A kid feeding an NBA player practice shots has led to a decade of coaching at UC Davis
.jpeg "UC Davis men’s basketball coach Jim Les, left, and assistant head coach Kevin Nosek have been working together leading the Aggies since 2011.")
Jim Les was one of those “arrive extra early to practice” sort of players.
He wasn’t blessed with height as a 6-footer in what was then a big-man’s game in the NBA, but he could shoot. The game meant something to him and he wasn’t afraid to work — or charge into the stands for a loose ball.
In the early 1990s, the Kings held training camp sessions at UC Davis. Les would get to Rec Hall 30 minutes before the rest of the roster to get in shots — short range, long range, free throws. The youngster who rebounded and fed the ball back to the shooter for countless sessions was a mop-haired lad named Kevin Nosek.
Shooter and rebounder said little. They mostly nodded at each other, the sound of a bounce and a swish their bond. Les and Nosek didn’t know it then, but their paths would cross years later on the recruiting trail. They are now linked as the leaders of the UCD men’s basketball program.
Les is in his 10th year at the helm with Nosek his assistant head coach. They work like hands in a glove. Les is an Illinois native who toured the world for a chance to shoot jumpers for a living, and then became a successful coach. Nosek is a Davis guy to the core who grew up in town, played for the Aggies in the late 1990s, got into coaching at his alma mater and will never apologize for going to church with UCD blue and gold on.
Nosek is so well known in town that people call him “The Mayor.” He prefers “coach.”
“Amazing,” Les said in reflection. “I met a guy who introduced himself as the mayor of Davis once, and I said, ‘No, Kevin Nosek’s the mayor!’
Les added, “I didn’t realize how far back Kevin and I went. I used to pride myself in getting to training camp practices early back then, to get those shots up, and there was that little kid doing the rebounding. Security was tight, but Kevin had connections.”
The connection was Nosek’s father, Stan, then the director of campus events at UCD. He had keys and rank. Stan had one request with Jerry Reynolds, then a Kings front-office man — the kid tags along for practice to soak it in, to help if needed. Reynolds agreed.
“Jim never missed, so rebounding for him was easy,” Nosek said. “He was so gracious with his time. It wasn’t like we knew each other, but he was nice and I remember that, and I followed him after that and I rooted for him from a distance. Jim didn’t know that was me, the rebounder until years later, when he brought me in. We’ve had a great time coaching together.”
One road ends, another appears
Funny thing about athletes. They never want to stop competing.
Les was the driving force behind upstart Bradley University’s spirited run in the 1986 NCAA season. The dream run ended with a loss to eventual national champion Louisville, a 32-3 season suddenly halted.
Les said he is still in contact with his Bradley coaches and teammates, and he urges his UCD players to appreciate relationships “to make it a lifetime experience and not just a four- or five-year experience here.”
He added, “When my senior season ended, I had all this angst, and what’s next? My coach (Dick Versace) gave me confidence that I could still keep playing as a professional and I felt like I couldn’t let him down. He believed in me.”
Les was drafted in the third round by the Atlanta Hawks in 1986, then endured cuts, 10-day contracts and a vagabond ride through various levels of professional ball. A suitcase was his common companion. Les competed in the Continental Basketball League, the World Basketball League, had a taste in the NBA, then back into the CBA.
His best run was with the Kings. Les logged 208 games over parts of four seasons as a shooter and effort guy, from 1990-94. He led the NBA in 3-point shooting at 46 percent in 1990-91 and was the runner-up to the Chicago Bulls’ Craig Hodges in the 3-Point Contest at NBA All-Star Weekend the following season.
But the grind and sore feet took a toll.
”My final year playing, in 1995 in Spain, I was 33 years old,” Les said. “I remember being exhausted mentally and physically. I had a young family. I needed a break. They needed a break.”
Les and wife Jodi returned to Sacramento, where Les found work at Sutro Advisors, a financial and investment firm. When Sonny Allen became coach of the WNBA’s Monarchs in 1999, he convinced Les to give coaching a try. Allen coached Les in the CBA.
Reynolds, the career Kings man, was also the general manager of the Monarchs. Les recalled zipping down the freeway, changing out of his Sutro business suit and into Monarchs coaching garb when traffic allowed.
He was hooked on coaching. It led to a three-year assistant run with the Monarchs, then a nine-year tour as head coach at Bradley, his alma mater, which led to his 2011 hire at UCD.
Les has gone from being a vagabond player to having two head-coaching jobs in 19 years in a business of continuous change.
”One thing about basketball is it’s a fraternity, and it’s a small one,” Les said. “I owe so much to Sonny and to Jerry Reynolds.”
Said Reynolds, “Oh, Jimmy Les is the best. We once did a psychological test on players when Jim was a player for us and he graded out as high as you could in terms of coachability and leadership, the qualities of teamwork. He proved it to be 100% accurate. I knew Jim would be an outstanding coach. You could just tell. He has a natural leadership quality to him and people want to be led by him.”
Loss became a gain
Les was crushed when his Bradley coaching era ended in 2011, a run that included regular appearances in postseason tournaments.
”My wife, Jodi, reminds me that it was a Godsend how it all turned out,” Les said. “It’s been wonderful here at UCD. When UCD called me, I knew I’d better check with my son, Tyler.”
That’s because Tyler was already at UCD as a scholarship basketball player, a deal brokered in large part by Nosek, a terrific recruiter who made a connection with Tyler and Jodi. Nosek was already on the UCD coaching staff. Les retained him when he was hired. That’s when Nosek told him that he was the 10-year-old rebounder all those years earlier in Kings training camps. Small world.
In their 10 seasons together with the Aggies, Les and Nosek have basked in the program going from 5-26 their first season to going 25-7 in 2014-15 with a Big West Conference banner and an NIT bid. The 2016-17 Aggies went 23-13 and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time. The following season, the Aggies won the Big West again.
The Aggies went 14-18 a year ago and managed to get in four games this season before COVID-19 led to an indefinite halt to the season. On Dec. 5, the UCD men and women’s basketball programs paused competitions, including practices, to remain compliant with new Yolo County health orders to deal with the pandemic.
For the first time in their basketball lives, Les and Nosek don’t know whom they will play next — or if there really will be a next. They know the season will be unlike any other, for any program across the country. The NCAA will grant players an extra year. This season is deemed a bonus one. There are player pieces in place for another winning campaign, including sophomore guard Ezra Manjon, the Big West Freshman of the Year last season.
“It’s unprecedented,” Les said of these times. “We’re day-to-day, trying to make the best of it. It’s really important for us to keep things in perspective. We feel for the players — playing is their passion — and we love to coach, but we need to keep people safe and our situation pales in comparison to families who have lost loved ones to this virus or the businesses and communities devastated by the shutdowns. I’m so impressed with the leadership of our university and how our student-athletes have embraced adjustments.”
The coaches did come up with an idea to keep active. On Wednesday, they drummed up a beach volleyball game that included players and coaches. The early returns are that Les and Nosek were better basketball players than they are middle blockers or servers.
“It was kind of embarrassing how bad it was for us coaches,” Nosek said with a laugh. “The volleyball brought us some fun and energy to an otherwise ambiguous time. Our guys like to compete and were able to forget where we are in the world right now for an hour.”
He added, “I would say that the players trash-talking the coaches ramped things up quite a bit. We coaches didn’t hold back, either.”
They never have — at any age, in any setting.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 4:00 AM.