Friday, March 19, 2004
Telling it like it is
Gregg Doyel lets it rip, as he goes after the University of Miami for not being open about its intentions to land a new basketball coach.[Coach Perry] Clark has been unable to win games, unable to win recruits and unable to win over the South Florida sports market. The real reason for Dee's lengthy evaluation of Clark is obvious: Miami doesn't want to fire Clark without a replacement in hand.
Doyel also notes that the coaching carousel goes round and round -- with mediocre coaches.
UNLV already has hired Lon Kruger, whose track record is good aside from his maddening habit of resigning every four years for a better job. Houston is looking at Tom Penders, who was removed at Texas and then removed himself at George Washington. Texas A&M is looking at Larry Eustachy, who partied his way out of the Iowa State job.
Though he offers an overdue suggestion. Why not Arizona's Josh Pastner?
Houston has a shot at Josh Pastner, the Arizona boy wonder who is going to make somebody, someday, a fabulous head coach. So what if he's 26? Across the board -- industry, athletics, politics -- our leaders are getting younger, not older.
Pastner's a particularly good fit for a school in Texas, as the Arizona assistant coaches an AAU team in Houston. Josh was the subject of a February feature in Sports Illustrated, "Whiz-kid Coach; At age 25, hoops-obsessed Arizona assistant Josh Pastner is on the fast track to a top job." More on his merits in an upcoming post.
