SEC takes three steps back in diversity

Fourteen months ago the SEC was a diverse basketball league. Men of color roamed the sidelines coaching young men who looked just like them, and in the deep south of this nation once crippled by racism it was a refreshing symbol that 33 percent of the conference's head coaches were leading programs for which their fathers or grandfathers probably would not have even been allowed to play.

The SEC had four minority coaches back then.

Dennis Felton may not have realized it, but he is the last man standing among black coaches in the SEC. (Getty Images)

"Is that right?" asked Dennis Felton, Georgia's basketball coach. "I didn't realize that."

Lost in the annual coaching carousel that yielded new hires from San Diego to St. Bonaventure was that two more minorities left the SEC. Arkansas fired Stan Heath. Kentucky and Tubby Smith amicably parted ways.

Those developments served as the latest in a trend that even if by pure fluke, is still hard not to notice given the racial problems that have long plagued a league that didn't hire its first minority football coach until three seasons ago.

I'll provide the facts. Make of them what you will.

The facts are the past three SEC coaching changes had similar characteristics. They each featured a minority getting fired (Rod Barnes at Ole Miss, Heath at Arkansas) or leaving amid pressure for an inferior job (Smith at Kentucky). Then a white athletic director (Pete Boone at Ole Miss, Frank Broyles at Arkansas, Mitch Barnhart at Kentucky) replaced the minority with a white coach (Andy Kennedy at Ole Miss, John Pelphrey at Arkansas, Billy Gillispie at Kentucky) and southern roots (Kennedy is from Mississippi, Pelphrey is from Kentucky, Gillispie is from Texas).

Coincidence? I don't think so.

As someone who was raised -- and still lives -- in Mississippi, I know racism still exists in this part of the country. And though I'm confident Kennedy, Pelphrey and Gillispie will do just fine in their new roles, it's reasonable to ask whether Barnes (2001 National Coach of the Year), Heath (three NCAA Tournament appearances in six years as a collegiate head coach) and Smith (2003 National Coach of the Year) would have received more patience from their fan bases if they looked and sounded more like Kennedy, Pelphrey and Gillispie.

Put another way, does Kennedy play better than Barnes in Mississippi?

There's no doubt, really. Which reminds me of a comment a friend made many years ago, when Romaro Miller was the quarterback at Ole Miss.

"There are 50,000 white people who go and cheer for that kid every Saturday," the friend said. "But if any of their daughters brought him home for Christmas, they'd be disowned."