And the Walls Come Crum-bling Down

This is going to get ugly, and there is going to be an aftermath.

You’d think Denny Crum would get a better shake after all those great-shakes years at Louisville, but this has the feel of the last days of Mike Garrett versus John Robinson.

You remember that one--headstrong USC athletic director versus legendary USC football coach?

Garrett had the data in front of him, the pertinent facts pointing to a football downturn, but he misjudged the potential fallout, botched the execution and lost the public relations war to Nevada Las Vegas’ new Desert Fox.

Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich and Crum are on a similar collision course.

“This situation has done nothing but tick everybody off,” one longtime Louisville basketball observer noted.

How do you tell a king his reign is over?

Jurich is finding out:

You don’t.

Jurich is trying to force Crum off the throne, which is sort of like talking Hearst down from San Simeon.

In the 30 years since he left John Wooden’s coaching side at UCLA, Crum has led Louisville to the Final Four six times, to two national titles and 673 victories. He is the only active coach already elected to the basketball Hall of Fame.

Crum, who starred at San Fernando High and played for Wooden at UCLA, is finding out, however, that few coaches get to dictate final terms.

Wooden and Dean Smith were exceptions.

Jurich has his own agenda and political capital. His move in 1997 to replace football coach Ron Cooper with John L. Smith turned the program around.

And maybe if Denny Crum were John Q. Crum, this would be easier.

Louisville hasn’t been to a Final Four in 15 years. The Cardinals’ record the last four years is 60-59. They haven’t won an NCAA tournament game since 1997. The program has been sullied by NCAA probation.

Louisville is 10-17 this season, has a woeful Ratings Percentage Index ranking of 128, has lost to Alabama by 29 points, to Oregon by 23, to Saint Louis by 21--to Western Kentucky and South Alabama.

But you can’t separate mundane from myth in Louisville.

You can’t bottom-line a legacy.

Jurich would like Crum, who turns 64 next week, to exit without a whimper, to forgo the last two years of his contract and take the $2-million buyout on the table.

But Crum isn’t going to do it.

“I will tell you it is my intention to work out my contract,” Crum said this week.

So, push is going to meet shove. According to ESPN.com, the school has already decided it will fire Crum at season’s end if he does not agree to separation terms.

The school has denied anything has been decided.

Jurich said he will not comment on speculation.

But Crum will.

“You can’t say you don’t know if it can happen,” Crum says. “It can happen to anybody at any time. The justification for it is another issue.”

Crum is not going to walk away, at least not at the going rate, and it appears Jurich is going have to fire one of the greatest coaches in basketball history.

“Whatever decision is made, then they’ll have to live with it,” Crum says.

The backlash could be explosive. Darrell Griffith, star of the 1980 national title team, has already lambasted school officials for their handling of the affair.

Jurich, even as he faces decision day, is a candidate to become the new athletic director at Indiana.

Is he about to drop the bomb and run?

Crum acknowledges Louisville basketball isn’t what it was or should be. Recruiting, in particular, has fallen off.

“I’ve been coaching 41 years, and I’m a better coach now than I was five years ago,” he says. “The problem is, we haven’t had as good of players.”

But Crum thinks his record warrants another chance.

This would be only his third losing season in 30 years. He says Louisville’s next recruiting class may be the nation’s best.

He points out that the season after his 1984-85 team finished 19-18, the Cardinals won the national championship.

Yet, Crum is not only asking to stay, he wants a contract extension to ensure that recruits will commit.

“They’re not going to do it if I’ve got only two years on my contract,” he says. “They can go anywhere they want. Why would they come somewhere when they don’t know who the next coach is going to be, and whether or not I’m going to be here?

“That’s the issue. It’s an easy issue. Either they support me, and give me an extension, or they don’t. If they don’t, then whatever happens in the recruiting, it’s their responsibility.”

Some insiders say Crum, knowing his fate is sealed, may be trying to up the ante of his buyout.

It is ironic that this year’s Conference USA tournament will be held in Louisville, at Freedom Hall, March 7-10.

It appears only a miracle at home--the Cardinals’ winning the tournament to snatch the conference’s automatic NCAA tournament bid, can save Crum now.

Even that might not be enough.

TOURNEY TALK

A quick pre-NCAA tournament analysis:

Pacific 10: Stanford, Arizona and UCLA are in. USC and California are probable, although wipeout home losses last week did not help their causes. Both schools maintain strong RPIs--USC is 19th, Cal 21st.

Big Ten: Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin are in. Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa are probable. The NCAA men’s basketball selection committee won’t deny the Hawkeyes a tournament bid because of Luke Recker’s injury, but it will affect the team’s seeding.

Big East: Boston College, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Providence are in. Georgetown has a glossy record, but has scored few quality victories and boasts a shaky RPI ranking at 42.

Atlantic Coast: North Carolina, Duke are in. Virginia, Maryland, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech are probable. Virginia’s victory over Duke was huge, Wake Forest is reeling, Maryland is a mediocre 48th in the RPI.

Big 12: Iowa State, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma are in. All four schools have RPI rankings of 25 or better. Iowa State still has a shot at a No. 1 seeding. Missouri may be bound for the National Invitation Tournament.

Southeastern: Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Mississippi are in. Georgia is an interesting case. Jim Harrick’s Bulldogs are only 15-11, but have an RPI ranking of 14.

Western Athletic: Fresno State is in, although two ugly road losses over the weekend have knocked the top-25 luster off Jerry Tarkanian’s team.

Conference USA: Hello, anyone out there? The only lock is the conference tournament winner, which gets an automatic bid.

Mountain West: Anyone for a play-in game between the Mountain West and Conference USA champions?

Atlantic 10: St. Joseph’s. Phil Martelli’s Hawks finally cracked the polls this week, and their 20 victories, plus a RPI ranking at 26 all but assure a bid, even if they don’t win the A-10 tournament.

Missouri Valley: Creighton. Of all the mid-majors, Creighton is mostly likely to win a spot. Other mid-majors with a chance to get in, no matter what: Butler (Midwestern Collegiate), Pepperdine, Gonzaga (West Coast).

LOOSE ENDS

Semantics 101: It’s not a “play-in” game, the NCAA says, but an “opening-round” game. This much is fact: There will be 65 teams in this year’s NCAA tournament. Why? The split of the Western Athletic Conference--eight schools breaking off to form the Mountain West--has raised the number of automatic bids to 31. The NCAA is contracted to keep the at-large selection pool at 34. So, the Nos. 64 and 65 schools, as announced March 11, will play an “opening-round” game on March 13 at Dayton, Ohio.

The schools will be picked by the selection committee and will not necessarily be the two champions from the lowest-rated conferences--the Southwestern and Big South, according to the latest RPI conference rankings.

One of the “worst” schools could be a team with a losing record that wins an automatic bid by pulling off an upset in its conference tournament.

More on the play-in, um, opening game. The winner will probably remain in Dayton as the No. 16 team in the Midwest Region. The winner has also been assured a Friday game.

“We think it is important that these two teams are treated fairly,” Mike Tranghese, chairman of the selection committee, said Wednesday.

Tranghese is also commissioner of the Big East Conference, but insists major conference at-large schools do not have an advantage over schools from mid-major conferences.

“We’re there to pick the 34 best at-large teams in the country,” he said. “No one deserves anything. The 34 best teams, that’s my charge.”

It has been a rough season for Pac-10 referee Richie Ballesteros, suspended for two games this week after wrongly ejecting USC Coach Henry Bibby from last week’s Arizona State game.

It was Ballesteros, remember, who incorrectly called goaltending on center Loren Woods in the final seconds of Arizona’s 71-69 loss at Connecticut on Dec. 9.

It has been a rough week for Matt Doherty. Not only did the the North Carolina coach’s team fall from No. 1 after a loss to Clemson, but Doherty also issued a letter of apology to the Duke cheerleaders after he was overheard in a timeout huddle calling them “the ugliest in the ACC.”

Bet you didn’t know: Santa Clara senior guard Brian Jones needs six assists tonight against Gonzaga to become the first player in California Division I-A men’s history to register 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists.