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Larry Reynolds has guided Long Beach State to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1995, but he is in the final year of his contract. (Mark Avery / AP / March 10, 2007) |
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Make the NCAA tournament, or you're fired.
Or how about this? Make the NCAA tournament, but you're fired anyway.
That's what happened to Louis Orr at Seton Hall last year, little more than a week after his team lost to Wichita State by 20 points in a first-round game.
It could happen to somebody else soon.
Larry Reynolds has guided Long Beach State to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1995, but he is in the final year of his contract.
The silence from the administration has been deafening.
Coach Stan Heath supposedly was going to be out at Arkansas unless the Razorbacks made the NCAA field.
But the Razorbacks are in, perhaps undeservedly, after they made the title game of the Southeastern Conference tournament and a time-strapped NCAA selection committee penciled them in even though they ended up losing to Florida by 21 points.
Even Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith, who won the NCAA championship in his first season in Lexington in 1998, seems to be on thin ice if the Wildcats lose to Villanova in the first round. But Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, whose earlier remarks fueled the speculation, endorsed Smith this week, though he stopped short of saying he would definitely be the coach next season.
It sometimes seems as if the NCAA tournament has become the be-all and end-all for college basketball.
Should not making it be enough to cost someone his job?
And should making it be enough to save one?
Both decisions can hang on the result of one game, or one free throw, or how the NCAA selection committee decides to sort the wheat from the chaff for the final berths.
Jim Haney, executive director of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches and a former coach at Oregon, said coaches accept both realities.
"I think they all recognize that if you make the tournament, that's a significant accomplishment and has the ability to add to your job security," he said.
"But it's not always the case."
The truth is, some coaching situations are like bad relationships: Both people might be lovely partners for somebody else.
Sometimes, a coach is fired just as he is turning the corner.
Plenty of people thought they had seen enough after a former Army coach who reached the National Invitation Tournament in his first season on his new job finished 10-17 and 11-17 the next two.
Three years later, Mike Krzyzewski guided Duke to the first of 10 Final Four appearances.
Or how about this? Make the NCAA tournament, but you're fired anyway.
That's what happened to Louis Orr at Seton Hall last year, little more than a week after his team lost to Wichita State by 20 points in a first-round game.
It could happen to somebody else soon.
Larry Reynolds has guided Long Beach State to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1995, but he is in the final year of his contract.
The silence from the administration has been deafening.
Coach Stan Heath supposedly was going to be out at Arkansas unless the Razorbacks made the NCAA field.
But the Razorbacks are in, perhaps undeservedly, after they made the title game of the Southeastern Conference tournament and a time-strapped NCAA selection committee penciled them in even though they ended up losing to Florida by 21 points.
Even Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith, who won the NCAA championship in his first season in Lexington in 1998, seems to be on thin ice if the Wildcats lose to Villanova in the first round. But Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, whose earlier remarks fueled the speculation, endorsed Smith this week, though he stopped short of saying he would definitely be the coach next season.
It sometimes seems as if the NCAA tournament has become the be-all and end-all for college basketball.
Should not making it be enough to cost someone his job?
And should making it be enough to save one?
Both decisions can hang on the result of one game, or one free throw, or how the NCAA selection committee decides to sort the wheat from the chaff for the final berths.
Jim Haney, executive director of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches and a former coach at Oregon, said coaches accept both realities.
"I think they all recognize that if you make the tournament, that's a significant accomplishment and has the ability to add to your job security," he said.
"But it's not always the case."
The truth is, some coaching situations are like bad relationships: Both people might be lovely partners for somebody else.
Sometimes, a coach is fired just as he is turning the corner.
Plenty of people thought they had seen enough after a former Army coach who reached the National Invitation Tournament in his first season on his new job finished 10-17 and 11-17 the next two.
Three years later, Mike Krzyzewski guided Duke to the first of 10 Final Four appearances.
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