College basketball's sort-of ethics

The Madness does have its warts. Who cares?

They’re throwing a party for Rick Pitino in New York today. He’s the new basketball coach at St. John’s, at least for now. It’s sort of a cause for celebration for Pitino and St. John’s, who sort of know Rick’s background and sort of don’t care. Ethics sort of matter, in a tangential, insincere sort of way.

Does it matter that while Pitino was at Louisville, one of his staffers arranged sex for visiting recruits? Well, you know, sort of. I mean that was a long time ago. And Pitino denied knowing anything about that.

Did it matter that while the Cardinals basketball program suffered, Pitino skated? Sort of, but again, not a big deal. The coach was never convicted of anything. The man has a right to make a living, preacher.

I’ve never known what to say about cases like this, and college sports has been full of them for decades. Media breaks story of NCAA violations, coach denies them, NCAA investigates, does or does not find dirt, coach scapegoats assistants, continues to deny.

Eventually, often because the NCAA’s investigative powers are limited and everyone involved stops talking, coach is often exonerated or gets a wrist-slap. Program takes it in the neck, coach moves on.

One of the best outcomes from NIL is that these sorts of cases are no longer relevant. A kid making six figures doesn’t have to be bribed to attend Big Time University.

A former college coach called me yesterday, to vent. The coach was angry at the — what’s the word here? — Hypocrisy, privilege, arrogance? displayed by coaches who succeed at the highest levels of quasi-am games, and who bend the rules doing it. Allegedly.

“Guys getting away with it,’’ the coach said.

I heard the coach out. It’s good the coach couldn’t see me shrugging though the phone line. Whaddaya want done about it?

I wanted to rip Sean Miller for what happened on his watch at Arizona, but I didn’t. I wanted to rip Ole Miss for hiring Chris Beard, but I didn’t. Nate Oats at Alabama? I did rip him, but not a lot. Pitino? I wish people cared more about principles than winning. But that’s not the world in which we live. I don’t know if it ever has been.

In big-time college sports, everybody slips their consciences in their back pocket and pulls out the rationalization cards.

Pitino’s hiring comes on the heels of Ole Miss hiring former Texas coach Chris Beard. Texas let Beard go after Beard’s December arrest on felony domestic violence charges. Mississippi hired Beard after a district attorney dismissed the charges. So, whaddaya want done about it?

Ole Miss could have done the right thing and hired someone else. But legally, Beard checked out. And doing right for right’s sake is decidedly quaint these days.

Should Xavier have brought back Sean Miller after the transgressions that occurred under Miller’s watch at Arizona? Sure. I mean, I guess so. Why not?

Miller denied everything, voluntarily sat out a year and eventually was exonerated by an NCAA committee.

Last December, the NCAA-appointed Independent Accountability Review Process (IARP) committee announced,

“The hearing panel found no violation for the former head men’s basketball coach because the hearing panel determined that the former head men’s basketball coach demonstrated that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored two of his assistant coaches regarding the academic eligibility of men’s basketball prospective student-athletes, rebutting the presumption of head coach responsibility.’’

That’s interesting, because in 2020, the NCAA decided that Arizona basketball under Miller committed five Level 1 charges, including “a lack of institutional control and failure to monitor by the university; a lack of head coach control by men’s basketball coach Sean Miller.’’

But, whatever. The man said he did nothing wrong. Beyond he said-they said, what exists to contradict that? The Wildcats lost a scholarship, some games and paid some fines. Two of Miller’s assistants are out of the game. One did jail time. XU is playing Friday.

Do the good folks and fans at X feel at all, I dunno, compromised by bringing Sean back? Should they?

Whaddaya want done?

Nate Oats is the coach at Alabama. You know the story. The Crimson Tide’s best player, Brandon Miller, gave a gun to a guy who gave it to a guy who murdered a young woman in December. Allegedly. Nate Oats’ response has been, just win, baby. The coach could have sat his player for a game or three. He didn’t. “Wrong place, wrong time,’’ Oats said of Miller’s, um, bad luck.

The Tide keeps rolling, into the Sweet 16. The young woman is still dead.

Brandon Miller has been accused of nothing. He has, in some quarters, been defended. We don’t know his circumstances, amateur sociologists have decided. He’s just a kid. Kids make mistakes. You ever make a mistake?

The line between what’s right and what’s expedient has never been more narrow.

(Expedient: Convenient and practical although possibly improper or immoral:)

That’s everywhere, all the time, not simply on the basketball court.

If anyone is waiting for any school, anywhere, to put ethics ahead of Ws, well, you’re sort of out of luck. It’s a great game that can endure the mud trip that college hoops has made over the decades.

Now, then. . .

I LOVE THE TOURNAMENT, I DON’T LOVE the way it’s being officiated. Soooo many touch fouls. They’re not as bad as the over-abundance of timeouts, but they do slow/stop the rhythm and flow of almost every game.

I thought we “let them play’’ in the tournament. Kansas State players fouled Oscar Tshiebwe on Sunday simply by looking at him. Let the ticky-tack stuff go.

APPARENTLY, WE’RE MISSING one helluva good time. That’d be the World Baseball Classic.

The what, Doc?

The US plays Japan tonight in the title game. We’ve heard more about the players who’ve been injured in the tournament than about the tournament itself. Typically, MLB has failed to capitalize on an event that might put a shine on its product.

The problem is when it’s played. The Madness swallows it whole. NFL free agency gobbles the leftovers. The Athletic suggested they play it in midsummer, at the All Star Break. Huh?

Two weeks in the middle of the MLB season? No.

How ‘bout just after Thanksgiving? It’s a better slot, before the NFL playoffs and before college hoop revs up. Northern fans already fed up with cold weather would appreciate the shots of Miami Beach and the Superstition Mts. Beisbol in winter works best as a concept?

Not if MLB markets and promotes it well. December should mean more star major-leaguers would take part. If a player gets injured in December, he still has three months before Opening Day to recover.

It’s too dynamic an opportunity for MLB to pass up.

XAVIER’S BEST TEAM? ESPN.com makes a case for this one:

Best Team: 2002-03
Top-3 players: David West (20.1 PPG, 11.8 RPG), Romain Sato (18.1 PPG, 7.1 RPG), Lionel Chalmers (12.0 PPG)
Highest achievement: Second round of the NCAA tournament
Best Game: 75-73 vs. No. 15 Creighton
Next best team: 2007-08

This team, ranked top-10 in the preseason AP poll, had West, Xavier's greatest player of all-time and the AP national player of the year. These Musketeers fell short in the postseason, but they orchestrated a 16-game winning streak that began Jan. 11, 2003 and ended March 14, 2003 with a loss to Temple in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Another to consider: Chris Mack’s 2017-18 team went 29-6, won the Big East, ranked in the Top 10. Bluiett, Macura, Naji Marshall, Kerem Kanter. Lost in the 2nd round of the Madness

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Apropos to all 16 teams playing Thursday and Friday. The best-known tune from an artist who labored beneath the long Brooooce shadow.