Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993 TAG: 9302140077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BRILL
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
SUDDENLY, AUTHORITY MEANS NOTHING
The coaching profession took another hit last week when California fired Lou Campanelli.In midseason. With a winning record. Because some of his players didn't love him.
This is Cal-Berkeley, one of the nation's great academic institutions, where you would expect them to be front and center in the reform movement.
Instead, they are firing a coach because, as athletic director Bob Bockrath said, there were concerns about conduct and communication, and players were unhappy, and you know that when players are unhappy, their grades fall off and they might transfer.
Whoop-de-do.
South Carolina's football players tried to fire Sparky Woods last fall. Might have pulled it off, too, but the timing was bad. For one thing, the Gamecocks had no athletic director, King Dixon having gotten in hot water himself because of incompetence. And the school already was paying more coaches than it could afford.
So Woods got to stick around, and what do you know? The team went on a hot streak, finished by beating Clemson at Death Valley, and suddenly Sparky was everybody's Valentine.
Winning - the taste of it, even the thought of it - does strange things to people. Most of them are not good. They are enticed into thinking they can be better than they are.
Given more than it has had in 30 years in basketball, Cal suddenly envisioned Final Four. And then it decided Lou Campanelli wasn't the man.
This isn't to say Campanelli would win a lot of personality contests. Lou always acted as if he had started his day with a sour lime.
In 13 years at James Madison, however, his record was 238-118. The last nine seasons were in Division I. In successive years, 1981, '82 and '83, Campanelli not only took his team to the NCAA Tournament, but won a game each time.
The first time, his team beat Georgetown and was eliminated by Notre Dame. The next year, the Dukes whipped Ohio State and lost to Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Dean Smith 52-50. Those Tar Heels won the NCAA. In '83, JMU whipped West Virginia before losing to Carolina again.
Two years later, Campanelli left for Cal. Shortly after that, JMU decided to be something it cannot be - a star on basketball's horizon. It hired Lefty Driesell and significantly enhanced its commitment.
Lefty's record is 91-52. He has done well - three straight NITs. It is worth noting, however, that the Dukes haven't been back to the big dance since Campanelli went west.
Lou has been to the '90 NCAAs - as usual, he won a game, then got beat - and this season he recruited Jason Kidd, the nation's No. 1 prospect.
Young Mr. Kidd is so enamored of his ability that he believed his presence alone would carry the Bears to the Final Four, if not this year, surely by the next, after which he probably would fly off to the NBA's riches.
Kidd's apparent disenchantment with his coach is not all that got Campanelli canned. Other players, primarily freshmen and sophomores, disliked the negativism. But these are things that can be addressed through meetings, and certainly not a firing four weeks before the end of the season.
If Campanelli turned over a table and yelled at his players, he was hardly the first - and he won't be the last. Bob Knight has done far worse, and Indiana hasn't fired him. Of course, he's won national championships.
That Cal's players were not happy with their coach is not news. That the school would fire him now isn't news, either. Army did the same thing with Tom Miller, who had the audacity to swear in front of a born-again Christian. Miller, you must realize, was losing most of his games.
College athletics has enough problems without adding to them. I am not suggesting that some coaches don't deserve to be fired. They do - and they are.
But when the inmates are permitted to run the asylum, things have gone amok.