Stan Geiger

Bill Self Mania

Bill Self seems like a nice enough fellow. He also seems like a very good basketball coach; his teams have experienced success wherever he has gone. Last night, of course, his team went home with all the marbles.

Would I like to see Bill at OSU? Sure I would. But if the rumor mill is correct relative to the amount of money OSU is dangling in front of Bill, I'd just as soon he stay in Kansas.

I've heard reports that OSU is prepared to give Bill a $6 million signing bonus plus $3.5 million a year. It boggles the mind. Good coach, bad coach, no coach is worth that kind of money. And no one on the public payroll should make that kind of money, ever, under any circumstances, period.

Oh, but Bill is a genius! So said the announcers toward the end of regulation in last night's game when Bill ordered his team to start fouling and throw up only 3-pointers. I got a real chuckle out of that. In the same situation, any coach would have given the same directions. It's standard operating procedure. It's an act of desperation, not an exercise in coaching genius. If Memphis had hit the free throws, game over.

But you have to pay a big-name coach a ton of money for the team to be successful, some would shout. Really? Kansas hired an OU underling as head coach for its football team. I'm sure the big fella was paid a fraction of what his former boss, Bob Stoops, was paid last year. Which team had the better season?

Alabama paid its first-year coach $4 million last year. The Tide, as I recall, finished at about .500.

The success or failure of a given team is not a function of how many millions the coach is paid. But even if it was, the insanity has to stop. Now is as good a time as any.

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