College Coaches Fail in The NBA

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Duke’s Coach K quickly dismissed the rumors that he would consider the Godfather offer from the Nets’ Russian playboy owner to coach and possibly be the GM of the New Jersey Nets. Why? Well, as much as Colin Cowherd wanted to try and make a topic for his radio show about how money could make Coach K and LeBron come to the eventual Brooklyn Nets and win titles together, not everyone can be bought. Coach K realized that his legacy is as a long-tenured coach at one institution where he has had tremendous success and there was minimal upside and maximum downside to trying his hand with the professionals. He was not a guy like Calipari or Pitino that had bounced from school to school and so a pro stop was just a big pay day along the road. He also knows these key reasons why college coaches do not have success in the pros very often.

I. Power
This is the biggest reason college coaches struggle in the pros. They are used to being the ultimate power with ultimate control over the roster, playing time and practice. In college, any and everything they say is the law, not just in the gym, but likely in the entire town where the school is located. The recent example was Urban Meyer’s handling of the media over a quote they printed. Urban is a big tough guy to intimidate the local Orlando college sports beat reporter. Do you really think the NY Post would take that crap? More importantly, the power structure is different in the locker room in the NBA. An NBA coach can’t use the juvenile punishment tactics that they use in college like taking away a player’s scholarship, removing him from the starting line up or dismissing him from the team. In most instances the players are making multiples of the coaches salary, so why would they listen to the coach? Did you really expect Vince Carter to listen to John Calipari?

This is a tough pill for the coach to swallow after he was given the biggest contract he’s ever gotten in his life and he is viewed as the savior by the local media. Then come in and command a locker room of guys that don’t have to respect you and guys that know the pro game is a different animal than the college game.

II. Different Offenses
I think every coach knows when they make the leap to the pros that the game itself is different and they need to make a tweak to the offense they were running in college. The NBA game is dominated by a two-man pick-and-roll game where the rest of the team is either spotting up or crashing the hoop. The college game is a more open court where an offense can hide players or highlight each players strength. Coaches in college have the ability to recruit the proper players to fit with their system, like Bo Ryan recruiting big men who do not have great post skills but are strong outside shooters which is essential in his swing offense. In the pros the coach takes over an already established roster full of guys in 3-5 year contracts and has to try and figure out how to run an offense around the guys he has. Yes, over time they can mold that roster into a team that fits their preferred offense, but the coaches rarely get that 4-5 year window that would be necessary. People would not be excited to see an intense drama movie with Tina Fey as the lead actress, but if you put her opposite Steve Carrell in a movie with a tremendous amount of physical humor and we’re talking about a highly entertaining movie.

III. Ego
The list of coaches that couldn’t hack it in the pros is a long list, and includes the full spectrum of quality of college coaches from very good to flash in the pan guys. Yet the result is generally the same whether it’s a college super star like Rick Pitino or John Calipari, a middle of the road guy like Mike Montgomery or a flash in the pan like Lon Kruger. They all end up back in college programs. The final thing that really hampers these coaches in their pro career is an outsized ego. Much like the power structure mentioned above, these coaches have huge egos because they have been pursued, recruited and wined and dined with the top of the line ammenities the NBA offers. Then they are thrown to the wolves and told they better win despite all the headwinds. That pressure and being unaccustomed to losing is a huge dent to those egos and can cause the coach to snap, like the infamous Rick Pitino “Larry Bird ain’t walkin’ through that door!” quote.

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate: Down to Four

LOVE

- Coaching carried teams to the Final Four this year:

o This is probably the most surprising and least talented team Tom Izzo has taken to the big stage, but like all of his teams they were tougher and more disciplined than their opponents. His decision to intentionally miss the final free throw after taking a one point lead with 1.8 seconds left was genius, despite the officials screwing up the clock (you have to have possession to call time out, and the clock is supposed to stop when the official recognizes the time out, not when it is called. According to the refs, that all took 0.2 seconds). However the other positive outcome from Izzo’s decision was that Tennessee couldn’t run the baseline like they could after a made basket. As much as it pains me to say it, Izzo is THE best coach in all of college basketball, hands down, without question. 6 Final Fours in 15 years is beyond impressive.

o Mike Krzyzewski has taken some heat in the past decade that he has taken his focus off of leading Duke to the Final Four and that he is coasting after all of his success in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Well, he’s back in the Final Four with a team that plays as well together as any team in recent memory. This is his 11th trip to the Final Four with the Blue Devils and you can very easily make the case that the winner of the Duke-West Virginia semifinal will be the overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets. He is the Cindy Crawford of coaches in that he continually gets it done even as the years pile up.

o West Virginia confused and confounded Kentucky with their 1-3-1 zone and Bob Huggins outcoached John Calipari. As great of a recruiter as Calipari has proved to be, he had no X’s or O’s to solve a defense where the base at the bottom of the zone was a point guard and Coach Cal couldn’t find a way to get his big men the ball against the undersized Joe Mazzulla. Bob Huggins is back in the Final Four for the first time since 1992. But don’t listen to any interviews with him this week because he sounds as enthusiastic about it as Russell Crowe is about the papparazzi.

- Speaking of West Virginia, the prospect of hearing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” blasting from the Lucas Oil Arena while the Mountaineers cut down the nets is becoming more and more of a reality. Nothing like a little John Denver magic for a theme song.

- It is probably part of the Coach K leadership, but the poise of Duke was among the key contributors to their victory over Baylor. The game was already teetering on slipping away with 1:30 left when Baylor gets a technical foul for absolutely stupidity. It iced a game that was slipping away. Why are you trying to intimidate a guy and get up in his face when you’re down 7 with under 2 minutes left in the game? As athletically talented as Baylor is, I’m pretty sure most of their team could not spell Duke if you gave them the D and the U.

- If you need something to fire you up for work this week (especially if you’re anywhere in the Eastern US where rain is punishing the entire coast), just check out the Gus Johnson soundboard and listen to his classic quotes and yells. Among my favorites is the “Rise and Fire” or the “Slipper” where Gus proclaims “…and the slipper still fits!” with the excitement of a guy who just got out of the movie where Amanda Seyfried get naked.

HATE

- Is this the worst Final Four every? While we have coaching stars in this year’s Final Four, there are not a lot of intriguing player story lines or very exciting players to watch. There is not an All-American candidate in the Final Four, which has only happened once in the past 10 years. In 2006, when no #1 seeds made the tournament (#2 UCLA, #3 Florida, #4 LSU & #11 George Mason) there were no All-American candidates, and that Final Four was not very interesting. Even in 1980, the other time when a #1 seed did not make the Final Four, Joe Barry Carroll of Purdue and Darrell Griffith of Louisville were All-American candidates. However, despite the surprise teams and lack of exciting players, it is tough to say this is the worst Final Four ever (despite my texts asking exactly that to my brother and Sal on Saturday night). At least this year has the coaches and a #1 seed still playing in it.

- Well I mentioned last week that West Virginia wanted to ugly up the basketball like Sarah Jessica Parker to have a chance to win. Well, they definitely did that on Saturday night. The Mountaineers did not hit a single 2 point basket in the entire first half of the game, going 0-16 from inside the arc. And Kentucky didn’t hit a 3 point shot until there were less than 4 minutes left in the entire game, ending up shooting 4-32 from beyond the arc. That was about as painful as your girlfriend forcing you to watch that Remember Me movie with the vampire guy and some random girl.

- Why do teams call timeouts after baskets in the final minute when they are down more than five points? For the past few years, the clock stops after a made basket, so there is no need to call time out. I get the concept of “setting up your defense” but when you are already down more than 5 points, you probably need the scramble to have a better chance at a steal and a turnover. You are going to foul immediately, so why bother with the timeout? Wouldn’t you be better served to save the time out for when you potentially get a rebound or steal in the final seconds and need to set up a play or stop the clock for a full-court heave? Just a random thing I noticed that teams call the time out to stop the clock when it is already stopped.

- Did anyone else notice the crowd in Houston for the Duke-Baylor game? It was heavily in favor of Baylor, which makes sense with the proximity to their Waco campus, but it also appeared very sparse on television. The game was played in the cavernous Reliant Stadium – home of the NFL’s Texans – so maybe it was just some of the angles that the television cameras were catching, but there appeared to be an inordinate number of empty seats for a regional final game. Is that a bad sign for next year’s Final Four which will be played in that exact venue? There will likely be the same neutral court issues in the Final Four next year, so will it be a full stadium?

Wednesday Rankings - 1990 College Hoops

Before getting to the rankings this week, if the NBA ever has another labor issue, I’m pretty sure the owners can just play this video to make their case that the players are overpaid. Marquis Daniels……..pause for the collective “Who?” from the audience………of the Boston Celtics had this piece of bling made: a diamond-studded replica of his own head. Just watch it being made:

Diamond Head Made by Jason of Beverly Hills from vKofJBH on Vimeo.

If you read yesterday’s post, I teased today’s rankings with a mention that currently #1 ranked Syracuse hasn’t held that top spot since 1990. Well, these rankings will rank today’s top 8 teams, and compare them to a team and a song from 1990. I’ve already covered my thoughts on Syracuse and their fans after watching them dismantle UNC at the Garden early on this season, so let’s get right to comparing teams of 2010 with 1990…………

1. Syracuse
1990 Hoops Doppleganger: UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (#1 seed, national champs)
1990 Hit Song: “The Humpty Dance” by The Digital Underground

The currently #1 ranked Syracuse team has one big thing in common with the 1990 champs, and it is not pictures in a hot tub with a known gambling kingpin. It is the presence of a transfer named Johnson elevating the team to new heights – Wes at Syracuse this year and Larry at UNLV in 1990. Wes Johnson took an extremely round about path to Syracuse but he has now solidified the Orange attack. (The NY Times had a great article on that path – better than I could recap here) The biggest difference between the two teams is that UNLV was the consensus #1 to start the 1990 season, and this year’s Syracuse squad was unranked (and lost to a D-II school in an exhibition game).

Why the Humpty Dance? Because the Digital Underground was a compilation of unknowns which together produced the #63 song in 1990, but the song that is still a party-starter at any bar at any time. Syracuse is a combination of unknowns – not a single “top 50 recruit” among the entire roster. Is Wes Johnson the Tupac Shakur? Tupac was a young unknown with a checkered past when he joined the group and went on to be the greatest lyricist the hip-hop/rap world has ever seen. Johnson could be playing himself to a lottery selection and his own version of “America’s Most Wanted.”

2. Kansas
1990 Hoops Doppleganger: Duke Blue Devils (#2 seed, national runner-up)
1990 Hit Song: “Just A Friend” by Biz Markie

The 1990 Duke team was in the middle of their 4 straight trips to the Final Four, and was led by sophomore Christian Laettner and freshmen Bobby Hurley. Yet their leading scorer was actually senior Phil Henderson and they also had one of the best names in the history of college basketball in Alaa Abdelnaby manning the center position. This year’s Kansas squad has strong point guard play in Sherron Collins, and also has a big man similar to Laettner that can dominate games in college, but his lack of athleticism will challenge his pro prospects. The Jayhawks also have the athletic Morris brothers, which makes them stand out from the 1990 Blue Devil team that would eventually get run off the court by UNLV.

For the song, why Biz Markie? Why not. Before the song got reintroduced to the world through the Heineken cab driver commercial, it was one of the catchy songs that will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Kind of like that Duke team, and like this year’s Kansas team – they may disappear for a while, but when you look up and see them, they’re pretty damn good.

3. Kentucky
1990 Hoops Team: Illinois Fightin’ Illini (#5 seed, 1st round upset) or LSU Tigers (#5 seed, lost 2nd Rd)
1990 Hit Song: “I Wanna Be Rich” by Calloway

This year’s Kentucky team had to be split between two teams from 1990, one of which is more aligned with their coach, and the other with their players. The 1990 Illinois squad was remembered as the “Flyin Illini” because of the guard play of All-American Kendall Gill combined with Nick Anderson and Marcus Liberty. That’s not the key similarity with Kentucky – the common ground is that Illinois went on probation the following year after recruiting violations regarding offering money to Deon Thomas. (side note – that was the situation where now Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl blew the whistle on UI-Chicago’s current coach Jimmy Collins, an Illinois assistant at the time. The end result was that Pearl was blackballed from coaching for years before getting a restart at UW-Milwaukee.) And since John Calipari is coaching Kentucky, well, judging by his track record, it’s just a matter of time until Kentucky ends up on probation, just like UMass and Memphis previously.

The similarity with LSU? LSU was led by a dynamic point guard in Chris Jackson (later known as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) and a freshman center that you might have heard of – Shaquille O’Neal. Kentucky is led by a dynamic point guard in John Wall and a freshman big guy in DeMarcus Cousins. Perhaps if Illinois & LSU had combined and paired up Nick Anderson with Shaquille O’Neal they would have had as much success as the two had in leading the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals half a decade later.

As for the song, since John Calipari is involved, there are going to be one-and-done players who are more focused on getting rich. And who knows, they may already be getting rich just playing for Calipari. (I have no proof and am not accusing Calipari of anything…….directly. The guy is a weasel and I wouldn’t put anything past him.)

4. Duke
1990 Hoops Team: UConn Huskies (#1 seed, Lost Regional Final)
1990 Hit Song: “Step By Step” by New Kids on the Block

Duke is one of only 2 teams to be among the top ranked current teams that is also one of the dopplegangers from 1990. Kind of like Cindy Crawford, the top model in 1990 and still capable of bringing the heat in 2010. This year’s Duke squad is a donut team with a huge hole in the middle. They are dominated by perimeter players like John Scheyer and have no internal toughness (Kyle Singler is softer than Kirstie Alley), which is very much like the 1990 UConn squad, which relied on Chris Smith, Tate George and Scott Burrell.

Why the song? Well, I could try to make the case that the Duke team has slowly crawled their way into position for a #1 seed in a “step-by-step” process. Or I could make the case that Duke and New Kids are both a group of unathletic white guys trying to show they have some rhythm. Or I guess I could just say that it’s New Kids on the Block and they seem the most fitting music group to describe Duke. I think we’re good, here. Also, doesn't Joey McIntyre kind of look like Bobby Hurley? Just a little? Maybe it's just the hair. And the guy in the back left kind of looks like Mike The Situation from Jersey Shore...

5. Kansas State
1990 Hoops Team: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (#4 seed, Lost in Final Four)
1990 Hit Song: “Poison” by Bel Biv Devoe

The 1990 George Tech team with “Lethal Weapon 3” was among my favorite teams. They had Kenny Anderson, Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver launching threes and flying up and down the court with reckless abandon. Defense was a foreign word to them, but when they were hot, they were as good as anyone, evidenced by their run to the Final Four. This year’s Kansas State squad has some similarities based on the frenetic pace that Denis Clemente runs the Wildcat offense and distributes to Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly. Kansas State has the potential to make a deep run in the tourney, but they also look like het classic team that gets a high seeding and bows out early.

Another strong three-name squad from 1990? Bel. Biv. Devoe. Poison was the greatest song from Bel Biv Devoe, and it just seems appropriate for Kansas State. I want to see Frank Martin stomping up and down the sideline belting it out: “It’s drivin’ me outta my mind…..that’s why it’s hard for me to find…..can’t get it outta my head…..”

6. Ohio State
1990 Hoops Doppleganger: Syracuse Orangemen (#2 seed, Lost in Regional Semi)
1990 Hit Song: “I Remember You” by Skid Row

This is the doppleganger that the rankings were made for, the 1990 Syracuse team led by the best player in the country, Derrick Coleman and supported by Billy Owens and LeRon Ellis. This year’s Ohio State squad is led by the best player in the country in Evan Turner, with a strong supporting cast of David Lighty, Jon Diebler and William Bufford. The 1990 Syracuse team was a few years removed from their loss to Indiana in the National Championship, and the current Ohio State team is a few years removed from their loss to Florida in the final game.

People kind of forgot about Ohio State when Evan Turner missed some time with broken vertabrate after falling on a dunk. Yet, slow and steady they have worked their way back into the national picture, and people are going “I Remember You” when they see them on television and realize they are almost in the top 5. And if those people are living in North Dakota? Then they probably even look like Skid Row. (side note – got into an argument about the popularity of Skid Row last night. My wife claimed I only know them because I’m old, and my brother-in-law said he was break dancing in 1990, when he was 3, so he only knew rap. But everyone knows “18 & Life” right? Right? Anyone? Skid Row is hair band classic – and I would argue they are as known as Claudia Schiffer. My friend Mack said she didn’t recognize the name, but I feel pretty confident that she would know the words if she heard it. Mack is the same girl who can rap every word to Tupac, Dr. Dre, Vanilla Ice and Rob Base.)

7. Villanova
1990 Hoops Doppleganger: Arkansas Razorbacks (#4 seed, Lost in Final Four)
1990 Hit Song: “Pump Up The Jam” by Technotronic

The 1990 Arkansas team was part of the Nolan Richardson “94 feet of hell” teams that would press the entire game regardless of the score and got up and down the court as fast as any team not named Loyola Marymount. The 1990 squad was the MayDay connection of point guard Lee Mayberry and shooting guard Todd Day (who both went on to very average careers playing for the Milwaukee Bucks. Neither could quite live up to the previous Razorback the Bucks had success with: Sidney Moncrief). This year’s Villanova team has the guard combo of Scottie Reynolds and Corey Stokes and the team will only go as far as their guards can carry them. The big difference is that Villanova doesn’t play defense at all – they are 14th in the Big East in points per game.

Why Technotronic? Because the pace of a game between this year’s ‘Nova team and the 1990 Arkansas would be as frenetic and hypnotic as the “Pump Up The Jam” anthem. From the opening tip to the final buzzer, you’d be stomping your feet and bobbing your head just like you do as soon as the song comes on. You can’t help it. There are certain songs that automatically make you bob your head – “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, “Nuthin’ But A G Thang” by Dr. Dre, “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. Pump Up The Jam……Pump it up…..

8. Purdue
1990 Hoops Doppleganger: Loyola Marymount (#11 seed, Lost in Regional Final)
1990 Hit Song: “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You” by Michael Bolton

Alright, absolutely no disrespect to Hank Gathers at all. Obviously losing a guy to a knee injury does not even come close to comparing to having one of your stars dying on the court. But Purdue is trying to figure out a way to replace their emotional leader and a regular double-double machine. The run by Loyola Marymount under Paul Westphal was an emotionally driven and great story that probably could have went even further had they not run into a juggernaut in UNLV that played the same style of basketball, only better. Hard to believe that they scored 100 points against UNLV…and still lost by 30. This year’s Purdue team is much more highly regarded than the LMU team was in 1990 and will definitely have a better seeding, giving them more time to adjust to the loss of Robbie Hummel.

The sappy song from Michael Bolton – not the guy from the Office Space movie – is fitting and is so anti-Matt Painter. That’s why I’m giving it to Purdue. They are a hard-nosed, tough team, so what better song than a cheesey love ballad from a guy who stole Dee Snider’s (Twisted Sister) wig for a few years before he passed it on to the lead singer from Nickelback.

Don't Ask Me About...

Quick hits today on a few random things that you shouldn’t ask me about. Why? Because I just don’t care or it’s dumb. It’s not worth the waste of air to discuss these narcissistic people or topics. So as of right now…..

Don’t Ask Me About:

- Brett Favre’s retiring. Who cares? He won’t make up his mind until August anyway, so why waste time in February?

- Tim Tebow at the Senior Bowl. We know he can’t take a snap. He never has, so why would he suddenly be good at it? It’s a not story. He should be a 6th rounder at best, but some team will reach for him in the 2nd round because the owner will panic that they can’t take a chance at missing him.

- Andy Roddick. Dude, you stink. You are the most overrated athlete since Anna Kournikova. The difference was she knew she was only popular because she was smoking hot. You try to pretend like you’re a tennis player, but you lose every big match. You’re best performance was a loss to Roger Federer. Then again, you have Brooklyn Dekker, so you still win.

- The Saints being a symbol of the city of New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Really? Because the team has rebounded and made the Super Bowl, the city is all fixed now? My guess is that people that should be spending all of their time and money on rebuilding their house and neighborhood (schools) will be blowing money to go to Miami for the game. There are still plenty of problems in the city and plenty of people that never returned, so let’s not make it out that the city is recovered because the team is winning.

- Tom Cable may or may not still be the coach of the Raiders. Listen, it’s not going to matter who is coaching the Raiders as long as Al Davis forces them to start that 300 pound anchor, JaMarcus Russell at quarterback. They will not be relevant until they find someone that can play the position.

- Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie. So let’s see, Angelina wants to adopt kids from every country on the planet and live in France. Brad thinks 6 foreigners living in their house in New Orleans would be enough for him. They’ve both had short Hollywood marriages in the past. So why are we surprised that it’s not going to work out for them? My prediction: Brad is back with Jennifer Anniston before the end of 2010.

- Natalie Portman as a home wrecker. I thought home wreckers were skanks from Vegas, and want to think of Natalie as the girl in Closer or Garden State. I really can’t put Star Wars in that mix though, because I have a problem thinking anyone or thing from a science fiction movie is attractive. I’m always concerned there could be some weird power or extra appendage hidden somewhere when you’re messing with anyone from outer space.

- Kentucky basketball success. Most coaches have an issue with renting a player for one year because they are trying to build a program and help kids with their careers and lives. Not John Calipari. That greasy jag-off is completely okay with having one-and-done guys every year making a mockery of the student-athlete and the “institutions of higher learning” monikers. He has zero integrity or class. It’s just a matter of time until he gets Kentucky placed on probation and he moves on to his next victim……errr, school.

Tuesday Ramblings

Gilbert Arenas and his Washington Wizards teammate Jarvis Crittenden pulled guns on each other in their own locker room after an argument about a gambling debt. Is any of this a surprise? The fact that Hayden Panttiere has boobs and that she’s dating boxing champion Wladamir Klitschko is a surprise. NBA players with guns in the locker room is not a surprise. But the one-liners or newspaper headlines are almost too easy……just a few samples:

Agent Zero and his not so secret weapons

Arenas is a Shooting Guard Gone Wild

Arenas takes the “Gunner” label to new levels

Agent Zero makes his case for the team to go back to the Bullets nickname

Arenas got confused playing at the Target Center in Minnesota

And so on, and so on, and so on. The story is just another example of how these athletes continue to test the levels of stupidity they can reach. These guys have the money, so your bodyguard, manager or your boys should be doing all of the gun carrying and driving after a night of downing Patron. That's the price they have to pay for being part of your celebrity athlete posse.

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While the Fiesta Bowl was entertaining to watch, I’m pretty sure it didn’t do anything to help the case for a playoff. Both TCU and Boise State would have been the Michael Spinks to Florida, Alabama or Texas’s Mike Tyson. They are good football teams but they do not have the athleticism, size or speed to truly play with the big boys. I loathe the current system of spread out bowl games (I almost forgot there were more games to play after a 2 day break), the playoff wouldn’t make a difference. Small schools with gimmicky offenses and trick plays (why are teams EVER surprised when Boise State fakes a punt??) may win one game against the powerhouses, but they would not be able to advance through multiple rounds of games. Can you see Boise State beating Georgia Tech and then following it up by beating Ohio State and then having to still beat Alabama in a championship? Neither can I. It’s kind of like Gwen Stefani - she’s not for everyone, and she’s not going to stack up against the most talented musicians or women, but she has her moments of brilliance and can be entertaining.

So until we have a better solution than a playoff - maybe a “plus-one” system where after the bowl games are played we have one final championship game? - we shouldn’t mess with the current system.

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USC was put on probation for the improper benefits that OJ Mayo received from boosters during his one year on campus. Memo to all coaches at USC: Stay away from great athletes named OJ that want to wear #32. They tend to bring trouble to Los Angeles. Mayo didn’t (allegedly) kill his ex-wife and her lover, then have his buddy lead the cops on a low-speed chase down the 405 in a white Bronco, and spend the next 15 years looking for the killer on golf courses all over southern California. Yet his brief time didn’t produce overwhelming success on the court and his off the court actions will cause a lasting headache for the entire program.

The only thing more contrived and bogus than the Obama Beer Summit with Henry Gates & James Crowley is NCAA probation. When a program violates the rules, the NCAA cracks down by making teams “vacate” victories during the time of the violation, takes away scholarships and bans

the team from the postseason. Who does this punishment actually affect? In many instances, the players that are the cause of the probation have left school early for the pros. The coaching staff has the ability to leverage the success they enjoyed with the violating player into a bigger, higher-paying job and leaves campus. So the people that have to pay for the violation are the new coaching staff and the players still around on the team who have lost a scholarship and the hope of postseason play.

And if those players want to transfer to a school with an opportunity to play in the postseason, they have to sit out a year after transferring. A coach who jumps programs doesn’t pay any penalty - after crashing the rental car into a tree, he walks away and heads to the bar to toast to his next big pay day. Yes, I’m talking to you, John Calipari or Jim Harrick. These guys crashed multiple programs (Calipari at UMass and Memphis, and Harrick at UCLA, Rhode Island and Georgia) and were continually given new programs to run. Bobby Knight may have been a prick and mistreated his players, but he was dead on when he said that he was glad he was no longer coaching because the game lacked integrity and John Calipari was the perfect example of that lack of integrity. Maybe the game would have been better off if John Cheaney (who is among the few coaches that look like their mascot - the Owls) had actually been able to carry out his threat on the then-UMass coach…………