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Isn't it strange that the NCAA women's basketball championship was played between two schools which didn't admit women when I started to high school. A girl who graduated from high school with me, could have enrolled in Texas A&M, but it was several more years before Notre Dame merged with its sister school, St. Mary's. It's not as if there were no coed schools before. Women graduated from the school I went to, Missouri, before schools like Texas A&M and Ohio State ever held their first classes. But the boom in women's higher education in the 1960s really improved things for everyone.
As I said before I'm not a giant basketball fan. I'm not surprised at the big stink created by Missouri hiring Miami's ex-coach Haith. But I am disappointed in the press and in the fans. Really folks, if you look at it over all, Missouri got what they wanted, namely, a bargain. If Matt Painter had left Purdue for Missouri, it would have only been because Purdue had undervalued him. Purdue came up with the extra cash and good for them. I'm sure the other issues Painter had with his athletic department are going to still be there, but you can't blame a guy for wanting to help out his old school. Missouri ended up with a guy whose record isn't fantastic. But in a less brutal conference than ACC basketball, you'd expect him to get a slightly improved record which is all Missouri is asking for. So Missouri probably has as good a coach as they had last year for virtually the same price, instead of a huge raise which they would have given to the old guy. The press wanted Missouri to hire Shaka Smith from VCU. Sorry, but a four game winning streak, even a very impressive one, doesn't make a coach for life. If he does it again next year and has a better regular season record then schools with an opening should think about him after next season.
It is odd though that NC State got less abuse for going through a longer list of candidates than Missouri did. It's amazing that the Yow sisters who seem to have created chaos in every athletic department they've been a part of, continue to be well respected in the athletic community. Maybe they've done good things financially, but you can't say they've done anything athletically or academically for their employers.
Dreamwidth says this morning that they think the continuing attacks on LJ are from Russian political infighting. Good grief!
As I said before I'm not a giant basketball fan. I'm not surprised at the big stink created by Missouri hiring Miami's ex-coach Haith. But I am disappointed in the press and in the fans. Really folks, if you look at it over all, Missouri got what they wanted, namely, a bargain. If Matt Painter had left Purdue for Missouri, it would have only been because Purdue had undervalued him. Purdue came up with the extra cash and good for them. I'm sure the other issues Painter had with his athletic department are going to still be there, but you can't blame a guy for wanting to help out his old school. Missouri ended up with a guy whose record isn't fantastic. But in a less brutal conference than ACC basketball, you'd expect him to get a slightly improved record which is all Missouri is asking for. So Missouri probably has as good a coach as they had last year for virtually the same price, instead of a huge raise which they would have given to the old guy. The press wanted Missouri to hire Shaka Smith from VCU. Sorry, but a four game winning streak, even a very impressive one, doesn't make a coach for life. If he does it again next year and has a better regular season record then schools with an opening should think about him after next season.
It is odd though that NC State got less abuse for going through a longer list of candidates than Missouri did. It's amazing that the Yow sisters who seem to have created chaos in every athletic department they've been a part of, continue to be well respected in the athletic community. Maybe they've done good things financially, but you can't say they've done anything athletically or academically for their employers.
Dreamwidth says this morning that they think the continuing attacks on LJ are from Russian political infighting. Good grief!
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I think they're getting off light this time, in part, because it's nothing compared to the fiasco NC State the last time. When they fired Herb Sendek in 2006, got turned down by Rick Barnes, Jim Larranaga (of George Mason) and coaches started jumping out of the woodwork to pre-emptively announce they weren't interested in the job. They eventually found a taker in former NC State star Sidney Lowe, who had to take crash courses to get his degree, because NC State didn't realize their Head Coach needed one when they interviewed him...
Maybe they've done good things financially, but you can't say they've done anything athletically or academically for their employers.
I can't speak for Kay, but Debbie Yow was AD at Maryland for fifteen years, and she rescued the school from crippling athletic debt and the coaches she hired brought in 20 National Championships across a number of Sports. So I'll defend her on that. She didn't get along with Gary, and DC media and alums mostly take his side - but I would note the two coaches over whom she got run out (Friedgen and Williams) had very poor academic performance records.
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I have to lay bad academics at the feet of the AD. If there is no athletic-department-wide system to oversee and assist the players that the coaches have to adhere to, then sooner or later there will be problems. You just can't let the coaches decide individually about things like that.
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Don't have much choice at Maryland. Gary Williams is totally entrenched with the Alumni and Boosters and can't be fought. The nice thing is, Gary doesn't cheat and doesn't cross ethical lines in AAU/Recruiting. The downside is, the school went from being a perennial sweet-16 to perennial-bubble, and again he doesn't graduate his players...