OK, Nebraska. No excuses. Just go make the hire.
Don't assume Kansas and Texas are too far ahead to catch in the Big 12. They're not.
Don't assume a football school can't be elite in basketball too. That's baloney.
So get on the phone, athletic director Steve Pederson, and get this one right.
If ever you feel confused, close your eyes, take a deep breath and relax. If you must, call the Pump Brothers. But whatever you do, don't think it's impossible to turn things around. Tommy Lee passed courses at your institution. Anything is possible.
You can go from being a football school to a basketball school faster than Lawrence Phillips can be reinstated following a domestic dispute. Just find the perfect guy to replace Barry Collier now that he's off to be the athletic director at Butler.
As proof, I submit a list of football schools that recently became basketball schools by making the correct hires. Read this, then realize it's not hard.
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| Bruce Pearl has turned Tennessee into a national basketball power, seriously. (Getty Images) |
Tennessee
At Tennessee, men's basketball has forever ranked somewhere behind football, spring football, football recruiting, women's basketball and perhaps baseball. Even when the Vols were decent, people mostly didn't care, and prior to last season the program hadn't experienced a 20-win season in four years.
Enter Bruce Pearl.
His first season featured a 22-8 record, top 10 ranking, two wins over eventual national-champion Florida and a trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Vols played the most exciting brand of basketball in the SEC this side of Tyrus Thomas and LSU. And that Pearl found success with the same players who got Buzz Peterson fired is a testament to the quality of hire athletic director Mike Hamilton made.
Ohio State
Two years ago Ohio State was coming off a 14-16 season that included a 6-10 record in the Big Ten before things got really bad. Jim O'Brien was fired for giving $6,000 to a recruit from Yugoslavia. Apathy was setting in, especially with the football program on the heels of a national title.
Enter Thad Matta.
With probation lingering, Matta went 20-12 in his first season. Last season the Buckeyes went 26-6, and when Matta wasn't winning games he was securing letters of intent from elite prospects like Greg Oden, Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook. So O'Brien cheated in the recruitment of a Yugoslavian who never even played at Ohio State, and Matta got Oden for free. That's an undeniable upgrade, and a splendid hire.
Pittsburgh
When Pittsburgh -- under the leadership of Pederson, it's worth noting -- fired Ralph Willard prior to the 1999-2000 season it had gone six years without an NCAA Tournament appearance. Panthers football legend Dan Marino sneezing was bigger news in the area than anything that happened inside or outside a 3-point line.
Enter Ben Howland/Jamie Dixon.
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| Expect another top 20 season by Lorenzo Romar's Huskies. (Getty Images) |
Washington
Winning a football national title makes you a football school. So Washington has long been a football school, if for no other reason, since 1991. Basketball, not so much. From 1999-2000 to 2001-2002 the Huskies went 31-58 with no postseason appearances in hoops.
Enter Lorenzo Romar.
He had Washington back in the NCAA Tournament two years after taking the job, and things haven't slowed since. In his third season the Huskies earned a No. 1 seed and advanced to the Sweet 16. Last season (26-7 record) they returned to the Sweet 16 on the back of lottery pick Brandon Roy. This season, they'll be in the top 20 again with two more stellar newcomers, namely Spencer Hawes and Quincy Pondexter.
Texas A&M
When Texas A&M went looking for a basketball coach two years ago it had made just two NCAA Tournaments since 1975, none since 1987. The Aggies have a 12th Man in football but had gone more than a decade without five decent men in basketball. They went 7-21 overall and 0-16 in the Big 12 in 2003-04, which marked the 10th consecutive season without a winning record.
Enter Billy Gillispie.
His first season featured a 21-10 record and trip to the NIT quarterfinals. Last year the Aggies went 22-9 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. This year should be even better, and last week's verbal commitment of in-state stud DeAndre Jordan is reason to believe that decade of losing is in the rearview mirror.
Texas, USC, etc.
I could keep going, but the point has been made. Texas would be another example (thanks to the hiring of Rick Barnes) and USC yet another (thanks to the hiring of Tim Floyd). Those two schools played in the football national-title game last January. They could do the same in basketball someday soon, considering USC probably has prep phenom O.J. Mayo on the way and Texas always has a slew of prep phenoms on the way.
Oh yeah, Florida would also be a nice example (thanks to the hiring of Billy Donovan). That's a football school if there ever was one, evidence being the Steve Spurrier era that produced a Heisman Trophy winner and national title.
In a related note, I spoke with Al Horford the other day and asked if the Gators basketball team had received their national championship rings yet.
"Not yet," Horford answered. "I think we're supposed to get them at the second football game."
How fitting.
So like I said, Nebraska, go make the hire.
