No loyalty in college ball? There shouldn’t be
Josh Smith at adidas Nations
There’s always a contradiction, isn’t there?
One reason I love sports is that it provides options and possibilities for kids who may not realize how many options they have. And at the same time, I hate that sports has helped create a climate where those same kids often feel they only have three options: entertainment, sports, or crime. Likewise, I love hip-hop for the artistic expression, but hate that so many artists will take that artistic license and never think to do anything positive with it beyond putting their boys on.
And while I love college ball in part for the undying passion fans have for their team, I hate when that passion goes overboard and causes fans to act like assholes.
Terrence Ross is a highly sought-after basketball recruit at Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.), Kevin Durant‘s alma mater. Ross had previously been committed to Maryland, but the senior wing has since de-committed and is now allowing Kansas, Kentucky and Duke into the picture. And in all honestly, it looks like the Terrapins are going to lose this one.
“They were rough on me,” Ross said in an interview with HighSchoolHoop.com’s Jason Jordan earlier this week, asked about the response he’s gotten from Maryland fans. “I had to close my Facebook page. They were just posting crazy stalker-ish type stuff. It was crazy! They were UP-SET!”
The ensuing comments on that HSH interview showed a little of what Terrence is dealing with. “I have such a low opinion of this kid,” one reader wrote. “He’s from ROCKVILLE MARYLAND right outside college park and he was all about the hometown terps when they were the only ones on him … But now that he’s blowing up he forgets that maryland wanted him before all these other schools even knew who he was. I dont blame terp fans for being upset at all but this kid sounds soft.”
Another reader called Terrence a “fake, bad person.” And if you check the Maryland message boards, it gets even worse.
Up here in Washington, there’s a similar situation surrounding Josh Smith (Kentwood H.S.), a 6-10, 270-pound beast who is one to the top players in the Class of 2010 and the best player in this state. Smith signed with UCLA over Washington in the fall, drawing a predictably negative reaction from UW fans who wanted him to choose the hometown school. When Josh hurt his knee in one of Kentwood’s first games of the season, this comment from the Seattle Times website was an accurate reflection of what he’d been hearing: “The more I see Josh Smith lose the happier I will be after not picking UW over UCLA … That was sickening to see … These local kids need to be proud of there hometown schools and stay put. It’s not like the UW doesn’t produce NBA talent, plus we are the leaders of the PAC-10.”
And if college fans will treat kids this way, you can imagine how they’ll go after a grown man who makes six or seven figures on the university’s payroll.
This week, the hiring/firing season in college football hit a crescendo when Pete Carroll left USC for the NFL, then Lane Kiffin left Tennessee (after one season) to replace Carroll at USC. Fan reaction topped even the venom spit at ex-Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly when he left for Notre Dame a few weeks ago, and in the case of Kiffin, the national media also brought out its trident. On an episode of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” host Bob Ley asked a panel of analysts — every one of them highly critical of Kiffin — if USC’s new boss was the worst example of “the crass appearance of coaches hopping job-to-job.”
Why is Terrence Ross being e-stalked throughout the greater DMV area, while Lane Kiffin is being burned in effigy in Knoxville? Because at some point, we decided that loyalty should actually matter in college sports. And we were way off.
When a “normal” kid is making a college decision, how often are they pressured to stay in-state? In fact, it usually goes the other way, as we encourage kids to get out and see the world and get away from home; which is exactly what Josh Smith did. And if a normal kid had made up his mind to attend In-State U, but then realized there may be better options elsewhere, as a parent or an adviser you would absolutely recommend he at least check it out; which is exactly what Terrence Ross is doing.
With coaches who change jobs, again, you have to put yourself in their position. Yes, a coach will preach loyalty to his players and his administration while he’s building a program, but we all know how it works: When the time comes, those players will go pro early as soon as they get a whiff of interest from the League, while that AD will fire a coach as soon as he gets enough pressure from the boosters.
Because as much as college sports is about passion, it’s also about opportunism. Schools take any opportunity to upgrade their profit margin. AD’s take any opportunity to upgrade their program. Coaches take any opportunity to upgrade their livelihood and status. And players take any opportunity to upgrade their game, their profile, and their chances at being a pro.
Loyalty doesn’t fit into the picture. And as long as we can recognize and accept that, it’s OK. You can’t set up a system where loyalty only exists out of convenience, then expect everybody to abide by it.
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January 15th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
bfears says:
as sad as this is, ur absolutely right. u hit the nail on the head with this. excellent well written article.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Chicagorilla says:
Sean May recieved similar treatment from Indiana, so did Eric Gordon from Illinois fans. It’s sick, and those people need to get a life.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
JC says:
You said it, Austin. Couldn’t agree more. Big ups for injecting rational thought into the equation.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
hahns says:
Although I think you’re somewhat right in regards to student athletes- you’re WAY off on coaches. Lane Kiffin deserved to get absolutely grilled by the media. He effectively wasted an entire year of TN’s football program and an entire recruiting class. All he did there was stir negative publicity and 3 of his players were arrested for holding up a gas station or something like that….now word is that his assistant coach is working to move some of their TN recruits over to USC. TN had a top5 recruiting class i believe, so he is effectively robbing TN of an entire crop of recruits. Yes, TN will get past it and bounce back…but it just shows how a coach’s decisions can effect more than himself. This is all to say nothing of the families and students he recruited to TN and effectively abandoned them there.
As a student athlete you don’t have the influence and responsibility a coach has- so if you decommit to a school, youre right, they should not get crucified for it. at the same time though- no one likes getting lied to or someone that welshes on their word. just look at how politicians get roasted for “flip-flopping.” obviously i don’t mean to elevate student athletes to politicians, but it just goes to show how the public loathes a liar. so while its understandable that these schools should be pissed, these students dont owe ANYTHING to these schools…these schools are all self-interested. schools only target players bc they want them to help their program, not bc they want to give them an education or something else altruistic. what my mom has always told me is that you need to look out for number one because no one else will.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Big Island says:
Very well said. I am a USC fan and the way everyone was getting on Kiffin was a little ridiculous. Nobody asked him if 3 years ago he would’ve known that Carroll would leave, would he still have left? Probably not. As far as college kids leaving the state, that is absurd. I grew up in Hawaii and we pulled for guys to “make it” to a school on the mainland. It was like one of our own making it.
I think it comes from people not doing anything on their own and latching on to something, or someone, so that they feel better. If the Lakers win, I hear a bunch of dudes saying “we won” or “we are the best”. Really? You played? Did you go to the game and cheer? No. You suck so you want to be associated with something good. Let the kids go wherever they want, they are still from your hometown and let him (or her) do their thing wherever they want. Dicks…
January 15th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Big Island says:
hahns – If you took a job, doing anything, and then a year later the same job opened at a place that you had ties to, where your family was started, for more $$$, you wouldn’t take it? Come on, be real. You can’t be mad at Kiffin.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
eyes says:
It’s funny to me how the incident with KState Coach Frank Martin. Has had no press. FUNNY. He had a Bob Knight moment on national T.V. Could you imagine what he’s like behind closed doors. Man I wish the Arenas situation would have stayed in house. Could PJ Carlesimo have done somthing similar or worse & the player retaliated. In this situation if the player would have reacted in any way. He would have been wrong. Coaches are supposed to coach. If you talk & respect they’ll listen. What he did was unacceptable behavior. Too bad if you only follow blown out of proportion stories u missed this one. TMZ was stuck in traffic.
Everybody want’s the players to benefit everyone but themselves. It’s their careers at stake. Why do you think most athletes leave early. They’ve noticed what happens to players like Paul Harris,Willie Warren,Lance Stephenson & so many others. You lose stock every year you stay. Even Hansborough who’s 35 and still weak but works extremely hard lost money he probably didn’t need. I’m pretty sure his family was well of. Too bad most of these players come from conditions you wouldn’t want an animal to live in. CYO,HIGH SCHOOL,AAU,COLLEGE,NCAA,NBA are all businesses & entity’s. Why is it you think & hope the players wouldn’t capitalize on the system.
Blame the agents who are money hungry. Blame the scouts & owners for having no clue. Blame the analysts who only like players from their alma mater or conference. Blame the political aspect of ranking or typecasting players. The players are simply pawns who are used until they are worthless. Look at the treatment Vince,Shaq,A.I.Marbury,Tinsley,Artest,Jordan,Kareem,Ewing,Isiah. I could go on. They sacrificed so much for this game they LOVED. Sure they got the money but they would have preferred a little more respect.
Loyalty comes from up top. Players would love & have earned loyalty & don’t receive it. If you’re injured a team want’s to rid themselves from you as if you have a incurable disease. If more respect was given to the players in general. I’m sure it would be reciprocated.
3 of the same animals placed in 3 different environments. Cause/Effect. Wake up people. The players wish they had a choice. THEY DON’T. ONCE YOU SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE. IT’S A FREE FOR ALL. DO AS I SAY
January 15th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
hahns says:
big island – being a coach means that you’re a professional. yeah, at the time he took the job USC it looked like carroll was going to create a dynasty lasting for 50 years- so he took the job at TN- timing sucks for him, but hes making promises to families all over the country that hes going to coach their kid at TENNESSEE not USC….hes brought kids from all over to TN bc HE was going to be the coach there and bc he was going to show some commitment. it was a classless act leaving that school.
and no, if i made promises to families all over the country that i’m going to take care of their kid at the University of Tennessee for four years, then no, i wouldn’t bolt for the chance to coach at USC.
And youre a usc fan? i feel bad for you then – there HAD to have been a better hire out there than lane kiffin. are you kidding me? the guy is a joke. tell me ONE thing hes done to prove that he can be a successful head coach…minus monte kiffin.
im a notre dame fan, so i guess ive heard the same thing w/ brian kelly- but brian kelly brought cincy from the depths to the top of their conference, competing with rutgers, wvu, south florida, who have all been in the AP top25 for the past couple seasons. so kelly didnt exactly abandon cincy like kiffin did.
January 15th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
hahns says:
btw- this is only for college coaches. pro coaches can jump around from job to job and i dont care. but college is a different animal.
January 15th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
jryu says:
well i think pro coaches should at least FINISH THE SEASON ala bobby petrino. i’m from atlanta and not even a huge falcons fan but what he did was messed up beyond anything kelly, carroll, or kiffin did. what they did were business decisions and i dont blame them one bit. petrino didn’t even have the balls to face his players which kiffin did–albeit it almost broke into a riot hahaha.
there’s no way last yr kiffin could’ve known the seahawks were gonna offer carroll the job. and i honestly believe that’s probably one of two or three programs he would’ve left tennessee for (the other being florida or notre dame.) and the fact that he doesn’t have to play bama & florida again doesn’t hurt either..
like someone else mentioned above, i do feel sorry for USC though. 1) NCAA gonna drop the hammer on them this year or next 2) kiffin is just a talker, nothing he’s done proves he’s a good head coach. welcome back to mediocrity pre-carroll days..
anyhow, i REALLY liked this article. sometimes we lose perspective and focus solely on the athletics. placed in the same positions, we’d probably make some of the exact same decisions based on the rationale Austin gave towards the end of the article about “normal kids.”
January 15th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Heckler says:
nevermind the college sports fans. they dont care about the players either. they just care about beating their rivals; so they want the best players (especially home grown talent) to help them do that.
but dont get it twisted, the college fan dont care about the college athlete.
nor do the boosters. nor do the coaches. nor does the administration.
so….
as a player, you gotta say, WHO CARES WHAT THE HELL YALL THINK?!!? I’M UP OUT THIS M*THAF*CKA!
January 15th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Big Island says:
hahns- Notre Dame? Ouch. You got screwed by bringing in Charlie Weiss and getting rid of Ty Willingham. But they got rid of Weiss so it’s cool. Except for all of the kids that Willingham recruited before he got canned, and all of the players that Weiss recruited before he got run out of town. So the kids get screwed again by the university so it isn’t much different except for who (the coach or university) is screwing. All of the new recruits can leave TN for SC if they want to, and Kiffin still has guys at USC that he recruited so he isn’t that far removed. Believe it or not, the Raiders were getting better while Kiffin was there, and TN got better as well. Personally I would’ve liked Sarkisian, but Kiffin is a good coach. He is a hell of a recruiter. If he would’ve left for a school like Oklahoma or Notre Dame (no offense) it would be worse in my mind because he would just be job hopping. People weren’t flipping out when Roy Williams left Kansas to coach UNC because he was a NC guy to begin with. The same way Kiffin came up through USC for coaching.
I also follow Hawaii since my family is still out there, and the entire state was going nuts for them in 06 and 07 with June Jones. The entire state. It was even more crazy than a BJ Penn fight (who is like the Hawaiian president) and the school wouldn’t pony up any money to keep him. It was like a kick to the teeth and nobody blamed him for leaving. Not the kids he recruited, not the fans. It’s part of college athletics. Kiffin created some noise with his big mouth, got some great recruits, and now it’s a big issue.
January 15th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Big Island says:
And yeah, USC has some big problems on the horizon. A few of my buddies played at SC when they were bad and they always had some cars and $$$ that you don’t get from working at the school bookstore. Just sayin.
January 15th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
POPPI GEE says:
Great article but I do feel it’s different with coaches. You are dealing with people’s kids and for some you serve as a father figure.
Sure we all want a better way of living if is available but sometimes you sacrifice of yourself for others in many different regards.
It indeed may sound very and extremely trivial but these coaches do play a big roll in their (players) lives and I know players that will admit to this.
So for an instance like Kiffin I not only blame him but UT as well. I am not so much finding anything wrong with him taking a better job in as much as I am finding it wrong with the way he did it all.
Although Al Davis did warn UT and no Kiffin is not a great coach. Recruiter yes, but let us hold off till we see something of merit before he is labeled a great coach.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
hahns says:
it definitely does matter who does the screwing (coach or school) bc the school fires a coach b/c he isnt getting W’s for the school. W’s help the student, they help the school, they help the coach. wins help everyone. so yes there is a difference if its the school or coach doing the screwing.
a coach leaving and breaking his promises is much different than a coach getting fired for not living up to his promises. and yeah i agree that sc is a better place to coach (warm weather, easier to recruit, hot girls, hot bed of talent in cali) and i admit kifin is a good recruiter…but hes screwing over the entire university of TN
January 15th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Austin Burton says:
The thing is, though, coaches have to recruit every year. So whenever they leave, they’re going to be “lying” to some group of kids about being there for four years. Kids and parents need to understand that’s part of the game, though. You should commit to a school and not a coach. If my kid grows up to be a recruited athlete, I’d make sure he’d pick a school that he likes enough to withstand a coaching change.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
POPPI GEE says:
Austin I can feel that but you know the also coaches really need to tell the students look I want you to come but I do want you to understand that I want you hear for this school and this team regardless of who the coach is and regardless of many other matters.
Unfortunately a coach can’t go that recruiting way often because it may discourage the recruit or the family like oh this guy may leave. Still I think it’s the honorable thing to do and there is plenty on the honorable side of things. Unfortunately again money, pride and so many other things get in the way of proper judgement and choices and in this case recruiting.
I agree though it should be more towards the school than the recruit. Yet and still it’s a difference of being at a school say 5 or 7 years than just 1 and then bouncing.
Cause even with some logical judgement a recruit or family could think well he had a bad season so his job might be on the line or he has been there for a nice amount of years so we should take that in as a factor too.
But when a dude is there for 1 year, as a recruit you gotta think man this dude is going to be there for at least 3 to 4 years of my stay so cool.
I guess in this day and age though you have to go in knowing your coach might “Kiffin” you and you need to, as a recruit, be prepared lol. Furthermore reason to go for the school instead of the coach.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Big Island says:
Austin- Unfortunately there aren’t too many parents who think like that (insert Craig James joke here). You should go to a school that you like, and you can get an education at, but that doesn’t always ring true. Especially in basketball with the one and done guys. Find a spot where you can get to the L quick. I hope my kid is unathletic as hell because it’s ugly.
Tennessee had a longtime coach that they kicked out to hire Kiffin. Loyalty… Now I am just mad at myself for even talking about this stuff. I am going to go read about Sundiata Gaines again…
January 15th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
hahns says:
kids choose schools bc of the coach. its the reason why weis was able to bring kids to notre dame bc he could sell them on running a pro style system that gets them ready for the nfl. its why calipari runs a point guard factory and same w/ lute olson. its the reason joepa gets great linebackers and why urban meyer was so successful. coaches are huge reason kids choose a school, and rightly so- the style the coach plays will determine how well the kid can shine.
January 16th, 2010 at 11:57 am
chris says:
last time i checked, americans bet on high school games, and americans bet a lot on college games. college sports are big business, and the sooner people stop pretending otherwise, the better. high school kids are going to change their mind about where (or if) to go to college for a lot of good and bad reasons. there are scholarships, then there are ‘scholarships’ – who are we kidding? start paying college athletes, on top of the free ride, so the 98% of athletes who aren’t lucky or good enough to go pro get something more than a few years of ‘education’ at a sports factory. people won’t criticize high school kids about ‘loyalty’ anymore, as they will understand EXACTLY what is at stake – if a high school kid turns down 20,000 a year to play at ucla and takes 10,000 a year to play for the local school, whatever the motive, it is much more transparent, and ‘sports fans’ will probably be a lot less vicious.
January 16th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
hahns says:
paying athletes is a total misallocation of resources and should not be allowed. what are we saying when schools start funneling their entire school budget toward recruiting star athletes. it sends a horrible message that sports are more important that academics and will incentivize uneducated, poor kids in the ghetto to spurn education and focus on sports- most of whom will never play a pro game in their life.
paying college athletes is a bad idea.
January 17th, 2010 at 9:42 am
QQ says:
Well crafted article, you Bron/T-Mac nut-hugger sir.
January 17th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
flipisatrip says:
the sense of entitlement fans have (i am a UK fan and i know our fan-base has some of the worst) is tragic. Fans just don’t really understand, its all about me, me, me. But they try to twist that and make it seem like the kid is all about me, me, me. (which is exactly what they should be doing)