Associated Press photo
Even though they’re no longer essentially indentured servants, the players still aren’t the real stars of March Madness.
Sure, we’ll tune in to watch Duke wunderkind Cooper Flagg and Auburn’s Johnni Broome over the next few weeks, and we’ll marvel over buzzer-beaters and upsets that shred our brackets.
But as usual, for better or for worse, the headliners will be the coaches.
There’s Rick Pitino at St. John’s, trying to revive his Shakespearean career and become the first man to lead three different teams to national championships (although his 2013 title at Louisville was vacated, sending him into the coaching wilderness from which he only recently returned).
There’s John Calipari, also seeking to write a new chapter at Arkansas after being ousted for failing to meet Kentucky’s high standards. There’s Tom Izzo, seeking a second title at Michigan State a quarter-century after his first, and Gonzaga’s Mark Few, still chasing that elusive first crown.
And there’s Jon Scheyer, who has upheld Mike Krzyzewski’s legacy at Duke better than most expected but needs to cut down the nets in San Antonio during Flagg’s lone college season to even join that conversation.
But there’s also the annual coaching carousel that dwarfs the NCAA transfer portal. And for once, that intrigue is provoking some brutal honesty.
VCU’s Ryan Odom wisely declined to address speculation that he’s Virginia’s top candidate after Thursday’s loss to BYU. (That silence likely won’t last lone.)
But one of Odom’s predecessors as Rams coach wasn’t nearly so tight-lipped.
Thursday’s star was Will Wade, who left the West End for LSU but was fired for cause after getting caught promising payments to recruits that are now legal and commonplace, thanks to NIL (name, image and likeness). He eventually landed in the obscurity of McNeese State, which pulled the first big upset of the day by knocking off fifth-seeded Clemson.
That surprise came while reports were swirling that Wade had accepted the job at N.C. State — a development he didn’t deny and said he had shared with his current players, some of whom may accompany him to Raleigh.
“There are five coaches right now negotiating with other schools,” Wade told reporters after Thursday’s win, according to The Athletic. “I mean, c’mon. It’s true! Villanova is trying to hire a coach out of the NCAA tournament right now.”
That coach might be Maryland’s Kevin Willard, who’s reportedly on the Wildcats’ short list. A day before his fourth-seeded Terrapins were preparing to face Grand Canyon on Friday, Willard aired some of his program’s dirty laundry — and broke some news about his athletic director, Damon Evans, who is reportedly leaving for a similar job at SMU.
“It’s kind of hard to negotiate with someone who’s maybe not here,” Willard said after revealing that Evans had offered him a contract extension on the way out the door.
Willard, finishing his third season in College Park, then added that if he stays, he wants to see “fundamental changes” in his program. (In other words, more money.)
“We’ve been one of the worst, if not lowest, in the NIL in the last two years,” Willard said. “So that’s first and foremost.”
Archie Miller would probably love to have what Willard considers poverty. Miller coaches at Rhode Island, and after last week’s Atlantic 10 tournament loss to Fordham in D.C., he made a similar lament.
“Now as we move forward, now we have to do it again and we have to find the right pieces again and our infrastructure has to change behind the scenes to do it,” Miller said. Substitute “money” for infrastructure and his coded wording becomes much clearer.
It’s an odd time in college sports, with change the only constant. Players can now change addresses as often as their coaches do, and often for similar pay raises. The NCAA allowed this to happen by clinging to an outdated version of amateurism for far too long, and the horse may be out of the barn for good.
Longtime coaches like Tony Bennett, Jay Wright and Jim Larranaga recently got out before the chaos gets any crazier. But there’s too much money involved to drive everyone away.
Even with a fifth (and sometimes sixth) season of eligibility, players have incentive to stay in school longer than they used to. But men’s college basketball is still a coaches’ game, and that’s one thing that’s unlikely to change.