Birds, Dogs and Kangaroos: Life on the Back Roads of College Basketball
These days Rich Zvosec (pronounced zuh-VOH-sick) enjoys a successful career as a television basketball commentator, a speaker and an actor. But the foundation for this stage of his life was built from a successful college basketball coaching career. When Zvosec was hired at St. Francis College in New York, he was the youngest NCAA Division I head coach in the country at the time at age 27. After his third season as coach of the Terriers (the dogs), named the Northeast Conference Coach of the Year, Zvosec was hired to build the University of North Florida Division I program from scratch. In the fourth year of the Osprey (the birds) program, UNF reached the Sunshine State Conference championship game. His success at St. Francis and UNF didn t go unnoticed when he was hired at UMKC. So when the Kangaroos head coach departed for a job in the NBA, the Kangaroos administration didn t hesitate in turning the program over to Coach Z. The UMKC Kangaroos (commonly known as the Roos) never more enjoyed more success in Division I basketball than during its six seasons under Coach Z. In 2005, he was named Mid-Continent Conference, the College Insider and CBS Sportsline Coach of the Year. From his roots in the state of Ohio, Coach Z learned how to successfully navigate the back roads. He was never one to shy away from hard work, which has carried on to this day in his current endeavors.