The good, bad, ugly of coaches

When it comes to the NCAA men’s basketball coaching carousel, there always seems to be the… When it comes to the NCAA men’s basketball coaching carousel, there always seems to be the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of how a coach leaves his school.

This last week proved to be no different.

I saw one coach leave a school after performing nothing short of a miracle, taking a laughingstock to a contender in only three short years. This came after watching an innovator leave a program on the rise for one that has been dead in the water for the last decade. He, of course, was then replaced by a sleazeball who left his program out to dry.

Alright, I think everybody knows the names by now, but I find it amazing how a coach leaving a program has so much more to do with the kind of person he is than what he is leaving behind.

Look at John Beilein and what he has done at West Virginia. The Mountaineers have been nothing short of fun to watch while he has roamed the sidelines, going on two memorable NCAA Tournament runs in 2005 and 2006. His creative offense was beautiful, and it let the Mountaineers shoot themselves to more signature wins than even Pitt has had in the last three years. Sure, it provided some bad losses, but his team had an identity, and that’s a reflection of the kind-hearted, likeable Beilein.

So when he left West Virginia to take over at Michigan for the fired Tommy Amaker, I felt a little sad. John Beilein was good for West Virginia basketball, and he was just as good for the Big East. He brought the kind of system to Morgantown that can be successful for years with different players. Here is the case where it is disappointing when a coach leaves his post, but anger is not the first reaction.

Then there is the man who replaced him – Bob Huggins, a man as unlikable as he is unreliable. After being run out of town in Cincinnati, Huggy-bear had some time off before landing a job at Kansas State. He took a down-and-out Wildcat team to just out – out of the NCAA Tournament, that is – in only one season. The improvement was sure there, but the reliability wasn’t. He bolted Manhattan, Kan., after just one year to return to West Virginia, where he went to college.

This isn’t like Ben Howland establishing himself at Pitt before leaving for his actual dream job. This is a man on whom nobody can count bailing on a program that didn’t even have to give him a chance. His DUI arrest and laughable graduation rates at Cincinnati could have put him on the coaching sideline permanently. He had what many say is the top recruiting class coming in next year. How do you tell those kids that you won’t even be around to see them register for classes?

Well, it is a Huggins’ team, so I guess they wouldn’t have enrolled in anything that requires being awake.

Still, this is far from any coach leaving for his dream job. Lest we forget that he already turned down the job in Morgantown only a few years ago before the school hired Beilein. He opted, instead, to die a slow Queen City death before dabbling with unemployment. When K-State gives him a shot, the Wildcats get burned. Their fans are upset, and as much as I’d like to say that’s what you get with Huggins, I can’t disagree with them. He left them high and dry in a way that only Bob Huggins could do.

That, clearly, is an instance where the coach leaves on bad terms. I’m talking Kordell-Stewart-leaving-Pittsburgh bad terms. My guess is if you mention his name in Manhattan anytime soon, you are signing up for quite a tongue-lashing.

The only heartwarming story in the coaching change is Billy Gillispie ascending to the head coaching position at Kentucky only a few years after turning around two programs. As sad as Texas A’M fans must be to see Gillispie go, I have a hard time imagining they are too mad at him. This guy has earned it, and Aggies fans have to realize that.

He inherited a squad that went 0-16 in Big 12 play the year before he got there. This year, he took A’M to the Sweet 16 of its second straight NCAA Tournament, and he posted a 27-7 record that would have been good enough for the Elite Eight with one more bucket in the team’s one-point regional semifinal loss to Memphis. The resurrection of A’M hoops came only a few years after he took UTEP from a six-win season to a 24-8 mark the next year.

The guy can flat out coach, and he deserves to take over one of the most sought-after posts in college hoops. He leaves his program in good standing, and that’s more than we can say for what Huggins did to K-State. If you’re an A’M fan, you should be proud to be able to say that your coach not only turned your program around, but he did it well enough to be chosen to lead one of the most storied programs in the NCAA. That’s a case where you are simply glad to have had him coach you.

Coaches are going to change schools in their careers – it’s just the nature of the game now. The standards are set so that a coach can do great for a while, but great will need to be exceeded shortly thereafter. That’s when a coach decides to move on to greener pastures. How he does, though, plays a large role in how he is perceived by the pubic once he bolts. And the way he leaves is, usually, correlated with character.