Jamie Dixon will never catch Jim Boeheim in terms of victories, but in one vital area the TCU coach is a galaxy ahead of the man who has the second most wins in NCAA men’s basketball history.
The TCU men’s basketball coach has mastered the art of shutting his mouth about the current landscape of NCAA athletics. A landscape that drives a lot of his colleagues mad.
There are those who dislike it so much they quit. Roy Williams. Mike Krzyzewski.
There are those who get it, and deal with it. Jamie Dixon. Scott Drew. Bill Self.
There are those who sound like petulant babies. Jim Boeheim. Nick Saban.
This week, the 78-year-old Boeheim pulled a Boeheim when he went 167 percent crazy-old-man and ranted about the state of college basketball.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Boeheim said, “This is an awful place we’re in in college basketball. Pittsburgh bought a team. OK, fine. My (big donor) talks about it, but he doesn’t give anyone any money. Nothing. Not one guy. Our guys make like $20,000.
“Wake Forest bought a team. Miami bought a team. ... It’s like, ‘Really, this is where we are?’ That’s really where we are, and it’s only going to get worse.”
(Pitt is currently 16-7 overall and 9-3 in the ACC; Wake Forest is 15-9 and 7-6; Miami is 19-5 and 10-4; Syracuse is 14-10 and 7-6.)
Once Boeheim saw the reaction, and warranted criticism at his remarks, he issued a retraction; his statement reads like it came directly from Syracuse’s chief legal counsel.
Boeheim may have been just guessing when it came to Wake Forest, Pitt and Miami all “buying” teams; it sounds like a coach who “heard” a few things on the recruiting trail and just went with it. It’s the same thing Saban did last year when he accused Texas A&M of buying players.
(Dear Coach Saban and Coach Boeheim, no one cares any more if they are; they just want their sports).
Boeheim is just mad that this is how college basketball/football is these days, and his team is not at the top of the pyramid. It’s not the same game he came up in nearly 50 years ago, or even worked in 10 years ago.
College basketball is no less slimy than it was in 2003, when Syracuse won the national title led by one-and-doner, Carmelo Anthony.
The difference now in 2023 is that the sludge is in the open, and players brazenly exercise the power that used to belong exclusively to the coaches. The type of power coaches brazenly exercised then, and now.
One and done. Graduate transfers. The G League. The transfer portal. Name. Image. Likeness.
These words, when paired together or apart, make every NCAA coach who is around the age of 50 or up want to take a drink of whatever is handy, whether that’s NyQuil, Johnny Walker, or curdled milk. In that moment, they all taste the same.
Jamie Dixon, whose 17th-ranked TCU team lost at No. 12 Kansas State on Tuesday night, had three ways to go when all of these changes became a reality: deal with it, quit, or pout.
The smart ones just deal with it, and are not afraid to say “It’s OK.”
We are well over a year into the for-pay, NIL world of college sports, and the nuclear winter that was forecasted by the NCAA didn’t happen. And it won’t as long as television props it all up.
The only real new wrinkle to all of this is teenagers are being openly pursued with six-figure offers to attend Big University X. Before, such offers were off to the side, in the dark.
Now, they’re on the Internet, and a point of sale for a program.
Behind closed doors a lot coaches don’t enjoy this new world, but the smart ones publicly say it’s good that players now receive a share without penalty.
That’s the job.
If you don’t like it, sell insurance.
The smart ones understand they already enjoy the perks of a big salary to coach a basketball team, and have the perspective not to whine too loud, often, or ever.
Coaching a revenue sport in an athletic department that budgets around a successful men’s basketball or football program is hard, and includes life-altering stress. The profession is not for everyone, or for the well adjusted.
Their livelihood hinges on the performance, and behavior, of teenagers. That doesn’t sound fun. It sounds dangerous.
The teenagers have more power now, and a lot of coaches just cannot stand the alteration to the job description.
Guys like Jamie Dixon are smart enough to realize they still have it good, can win games, and they can deal with whatever the latest “new” is about the job.
Guys like Jim Boeheim can’t.
If you don’t like it, quit.
You know the job, so stop complaining.
