Leo Durocher once said that nice guys finish last. When I saw Stan Heath’s face on the local news tonight as I sat in the coffeehouse trying to do a bit of work before picking up my son from baseball practice, I knew I was seeing one more instance of Durocher’s Law in practice—or if not Durocher’s Law at least a corollary: In the dog-eat-dog world of big-time collegiate athletics, nice guys tend to get fired. See, until this morning, Stan Heath was the head coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of Arkansas. From a man long on anger and resentment (former coach Nolan Richardson), Heath inherited a team almost entirely bereft of talent. Five years later the UA has a men’s basketball team that has made the NCAA tournament two years running and has been represented by a man with deep pockets where integrity, professionalism, and Christian charity are concerned. I guess an extra win in March matters more.Here’s to Stan Heath….an exceedingly fine human being and a damned good basketball coach.
3 comments:
Wow, a reader! Yeah, there is surely something unhealthy about the current stae of big-time college sports. This morning's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette made the point that next basketball season, the UA will be paying three(!) men's head basketball coaches: Richardson (yep, we're still paying him), Heath, and whomever we hire as his replacement.
Now to speak out of the other side of my mouth: I do understand (to a degree) the thinking behind Heath's firing. The team has under-achieved pretty significantly for the past two years, and at times have played like they aren't well coached. Still, Heath's a relatively young coach and given his serious up-side, I'd like to have seen him given at least one more season.
Yes, a reader whom you've met--at least on the phone. Perhaps you'll recall: I studied under Steve Cowan in B'ham, AL. A few months ago I was inquiring with you about UA's Ph. D. in philosophy.
At any rate: From 1939 - 2006, UA has one NCAA men's basketball championship: 1994 (the year they went 31-3). It seems that at that time the powers that be decided UA would either go all the way or fire the coach and demand the next guy go all the way, etc.
I can't believe they're still paying Richardson!
Hey may be a nice guy, yet he isn't much of a coach. I think he would be better off back in the Horizon leauge. Stan cannot hack it in the big leauge. He's at most a year from being fired from USF. Sadly Bulls fans have to put up with one more year of this performance before hopefully USF Administration will be forced to make a change!
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