There was plenty of embarrassment to go around last Saturday as the Crosstown Shootout between Xavier and the University of Cincinnati ended in a brawl with about 9 seconds remaining in the game. Nationally televised on ESPN 2, the ugly incident clearly brought to focus the challenges facing the leadership of college athletics. Coaches Mick Cronin (UC) and Chris Mack (XU) both have been severely criticized for the behavior of their players. Athletic Directors Mike Bobinski (XU) and Whit Babcock (UC) have been accused of not taking swift and decisive action. While there is plenty of blame to go around, to think that individual coaches or athletic directors could stop this behavior by themselves is very shortsighted. Placing the blame at the feet of the coaches and AD'S is mis-directed. This incident from pre-game banter to in game trash talking to post-game inappropriate comments by players is a message that the system of amateur athletics in our country is flawed. Cronin, Mack, Bobinski and Babcock have done what their Universities have asked them to do. They have built programs that are nationally recognized, that build an enthusiastic fan base who buy tickets and make donations and that keep alumni (I have a degree from both Universities) engaged with the University. Yet they walk the tightrope of blending wins with building character in their athletes.
This happens because leadership sends incredibly powerful mixed messages. What is the highest priority? Is it following the core values of the University or is it winning games? By paying winning coaches huge sums of money and giving them long-term contracts, University leadership answers that question by their actions. "Winning is our main focus so you need to recruit players who can win." Are recruits like Allen Iverson at Georgetown, Ron Artest at St. John’s or PacMan Jones at West Virginia the individuals we want representing our University? To make matters worse because of the overly competitive culture of college athletics and the big money opportunity, we spend the majority of time making athletes better players not better people. Very little time in college athletics is focused on teaching life lessons, not because coaches do not want to, but because they have major time constraints and must set priorities based on athletic performance and staying eligible. College athletes’ time is focused on practice, strength and conditioning activities, preparing for games (film and scouting reports), classes, academic advising, tutors and study hall. Blend those time requirements with crazy travel and you have created a model where there is basically no time to work with athletes outside those coach established priorities. There is little or no time for value building or communication about life challenges.
When young athletes watch Jalen Rose talk about the positive value of trash talking or Iverson’s rant on “practice”, aspiring young athletes who are developing their own value system, desperately need influences to mitigate the Iverson-Rose mentality. Instead the system places these adolescents into AAU programs (coached by individuals with no particular credentials) that not only facilitates but encourages (as XU's star point guard Tu Holloway says) gangster mentality. Naturally when the pool of recruits for Division 1 basketball comes from AAU basketball there is a pretty good chance you will get some of the behaviors exhibited in the "Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout". To think that college coaches and athletic directors are going to totally change the behaviors and attitudes of these recruits, who have spent years in the AAU system, is both naïve and unrealistic.
If you want to eliminate situations like the “Crosstown Shootout” knockout, the leadership needs to change the system rather blame the closest individuals. Easy to say but this change needs to affect the entire culture of college athletics, a task about as easy as turning a battleship 180 degrees. Leadership is all about change and significant change. For this gigantic change to happen it will require a leader with incredible passion and a huge reservoir of determination.
In an attempt not to just identify problems, these concepts would be a good start to changing the system:
1. Eliminate AAU and the crazy travel competitions of middle school and high school aged athletes.
2. Allow coaches more time to build relationships and get to know potential recruits in the recruiting process.
3. Change the academic schedule to a 12-month schedule where in-season athletes have less classes so they are not conflicted with major time management problems.
4. Create a different funding model for college athletics so coaches’ salaries do not put them into such a high-pressure situation to win.
5. Mandate a life lessons coach who has access to athletes and head coaches and is given appropriate authority.
Well said and a good prescription... I think the breakdown of the family contributes largely to this problem as well as many of societies ills. Parents who are engaged in the process and have their priorities straight in raising their kids can mitigate a lot of these issues. For example, I have friends who had a star AAU player that currently plays at Belmont (who recently came within a point of knocking off Duke at Cameron)and while they let him do some of this crazy traveling they set limits and raised him to be a responsible adult. Problem is I don't have a good answer for how to fix this "root" problem... Dave Giglio
ReplyDeleteCoach, Good points all and a great article to start a robust dialogue...in reading your thoughts one program came to mind repeatedly -- Duke University. It appears from the outside that Coach K as well as Duke's AD and administraiton engender an environment where both on AND off the court lessons are emphasized. Granted, no program is perfect, and Coach K has a decided advantage in recruiting given Duke's established position in the hierarchy of college basketball - but it wasn't always that way. At some point, someone decided that Duke would do things the "right" way. Per your article there are no quick fixes, college athletics are full of moral hazards, the system is in need of repair, and change takes time. The coaches, ADs, and certainly the administrations here in cincy would do well to never loose sight of the fact that although not quick, nor easy, the "Greater Good" can indeed be served at the same time a highly successful program is being run.
ReplyDeleteBest, John Deeds
A lot of great points Coach, with the AAU situation being the worst thing to happen to middle/ high school age athletes. It has fueled the lack of accountability of personal behavior. If your good enough, you can get away with just about anything. Coaches and AD's are put into a horrible position of recruiting talent ahead of character. Given the type of character that schools are basically forced to accept(win at all costs), the NCAA needs to have severe penalties for such behavior. As much as I am a big Bearcats fan, Yancy Gates should have been thrown off the team and scholarship stripped immediately. Some of this blame must also be shared by the officials of this game. They have the power to assess technical fouls for unsportsmanlike behavior. They allowed this to escalate to this level by letting Holloway trash talk Cincy's bench throughout the whole game. Until these payers are held accountable for their behavior - this will continue to happen. Best regards , Paul Seibert
ReplyDeleteYou would think that the Xavier influence would take the "street" out of kids, but under pressure sometimes the culture of their youth overrides the present. Xavier's record of graduation and quality students is well established, which is one reason this is so disappointing to alumni.
ReplyDelete