Greenie: You're not in West Point anymore
I have the utmost respect for the cadets at the US Military Academy. They have more guts than I do, but USMA has a much bigger mission than college athletics.
You are involved in Big Boy college athletics now. There are plusses and minuses to working at the highest level.
Plus: you have the resources to pay a coach $1.5 million a year for 7 years.
Minus: the fans and media demand information about how you decided on who to pay that $1.5 million.
After making the introduction of Kelvin Sampson as your bride - uh, uh- I mean your Head coach, you finally fielded questions from the media. You refused to discuss the search process. You wouldn't answer whether the job was turned down by anyone.
Greenie, how can I put this? You can't have your cake and eat it too (and heaven nows it looks like you enjoy cake).
As an athletic director at a Big Boy school, you can't play mime to the media, fans, and ex-players during the entire process and also refuse to discuss it afterwards.
At this level you owe it to the fan base to explain the process for several reasons:
(1) As an employee of a state university, the taxpayers deserve to know what went into the decision to spend $1.5 million each of the next 7 years.
(2) Basketball in Indiana is important to a whole bunch of people. Some would say (and probably be correct) that IU Baketball is too important to the fans.
Since you refused to lead the parade, media reports have painted a picture that numerous other candidates turned down the job.
See Greenie, newspapers, TV sports reporters, and sports radio hosts have column inches, minutes and hours to fill each day (not to mention those damn internet websites and blogs). If you invoke your 5th Amendment rights during the process, all of the above will fill it with conjecture or unnamed sources. The result is the mess you find yourself in.
IU fans can't get excited about the new coach because they are still picking themselves up off the floor from the surprise announcement. Look, this country did not get really worked up when that presidential election a few years ago took several weeks to announce a winner. But the eerie silence of your search took at least a few years off most fans' lives.
What scares me the most is that the guy in charge of the athletic department at IU doesn't know why the fans are so "worked up" over this coaching search.
You are involved in Big Boy college athletics now. There are plusses and minuses to working at the highest level.
Plus: you have the resources to pay a coach $1.5 million a year for 7 years.
Minus: the fans and media demand information about how you decided on who to pay that $1.5 million.
After making the introduction of Kelvin Sampson as your bride - uh, uh- I mean your Head coach, you finally fielded questions from the media. You refused to discuss the search process. You wouldn't answer whether the job was turned down by anyone.
Greenie, how can I put this? You can't have your cake and eat it too (and heaven nows it looks like you enjoy cake).
As an athletic director at a Big Boy school, you can't play mime to the media, fans, and ex-players during the entire process and also refuse to discuss it afterwards.
At this level you owe it to the fan base to explain the process for several reasons:
(1) As an employee of a state university, the taxpayers deserve to know what went into the decision to spend $1.5 million each of the next 7 years.
(2) Basketball in Indiana is important to a whole bunch of people. Some would say (and probably be correct) that IU Baketball is too important to the fans.
Since you refused to lead the parade, media reports have painted a picture that numerous other candidates turned down the job.
See Greenie, newspapers, TV sports reporters, and sports radio hosts have column inches, minutes and hours to fill each day (not to mention those damn internet websites and blogs). If you invoke your 5th Amendment rights during the process, all of the above will fill it with conjecture or unnamed sources. The result is the mess you find yourself in.
IU fans can't get excited about the new coach because they are still picking themselves up off the floor from the surprise announcement. Look, this country did not get really worked up when that presidential election a few years ago took several weeks to announce a winner. But the eerie silence of your search took at least a few years off most fans' lives.
What scares me the most is that the guy in charge of the athletic department at IU doesn't know why the fans are so "worked up" over this coaching search.
posted by Conrad | 3:51 PM
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