Jack’s Blog

Each year at this time, there are certain things that we can be assured of seeing and hearing: arguments over who got in and why; arguments over who was left out and why; first round upsets or near upsets; big games by relatively unknown players, and … sportswriters and sportscasters, led by the incomparable Dick Vitale, talking about a successful coach of a low- to mid-major team whose club just pulled off a major upset in the Big Dance, catapulting himself onto the short list of every school where there’s a coaching opening (and even on some who had a coach but there were rumors that …).  When questioned, these coaches will usually say something like, “Well, it’s awful nice to be thought of by someone else” (especially in a business where there is noooo job security), “but right now, all my efforts are centered on our next game.  There’s nothing more important to me than that right now - except for my family.”

The last part of that last line is said almost as if it was genuine.  Any coach who says that is, more than likely, trying to say to all the athletics directors that they shouldn’t rush into anything because should we lose this one, give me five minutes with my what will soon be my former team and then, anytime - day, night, weekend, holiday - just give me a call and we’ll talk - the sooner, the better.

There’s also a group of coaches (a group that I longed to be a member of, although I never was presented with the opportunity) who sincerely want to stay at their job and see how high they can build it.  Jerry Tarkanian was one.  He agonized over the UNLV offer when he was at Long Beach State and came oh-so-close to staying at LBSU (where he’d had incredible success) until an administrator made some disparaging remarks about the type of person he would consider Tark if he decided to leave.  The NBA offers that came when he was achieveing all that success at UNLV caused Jerry more angst.  He never did leave and, went to the Final Four on four different ocasions, eventually winning one.  Note: After he was out of coaching, the San Antonio Spurs hired him but that stay lasted all of 20 games. 

Another coach in this neighborhood is Mark Few.  Although he’s had numerous opportunities to leave Gonzaga, he has, to date, turned all of them down.  There was a time that people, mainly the talking heads, questioned him about the wisdom of not accepting an offer from one of the “big” schools so he could have a chance to win a National Championship.  Instead, he stayed with the Zags and made them National Championship contenders.  His friend and former running mate at Gonzaga was Dan Monson.  Few and Monson were assistants to Dan Fitzgerald in the early ’90s. 

Few must have learned from his buddy, who had in his contract that he would be the head coach when Fitz decided to retire.  Once he did and Monson took over, he made sure it was written in Few’s contract that, should Monson leave, Few was guaranteed the head coaching job.  Note: Few’s contract has a provision that assistant Leon Rice be named the coach when Few leaves.  Wise move.  How hard do you think that assistant is going to work, knowing that if he performs his job well enough, his boss might get one of those big paying jobs, where he’d make a enough dough to retire on (when he wanted)? 

Although Fitz was a heckuva coach in his own right, the program took off when Monson took over.  He was offered the Minnesota job and took it.  It was in a bigger league, he made a ton of money and … became miserable.  Ultimately, he was let go by UM and is currently the head coach at, coincidentally, Long Beach State.

Monson should have known that chasing the dollar (and, after all, that’s the real reason these guys are leaving) was a bad idea after his father Don, who had enjoyed tremendous success at the University of Idaho, took the Oregon job, where he had some success, but not nearly as much as he would have had if he stayed.  His mentor, Jud Heathcote, left a great program at the University of Montana for a down-and-almost-out head coaching job at Michigan State.  Don eventually got fired at the school where Nikes were invented.

 At a level below Division I is coaching legend Don Meyer, currently the head coach at Northern State in Aberdeen, SD.  Don started his head coaching career at Hamline (MN) University, then moved to David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN and enjoyed unparalled success there.  One day, he was told the university was making plans to move into Division I.  Don thought it was a foolish move and said so.  The president (or director of athletics) told him their crosstown rival Belmont was doing it and so were they - with him or without him.  In a previous blog, I ended with a quote that said, “Anytime you say, ‘It’s this or else, be prepared for all else.’”

Don left, Northern State couldn’t have been happier and a flurry of wild events happened next.  First, Don got into a terrible car accident and doctors were forced to amputate his left leg, just below the knee.  Don, being Don, got discharged from the hospital and is now  …  coaching at Northern State.  On January 11, Northern State, and its coach, Don Meyer, won a basketball game, making Don the all-time winningest mens collegiate basketball coach.

These guys worked.  Job offers came their way.  But, in other places, guys can’t wait to move and one day, many of them get that opportunity, but not because their offensive or defensive strategy is talked about nation-wide, but because they have to.  They just got fired.  The reason: Usually it’s a combination, but the main one is a syndrome in the making. 

My former boss and current mentor and friend, George Raveling, used to say of these guys:

“Some guys work harder at getting their next job than they do at the one they have.”Â