The Final Four & A Tale of Two Coaches

As a sports fan you have to be both intrigued and excited for this weekend’s final four. Only 2 people out of millions predicted this outcome on ESPN’s bracket challenge, and all 4 number one seeds have been eliminated. Lets switch the integrity lens on and look each side of bracket. One on side you have the perennial powerhouses, two of the most heralded programs in NCAA hoops history and two of the most successful and winningest coaches, especially in recent times. On the other side you have Butler repeating a nearly identical Cinderella story, and then the biggest topic of interest, VCU. Where did these VCU guys come from? They had to win a special playoff game just to qualify for the tournament.

At first glance you can see the tremendous disparity between both sides of the bracket. Looking a little closer still, we find another glaring disparity; two of these teams have coaches owning a current or recent history of NCAA violations, and two of these coaches do not. Take a guess which is which? That’s right, the big guys have some dirt. John Calipari is the only coach who has taken two different schools to the final four, only to have both of them deleted from the final four record books due to NCAA rule violations. In both cases Calipari abruptly left before the penalties were assessed and the school ended up paying the price. He came out clean somehow, but it begs the question how can the NCAA determine the head coach is not responsible for violations that occurred under his watch? Instead, the school is punished, the fans, the kids who play ball there in the upcoming years, and anyone else left in the program who doesn’t jump ship at the first sign of turmoil. I must state my usual disclaimer here in that I am only speculating, I do not have all of the facts, but it doesn’t take a genius to notice that for Calipari it has happened twice, and both times he left just before the sanctions came down. Another interesting corrolation here is that Calipari always fields teams with NBA ready talent that stay maybe 1 or 2 years and then go to the pros. These are usually the kids that violations surround because every college program wants them, and some are willing to bend or break the rules to get them. And let’s not forget Mr. Calhoun who will be suspended 3 games next season for recruiting violations. At least he isnt leaving the school and passing the buck on to the next coach to deal with. There are many aspects of these occurrences that make you question both the coaches personal integrity and the integrity of the whole system, the NCAA.  You have to start at the top with the NCAA and the rules that they have set and how they enforce those rules. Here’s the worst part, it is widely known that many of these programs break the rules and it is widely known that coaches get to skate free often and that the schools and the players are the ones who pay the price, but the NCAA doesnt seem to care. Yes they strictly enforce certain rules, but it is how the dish out the penalties that shows a clear bias towards the coaches. How many times must Calipari be involved with these violations before he himself must share some of the burden? Will the NCAA ever have the guts to ban a coach from postseason play like it so readily bans the schools? I do not exactly where the fault likes, I just don’t know enough about what is going on, but I can clearly see that somewhere in the midst of all this there is a lack of integrity, and some changes need to be made to the overall system and the way penalties are assessed.

Now on the other side of the bracket you have two very young and dynamic coaches whom we dont know alot about, but seem to be fairly integrious. We have no idea if the players they have now were recruited honestly and within the rules or not, but we do know that they have nowhere near the amount of money running through those programs and we do know they don’t recruit (or get anyway) the top tier of high school basketball talent, at least for now. Certainly that might start to change for Butler, if their coach stays. One can only suspect that they earned their way into this final four game by being excellent coaches, teachers and leaders. Of course they have good players, but many of these players have been in the program for years and have grown by working with that coach. Butler is led by Seniors. VCU is lead by Seniors. Kentucky is led by a freshmen phenom, and although UCONN’s best player is a JR (Walker) the other two best players are freshmen (Lamb and Napier). See the difference? Recruiting, money. Both Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens, coaches of VCU and Butler, have proven to be excellent motivators and leaders, but they also seem to be men of character, at least in my humble opinion. Hey, I have seen clips of their half-time speaches on CBS. Anyway, I sincerely hope this trend continues with the smaller schools (who run much cleaner and honest programs) making it deep in the tourney and maybe folks at the big schools will start to watch and listen, learning that you dont have to break recruiting violations to win. I applaud Butler and VCU, their coaches, and the players who have reached the ultimate milestone in their sport the hard way, or the right way. Time will tell if they truly run a clean program, but as of today it seems they have made it through virtue, against tremendous odds. VCU had to play an extra game, had to beat schools with much larger means both financially and in terms of recognition. Butler had to repeat their feat of last year with a bullseye of sorts on their back and in losing arguably their best player, who went to the pros. Whether this is a new trend in NCAA college basketball or an anomaly, one thing is for sure, I am rooting for Butler and VCU to beat the almight powerhouse school (whichever one it is) and win the national championship.

Looking to the future, I also hope these coaches are able to stay pure and clean, as their phenomenal success will surely test both their character and personal integrity as big contracts, big schools and the pressures of continued winning and will come calling.

John Baldoni wrote a very insightful blog on FAST COMPANY that shares a similar sentiment, click here to read…“some coaches look the other way it comes to character”