E-mailed 8/19/11
If you read nothing else today, read Character and Crises by Tim McKernan of InsideSTL.com. More on this at the end...now...on to sifting through the links so you don't have to:
Mizzou insiders are saying what many on the outside are feeling: there is no way Haith is going to survive this. People think he could be dismissed, possibly in the next two weeks. Money is an issue here, it will likely cost us $1.5 million to get rid of him cleanly without waiting on an NCAA investigation, which could take months.
That's a 1.5 million dollar mistake by Mike Alden. That's why Bernie Miklasz says he isn't buying the dismissal talk. He thinks Alden will try and save Haith and in the process try and save himself. The money quote: "And if Alden terminates Haith or forces him out, the move would be akin to Alden buying time on ESPN to declare: "As an AD, I am an abject failure, and I screwed up this hire about as terribly as you can botch a hire." And Alden isn't going to do that. Say what you want about him, but Alden's survival skills are impressive." Bernie isn't advocating for keeping him, he's just predicting what Alden will do.
Rock M Nation asks, "What Happens Next For Mizzou Basketball?" Whatever happens, the future looks bleak right now with the following scholarship players coming back for the 2012-2013 season (after this year):
Backcourt: Phil Pressey (Jr.), Mike Dixon (Sr.), Earnest Ross (Jr.), Keion Bell (Sr.)
Frontcourt: Kadeem Green (So.), Quantel Denson (Jr., though his status is questionable right now, to say the least), Aaron Scales (Fr.)
My guess is if we change coaches Pressey leaves for Arkansas and Denson never gets eligible. This means we have scarcely enough scholarship players to field a team.
In terms of who coaches the team, Rock M says conventional wisdom is that Ernie Nester, a solid X's and O's guy, will become interim head coach. They also point out he's as old as Norm when he retired and they make a convincing case that whoever they hire should at least be in the running for the full time gig (and that ain't Ernie Nester). Enter Tim Fuller. As per usual, Rock M Nation is pretty much right on. The best case scenario is they beg Nester to stay on and name Fuller Interim head coach. Fuller, they say, has higher upside and lower downside (agree) and he's our head recruiter. Money quotes: "Fact is, big-time recruits go to schools that are either under investigation or have a shaky head man in charge all the time." [snip] "Meanwhile, if Fuller can tell a recruit either a) the same thing or b) "I'm the top guy, and Mizzou's definitely going to retain me after this year," then it's probably fine too. The key is simply to find certainty, one way or another, in the next couple of weeks, before official visits begin. This isn't a pleasant situation, but committing to a path will help Mizzou long-term, no matter what is eventually discovered about Frank Haith."
Or as ESPN senior basketball recruiting analyst Dave Telep tells the Columbia Trib: “From now until the first of October, it’s prime fishing season. The waters have been chummed all spring and summer long, and now you’ve got to pull up the net. So the next month and a half is going to be, not just for Missouri, a pivotal month on the calendar for commitments this year.” He continues: “I really think that the best thing for Missouri to do is to take the pulse of their situation and then come out and instead of letting people draw their own conclusions, they’ve got to make a stand and make a statement about the status of everything going on,” Telep said. “That doesn’t have to be today. That doesn’t have to be tomorrow. But it can’t be six months from now.”
As stated above, if you read nothing else read Character and Crises by Tim McKernan of InsideSTL.com. Timmy goes through the Haith range of emotions from hiring to introduction, to media days and finally to the day the Miami news story broke. He also points out something important that I missed in my previous e-mails, the flat out denial that the crisis at Miami had anything to do with basketball and that Haith didn't know the donor involved. That came from Missouri Basketball Sports Information Director Dave Ritter: "Those things that are coming out with football didn’t have anything to do with Frank’s basketball program. I would say you would probably need to talk to the University of Miami if something happened on his watch. We had a chance to talk to Coach Haith and he’s had no involvement with this Mr. Shapiro guy. There’s nothing. Those are all football violations and allegations. There’s nothing dealing with basketball. Those violations have nothing involved with men’s basketball.’’
Tim's most upset about this than about the Yahoo allegations, and so am I. Mike DeArmond of The KC Star came to Ritter's defense and tweeted: "MU hoops SID was hung out to dry in defending Haith. Live and learn. But, lay off the kid. Haith used him." Timmy details the on-air convo he had with the St. Louis P-D's Vahe Gregorian who said he called athletics (he's the P-Ds Mizzou beat man) many times and they wouldn't comment because they hadn't seen the actual report, and certainly didn't know there were pictures and phone records to go with it. Hence, Haith telling Ritter to release that statement. Statement released. Full Yahoo report delivered....and the facts don't match the statement.
In other words, the bodies continue to pile up. Not only did Haith help to possibly deal a death sentence to the U's athletic program, he also managed to throw his new Sports Information Director under the bus and look even shadier in the process. This is unacceptable behavior. Not only does he make bad decisions, it appears as if he doesn't learn from them.
Its a start contrast to Gary Pinkel, who as Timmy points out, may "routinely" make questionable game decisions but always owns up to them. Timmy goes on to say that Mizzou is in lockdown mode and silence is deafening. Its not the way to handle a crisis. As Blues' Vice President and current Fleishmann-Hillard exec Jim Woodcock writes in last month's Sports Business Journal:
"On the day Derek Jeter celebrated his 3,000th hit, ESPN.com posted competing headlines detailing a player’s DUI charge, accusations of gay slurs by two athletes, a stabbing, a recruiting scandal and, of course, the NFL labor dispute. All are complex matters requiring a sound crisis communications platform. Unprepared responses by athletes, coaches and sports executives often result in spectacular breakdowns and failures that can enflame matters and, ultimately, erode faith.
The heartbreaking case of a Texas Rangers fan falling to his death while catching a foul ball tossed to him by the franchise’s iconic star, Josh Hamilton, on July 7 required nothing less than an urgent and elite crisis communications response. Under exceptionally difficult circumstances, the Rangers delivered.
Team President Nolan Ryan took command, and questions, in a postgame news conference. Hamilton followed suit by sharing thoughts with reporters. A trust fund was established on the Rangers’ website. Stadium officials were accessible and informed. Response was swift. Above all, it was accountable and believable.
In any crisis, the immediate response often determines how you are judged and how successful your strategy will ultimately become. Rather than close ranks behind a series of statements — unfortunately, a common approach to addressing sports crisis scenarios — the Rangers called on the two men considered to be the face of the franchise. As impressive, Ryan and Hamilton followed by revealing their soul. It’s not the easiest remedy, but perhaps it will provide the sports industry with a crisis communications template to consider in the future."
To conclude: Its time for someone to step forward from Mizzou Athletics and start bearing their soul. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but certainly not in six months after the NCAA investigation has concluded. We're rarely defined by our mistakes, more often we're defined by our reactions to them. As of late, Mizzou Athletics hasn't been defined very favorably.
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