Men’s basketball at University of the Pacific and Idaho will have quite a bit in common next season — mostly with the men in charge.
Pacific Media Relations | Courtesy
Ron Verlin coaches while assistant coach at Pacific. Verlin spent 19 years in Stockton before being promoted March 26.
Last week, Pacific named Ron Verlin the successor to Bob Thomason, who stepped down after 25 years at the helm of the program.
Idaho fans may double take at the name — Ron Verlin is the twin brother of Idaho coach Don Verlin. The identical twins were born a minute apart and took similar, yet different, paths to their respective head coaching jobs.
Ron Verlin spent 19 years as an assistant coach at Pacific before the opportunity to become a head coach opened up. Don Verlin spent 11 seasons under Stew Morrill at Utah State before jumping at the opportunity to lead Idaho.
“We always talked about hey, if Stew leaves are you going to get the job. Or if Bob decides to retire do you think you’ll get the job,” Ron Verlin said. “Every year when you’re a coach you always look at the end of each season and say ‘Hey what’s out there? What can I do? What do I need to get better? Maybe there’s a job out there for me, maybe there’s not.'”
Don Verlin found that opening at Idaho in 2008, and his experience has proved invaluable for Ron Verlin throughout the last couple of weeks. Ron said he and his younger-by-a-minute brother have been in constant contact, sharing advice and bouncing ideas off each other.
“It’s an exciting time for our families, they really got into it. His friendship has been awesome. We’re not just brothers, we’re also very close friends,” Ron Verlin said. “He knows, he’s called me a couple times this week like ‘Hey, how you hanging’ because it’s been crazy.”
Despite both being in the coaching profession for more than two decades, the two haven’t coached together since their first gig — coaching the freshman team at Del Oro High School in Loomis, Calif. From there, their careers evolved through AAU teams and have branched off in different
directions.
Don Verlin got his start at Columbia College in California, where Ron arrived in 1993, but that was two years after his brother moved on to Colorado State.
“I think we’ve always thought about that, coaching together again. But that’s not how this business works — him going the way he went and me going the way I went — that’s how it worked,” Ron Verlin said.
It’s not likely their paths will cross anytime soon — the two don’t want to play against each other.
“This business is too tough, we share a lot of information.
Obviously if it’s the CIT, NIT or NCAA we’d do it and welcome the competition,” Ron Verlin said. “Winning and losing is so hard at this level, it’s really difficult, you just grind.”
But if the two were to hit the court just one-on-one? The older Verlin joked that’d be a piece of cake.
“Right now — I got him, no problem. No problem,” the older Verlin said “I believe he was better than I was, he was a better all around player, I might’ve been a better shooter, but right now there’s no way, with his bad knees I’d kill him, it wouldn’t even be a game.”
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]