New Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau driven by full-court passion

The long road brought Tom Thibodeau back to Minneapolis, a journey that appropriately started with Bill Musselman's 1987-88 Albany Patroons, a team forever linked to the Timberwolves.

Thibodeau was an assistant coach at Harvard then. What he knew for sure was that he loved basketball and wanted to make it his life. After that, the details were a bit fuzzy. Maybe a Division I head coach someday? But already, he was watching, learning, marinating in the rich basketball scene in the Boston area, where Rick Pitino was coaching at Providence, Gary Williams at Boston College, Jim Calhoun at Northeastern.

"Three Hall-of-Fame coaches, relatively early in their careers," Thibodeau said. "Right there…