ESPN.com - Big-time jobs come with big-time expectations

ESPN.com: ESPN

Friday, March 22, 2002
Big-time jobs come with big-time expectations

By Adrian Wojnarowski
Special to ESPN.com

As soon as Indiana's Mike Davis finished his wayward Jimmy V lap around Rupp Arena and that microphone had been thrust into his face, you knew what was coming.


	He may not have every Indiana fan's support, but Mike Davis is slowly winning over his critics.

You just knew: I hope they think I can coach now, Davis declared.

If it wasn't Davis acting out in victory, it would've been UCLA's Steve Lavin. All about poor them, all the time. It had to be one of these poor young coaches somehow earning a nation's sympathy for enduring the terrible plight of cashing in Wonka's golden coaching ticket.

This has turned into the tournament of the Woe Is Me young coach, with Davis, Lavin and Missouri's Quin Snyder playing the scorned starring roles.

They should wake up every morning grateful for these lives, but it doesn't seem like they do. The world is crashing down on them, and they want your support. They want ticker-tape parades walking in to work. Worst of all, it sometimes seems as if they think they're owed it.

They get these jobs that a thousand great coaches wish for but never come close to getting. Davis happened to be on staff when Bobby Knight lost his mind. Lavin happened to be on staff when Jim Harrick lied on his expense reports. Snyder happened to be on staff when Mike Krzyzewski refused to stop reaching Final Fours. Most people pay more dues to join health clubs.

They did nothing special to deserve these jobs. That doesn't mean they can't do them -- because they can, and they're doing them well -- it just means they were picked on proximity (Lavin and Davis) or pedigree (Snyder), not experience or track record.

They've made the most of their opportunities, though. Davis and Snyder play for a chance to reach the Final Four on Saturday, and Lavin reached the Sweet 16 with a magnificent victory over Cincinnati. So, there's just this now: Accept you've been a work in progress, accept the criticism as part of the job, and get over yourself.

Now, the nation is treated to these tortured young souls telling us how unfairly they've been treated, how terrible it was that their schools' supporters spoke up and wondered sometimes, "Does this guy know what the hell he's doing?"

Deep down, these young coaches wondered, too -- especially Lavin and Davis, the way their insecurities constantly tumbled out. It's natural. They had never been head coaches, and they were entrusted with two of the nation's most famous college basketball jobs. Sometimes, they handled it with grace. Sometimes, they were complete clowns.

So, guess what happens in these big-time jobs? Coaches get ripped in the papers. People call talk radio stations, post on the Internet and write letters to the editor. People buy tickets and boo. This is Indiana. This is UCLA. This is Missouri. Welcome to the big-time coaching life. Dean Smith was hung in effigy. John Thompson had a banner hung in his gymnasium calling him the most despicable of slurs. And they didn't have big-time shoe deals and million dollar annuities to comfort themselves. They didn't act like they were owed these jobs.

In the hometown paper Friday, Missouri fans were instructed -- even implored -- to apologize to Snyder. Apologize? Actually, Snyder owes them one more thank you that his coaching career didn't start out at UNC-Asheville.

Out of nowhere, these bright young coaches have the caché to recruit Final Four talent when they should be apprenticing in the Metro Atlantic and Colonial conferences. They have million dollar contracts. They have staff to do everything a program needs to win and make life easy for the head coach. If you want one of those jobs, you take it all. This isn't a buffet, picking and choosing the plumb recruits and sneaker deals, and passing on the pressure and criticism.

If I'm a fan of UCLA or Indiana or Missouri, I have every right to expect my coach isn't still wobbling on training wheels. These aren't entry-level jobs. Along the way, Davis, Lavin and Snyder slipped a little, and these are conferences that don't readily forgive young coaching mistakes.

They're big stars now, but understand: Unless you're the clown who called for the death of Lavin and his father, Cap, unless you're the one sending racist trash to Davis, you don't owe them an apology. These coaches ought to be glad somebody cares about the program. If not, there are a thousand far more-anonymous, far less-lucrative jobs waiting for them.

	“	At UCLA, any time you lose a game, the sky is falling, and the Bruins are in ruins. And it's time for a coaching change if you lose three out of four, or four out of six. But the funny thing is, we've had a pretty good season -- obviously not up to the John Wooden standards. ”
		— Steve Lavin, on the pressures of coaching at UCLA

"At UCLA, any time you lose a game the sky is falling, and the Bruins are in ruins," Lavin said. "And it's time for a coaching change if you lose three out of four, or four out of six. But the funny thing is, we've had a pretty good season -- obviously not up to the John Wooden standards."

Actually, a lot of people just want him to beat Northridge and Pepperdine now and again.

"I accept the reality," said Lavin, who clearly doesn't accept the reality.

Make no mistake: Davis has the hardest job. He's African-American, and I'll never understand what it is to read his mail, listen to his phone messages and know that it isn't just because he's not Knight, but because he's also not white.

Still, when Davis loses to Indiana State, we need to stop hearing that it's because of an official conspiracy. Or when he loses a recruit, that it's a coaching conspiracy. It's an immature act, and perhaps now, on the brink of the Final Four, Davis is past that nonsense for good.

"(Rival coaches) have been recruiting against me," Davis said. "They said I had no experience and I couldn't develop talent."

Guess what? Someone is always saying something. Everyone recruits that way. Everyone has something to say. So get over it, and get over yourself.

Yes, they can coach. Lavin gets to the Sweet 16, Davis and Snyder to the Elite Eight, and it's punctuated with I told you so's and indignant declarations that, yes, I can coach.

If they have one of these jobs, you'd hope they can.

Adrian Wojnarowski, a sports columnist for The Record (Northern N.J.), is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.