During his sophomore year at North Carolina, Kuester said he saw a beautiful girl in the cafeteria and told his friends, "That's the girl I'm going to marry."

She had a boyfriend at the time, but they broke up six months later.

Kuester began dating her shortly after.

Two children and 32 years and later, Tricia and John Kuester remain happily married.

So, as the Detroit Pistons enter an age of rebuilding, they will need a patient leader to help steer them through what's sure to be some tough times.

Kuester, the sixth coach hired by Joe Dumars since 2000, knows a thing or two about patience.

The 54-year-old has longed for an opportunity to become a head coach after five woeful seasons at George Washington 20 years ago.

"That was a tough time for him," Tricia Kuester said. "But what I admired about him, was he refused to give up on his dream and was willing to start at the bottom and work his way up if he had to."

Boston Celtics great Red Auerbach, a George Washington alumnus, hired Kuester as the Celtics' video coordinator when his alma mater declined to give Kuester a new contract. Kuester parlayed that experience into several assistant coaching stints with some of the game's top coaches, such as Hall of Famer Larry Brown, and most recently, Cleveland's Mike Brown.

"This was a great, great hire by Joe Dumars," said Brown, who, like Kuester, began as an NBA video coordinator. "John is a tireless worker and a great Basketball coach. All he needed was an opportunity, and Joe Dumars is giving him just that. He'll do a great job for them."

With all the changes Detroit has made to its roster, with more likely to come, it may take some time before the team is back to playing at the level Kuester remembers when he was a Pistons assistant during the team's 2004 championship season.

"It's not all going to come together overnight," he said. "It never does. My job is to get us back on track, heading in the right direction.

"It's all about opportunity and making the most of it when it presents itself. Approaching situations like that, it has served me well as a player and with different coaching opportunities that came my way."

And with your wife?

"Yeah. That's worked out pretty well, huh?" Kuester said.