Coaches = Seasonal Hires

This is really starting to piss me off a little bit.

There are three groups of coaches in Men's College Basketball right now. The first group is the young guys at lower level DI schools that just caught a break and are trying to make a name for themselves. There is the second group that are the cream of the crop. The guys like Behiem, Coach K, Dean Smith and all of the other top coaches that go to a school, create a winning program and stay there to continue the success. These are the guys that you know they aren't going anywhere so they are not mixed up in all the talk every year when guys start getting fired and canned after the NCAA tournament.

The third group is the guys that will jump from school to school because nothing is never good enough for them. They only want a fat paycheck and don't pay attention to the school they are leaving and the kids they are abandoning. The kids they recruited and made promises to. Kids they vowed to help them grow as basketball players and as men. After two straight titles in the early 90's would Coach K have left Duke to go to UCLA while he was on top. Um ... no. After winning the title a few years ago with Melo did Behiem try to leave the Big East for a more traditional Hoops program. And did Billy Donovan jump ship and leave after putting together one of the best college basketball teams in history. No he didn't. He helped build Florida into a top tier basketball program. Now it will always be a football school but no recruit is going to think twice about signing on to play there. He has a chance to make something special down there and he didn't leave and sell high like so many do. Like Roy Williams after getting to the Final at Kansas bolting for North Carolina. Like Patino after doing so many special things at Kentucky taking off for the NBA. And now like Billy Gilespie leaving Texas A&M for Kentucky because he probably wouldn't have that chance next year.

These coaches all seem like seasonal hires to me. That's the retail guy in me talking but that's how I look at them. If I was an athletic director at one of these schools would I want a guy that just dicked over their previous school for mine. Its the same as dating a girl that just left her boyfriend and cheated on him with you. Do you really think she wont do it to you? I wouldn't want a guy like that. I would want a guy that is committed to his school and his players. If Tom Izzo bolted Michigan State after all he did there to go somewhere else, I just don't see the point. Some schools may have more tradition than others, but personally I would want to create my own rather than ride someone elses coat tails.

This is all coming from the same guy that always said that he wouldn't jump straight to the NBA from High School if he had the chance and tends to take the moral high ground on so many issues. Most of my opinions may sound a little goodie too shue but I am just glad that there are still some guys out there that feel like it is better to build a dynasty at one school than to build a bigger bank account at another. I am just glad that Billy Donovan would rather be a legend at Florida than the head coach at Kentucky.