Flying Coach

Shortly after the NCAA tournament ends, and sometimes during its tenure, there is a mad rush of firing and hiring. There's a subtext to the NCAA men's tournament. The text, as it were, is for a team to win the national championships, the pinnacle of division 1 college basketball. The subtext is to do well enough to get a "better" job, that is, for the coach.

Let's review what happened. Kentucky's Tubby Smith, the successor to Rick Pitino, who heard the siren song of the NBA, became head coach of the Celtics, and drove the once proud franchise into the ground, before heading back to greener pastures, becoming cross-town coach at rival Louisville, decided the pressure of being Kentucky coach was too much.

Tubby had won the national championships once, but it was early on, with Pitino's kids. The Wildcat faithful never quite embraced Tubby, and although he frequently made the tournament, he rarely made it that far. Kentucky fans wanted final four appearances on a Kryzewski-like consistency, which meant basically every other year, a feat that few college programs can expect to reach.

Much like being Alabama (or Notre Dame)'s head coach, being Kentucky's head coach is often a thankless job. You're expected to win big, out-competing up to a hundred other programs seeking the same status.

Tubby finally said adios to Kentucky, and went for the much less known, Minnesota, what many consider a step down. However, Minnesota would be thrilled to get to the tournament regularly, and has little expectations of winning a championship. This was more to Tubby's liking.

Arkansas fired Stan Heath, who got the position after Kent State did well in the NCAA tournament back in 2002. Arkansas had just fired Nolan Richardson, an African American coach, who was a bit controversial. To Arkansas's credit, Heath was also African American, and coached five years. However, he didn't win as much as Richardson, so they looked elsewhere. Arkansas wanted Billy Gillespie, but we'll get back to him in a moment.

Arkansas then hired Dana Altman, the coach of Creighton, one of the mid-majors that do well tournament-time. He backed out after a day, deciding he didn't want the Arkansas job.

Michigan fired Tommy Amaker, who had been Michigan's coach for five years, and never once made the NCAA tournament, though his team won the NIT one year and was runner up another year. Michigan hired John Beilein, who had two successful NCAA runs with West Virginia in 2005 and 2006, but barely missed making it in 2007. Beilein was replaced by Bob Huggins, who once coached Cincinnati, and was asked to coach WVU, before he was fired from Cincinnati and had just wrapped up a year at Kansas State.

Texas A&M had a successful tournament, ranked as a 3 seed, and a team many felt could go far. They did pretty well, reaching the sweet 16. Coached by Billy Gillispie, Texas A&M made it from an afterthought in basketball to being a serious tournament threat.

Kentucky, who had hoped to bait Billy Donovan, two time national championship coach of the Florida Gators, but just as important, former assistant coach to Rick Pitino when he was at Kentucky, had to settle for Gillispie, when Donovan decided to stay at Florida. Gillispie, much like Ben Howland, former Pitt coach and current UCLA coach, is considered a workaholic, married to the sport, spending more time analyzing games then, say, having a wife.

Gillispie benefited from a decent if not outstanding tournament run, just as Beilein did. Rather than look at a body of work, they figure the proof is in the tournament pudding. Get a good team to play at the NCAAs, and that can be a resume builder like no other.

Strange hiring practices, wouldn't you say?