Fwd: [Husker] Shatel got it right

[Bob Beach]

On 3/12/2005 at 3:33 PM Neal Smith <nealsmith_1965 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>>Tom Shatel got it right in his column yesterday about Collier and NU
>>being content with basketball mediocrity.  Lets see BC is now 0-5 in the
>>Big 12 tournament.  Has he ever made it past lunch time in the tourney?
>> 
>>http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=38&u_sid=1357225



     I don't believe Collier has a winning record in the Big 12 if memory serves me.  If he has a winning record it is barely.  I am not necessarily a big Shatel fan but, I agree, he absolutely nailed this one.  I particularly liked this quote from the article:


"At least in basketball. There is now a clear distinction at South Stadium. Remember when former Football Coach Frank Solich was fired after a 9-3 season? And Pederson said he didn't want the program to gravitate toward mediocrity? 

The same standard is not being applied in basketball, where Collier is allowed a chance to "coach his recruits and see what he can do." Solich had just hired a new staff of recruiters. Why was Collier given the chance that Solich was not?"


     I am not going to stir up again whether Solich should have been or fired or not.  The point here is the same thought process is not used when evaluating the basketball coach and the football coach.  I know those would argue that basketball is a different world at NU than football.  That's the whole point.  It is but it shouldn't be.  Let's hold the basketball coach's feet to the fire as hard as is the football coach's feet.  It is the only way to improve the program.  


     Collier is a long way from getting into the top half of the Big 12 which is what you had to do this year to make the NCAA if the six teams make it the "experts" are predicting.  I agree with Shatel.  I see no benefit at this point in time of keeping Collier other than he is a good man.  I hope I am wrong about the winning.  But, maybe I'm missing something because people have argued TO could have kept his job by just being a good and upright man.  Maybe NU is applying the same logic to Collier.



   


Bob Beach
Man is never too old to learn.  Man only becomes too old when the process of learning stops.