Driesell steps down as Georgia St. coach

ATLANTA -- Lefty Driesell is stepping down as Georgia State's basketball coach after 786 victories at four schools.

The 71-year-old Driesell is stepping down immediately. Assistant coach Michael Perry will replace him on an interim basis beginning with tonight's home game against Gardner-Webb.

"I woke up New Year's Day and I told (wife) Joyce, I've worked 49 years and most people retire after 25 years. I'm just tired and I've got this bad cold and I'm just going to retire," Driesell said Friday. "I'm looking forward to not having a job. I can get up when I want to and do what I want to."

Driesell missed the Panthers' 73-62 victory at Furman on Thursday night with the flu. Georgia State is 4-6 this season.

He is in his 41st season and has the fifth-most wins in Division I history, third among active coaches. Driesell is the only coach to win 100 games at four schools; Davidson, Maryland and James Madison are the others.

The man known as the Ol' Left-hander -- his given name is Charles -- took all four of his schools to postseason play, with 13 trips to the NCAA tournament and eight NIT appearances.

Driesell was one of 14 finalists last year for the Basketball Hall of Fame.

His overall record of 786-394 gives him a .666 winning percentage. He went 176-65 at Davidson from 1960-69; 348-159 at Maryland from 1969-86; 159-111 at James Madison from 1988-97, and 103-59 in seven seasons at Georgia State.

His winningest season was in 2000-01, when the Panthers went 29-5 and upset Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament before hanging tough with Maryland -- an eventual Final Four participant -- until the final 10 minutes.

Former Maryland coach

He was forced out at Maryland in 1986, when Len Bias died from a cocaine overdose shortly after being drafted in the first round by the Boston Celtics. An investigation found academic problems in the basketball program and drug use among athletes. There also were charges that Driesell hindered the police inquiry into Bias' death, although a grand jury took no action.

After sitting out two years, Driesell returned to coaching at James Madison. He led the Dukes to five regular-season championships in the Colonial Athletic Association and an NCAA appearance in 1994.

But there was a 20-loss season in 1995-96, and Driesell was fired a year later after catching the school off-guard by announcing he wanted to come back for one more season to pursue his 700th career victory.

Driesell was hired at Georgia State three weeks later, and turned around a program that was the losingest in Division I basketball when he arrived.

Driesell had neck surgery in 2000, and he always insisted he would keep coaching as long as his health held up. He often pointed out that he doesn't really have any hobbies beyond basketball to keep him occupied in retirement.

"I don't know what I'd be doing if I wasn't coaching," Driesell said in March 2001, when he guided Georgia State into the NCAA tournament for only the second time in school history. "I don't play golf. I don't fish. I don't hunt. I don't read a lot, unless it's a basketball book."