed that we were on the Final Four stage five times, that we were in (the national championship) game twice. Not many programs have done that. I know that was a blessing, but I look back and know that if it wasn’t for a foul here or a foul there, or a little tweaked strategy here or there, we could’ve won a national championship.”
Williams said if Landers was ever distraught by that, it never showed. Landers is particularly proud of the fact that all 67 of his four-year letter-winners graduated from UGA.
“As players, he never allowed you to be mediocre,” Williams said. “He never allowed you to settle. He always pushed you to maximize your potential. … To me, he approached every day the same, and that is with the idea of excellence. I know he has always talked to us about doing our best in everything that we do. I know Coach would’ve liked to have won a national championship, but when you look at his impact on so many young people, it’s more valuable than a national championship.”
Landers’ SEC Network responsibilities extend through the season. After that, he might fidget for a while until he finds other jobs or projects to occupy his time.
And there’s always his cows and his donkey to care for and feed.
“They’re always glad to see me and they don’t ever talk back,” Landers said.
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