[NU Sports] Basketball Coaches salaries

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Aah, finally a relevant topic out of all this :) ...

Coaches already are accountable for their athletes - fairly or unfairly - and their actions off the field. Look at the hit Paterno took a couple years ago for the actions of PSU players at campus parties. Certainly college students go to frat parties, drink and get into altercations. But scholarship athletes need to realize that their name in the police blotter ripples with their coach/program/etc.

Should coaches be responsible for everything? Of course not. The player is ultimately responsible. But it does go to the type of person you recruit, the type of program you run and the type of accountability you hold your senior leaders to. Otherwise, you have the Bobby Bowden effect where a nice-sounding grampa sees or hears no evil regarding the kids he recruits and it results in headlines and a shrug from St. Bobby saying "now daggummit, I just guess he plum fooled me with his smile and amazing talent that I never realized he could get into trouble in the esteemed halls of this, ahem, academic institution."

We hold our coaches accountable for the type of kids they bring to Evanston - hence all the talk about lowering standards and such. Can Fitz and Carmody watch them every moment? Of course not. But we do trust that they're bringing in players who also care about the university's community and reputation ... and they trust that the leaders on their team transfer those values to the newcomers.

Obviously the Dook situation was a whole different breed of cluster... and the false charges took on lives of their own. But that still doesn't wipe away the party/strippers that certainly call for a coach to issue suspensions on his team ... and it's also reasonable to see an outcry from the community for answers from the coach.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!