E-mailed 4/4/11
Doug's Commentary:
In graduate school my friend Marcus and I would often talk about one of our professors and try to understand in our minds how she had "blown up." One day she was a hall director working in a nondescript residential high rise in the mid-west. She was clearly very smart, methodical, dedicated to students, and had an incredible worth ethic. But when it came down to it she was in the same position as tens of thousands of other people nation-wide, a position that many consider the lower rung of working in higher education. Then one day she decides to ask students questions about their life and track those answers not only over their four-six years at the University, but after they get out of college. She doesn't know if she will find anything, but figures its worth a shot. She found something. The students experiences and stories were all remarkably similar in terms of their development. All of the stories, layered over each other, formed a pattern. She wrote, plainly, clearly, and methodically about these patterns. Now she gets annual offers of more money to leave her current university and come run another university's higher education department. She's blown up. She not a different person now than the she was the day before thought up this research project. She didn't create a new form of research, nor did she really create new theories...she simply recorded what others were telling her and found patterns in the stories. She's no smarter now than she was before the project launched. She is perhaps better informed. The point is this: she's still the same person as she always had been but is now getting much different results.
Perhaps a sports analogy is more appropriate: Albert Pujols. He's had the same swing his entire life before he was drafted. He got it in high school and kept it with him in Community College. In 1999 in the 13th round with the 402nd overall pick, the Cardinals selected José Alberto Pujols Alcántara. In 2001 Pujols was invited the major league camp in spring training not to compete for a starting spot or even to try and earn a spot on the team as a bench player, instead the Cardinals wanted to give them the opportunity to get to know the major league players. The plan was to send him down to the minors for 1-2 more years and prefect his defensive skills, most likely as a catcher. That spring on a warm sunny day in Florida, veteran IN/OF Bobby Bonilla who the Cards had signed to be the regular third basemen for the upcoming season, heard a pop and felt a burn and came up hobbling. He had torn his hamstring and ended his career but in a circle-of-life type moment another career was born. Later that day Tony LaRussa told Pujols to take ground balls at third base with IF instructor Jose Oquendo. 10 years on Pujols has put together one of the best if not the best decades in the history of professional baseball. Because someone blew out his hamstring, someone else blew up. Pujols was no better or nor worse of a player before or after he was drafted. He went to bed with the same skills before Bonilla popped his hammy and woke up with the same skills the day after he took those first grounders.
People in MLB went a bit nuts wondering how the hell they missed a player like Pujols and how he fell past every team multiple times to the 402nd pick. The problem was some people had seen Pujols, in particular Fernando Arango (great story here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6189583). He tried like hell to get Tampa Bay to draft Pujols because of what he saw in him at the time: the clean smooth swing and the reaction of the ball "jumping" off his bat. Its the same swing and same action Pujols produces today as he murders NL pitchers day in and day out. Arango's problem wasn't that he wasn't respected--he was. It wasn't that he wasn't persuasive--he was. It wasn't that he hadn't had a great career--he had. It was that he wasn't the decision maker. All he could do is report what he saw, he couldn't pull the trigger.
Last night Mike Alden pulled the trigger because no one stood in his way. He was the decider and he decided on Frank Haith. It was clear that he and the rest of his search committee saw something and in the coming days they will make their case for what they saw. Some will believe them and some won't. But this much is true: Haith is the same basketball coach today as he was Saturday. He'll also be the same a year from now after his first season at Mizzou has ended. I'm interested in hearing Alden's case for the hire. I'm only assuming it will lead with a few of his pillars that he mentioned in press conference after Anderson's departure and has worked with Pinkel to build the football program on. In some of those Haith grades out very well: morals, ethics, and academics. He manged to coach at the U and not get involved in scandals or get put on probation. He also graduated 21 out of 22 (depending on your math, it could be 20 out of 21) seniors under his watch. Both are very important. What's also important is your ability to coach. Ethics, standards, and academics are on a sliding scale from very high to very low. So is the ability to coach and run a program. Those two scales aren't inner-related.
You don't have to choose one over the other. You can find a coach (i.e. Painter) that has both. The question because can you hire a coach that has both. And, if you can't, how far down on each scale do you go? Its clear Mike Alden, who has one bad hire (Snyder) and many good ones under his belt, went out on a limb and favored ethics, standards, and academics over demonstrated production as a coach.
When Fernando Arango finally got his bosses to bring Pujols in for a pre-draft workout, his swing and body type then were the same as his swing and body type now. Arango felt he saw what he always had: a gifted athlete and power hitter who will hit 40+ home runs in the major leagues multiple times in his career. His bosses saw no such thing. They passed. Albert blew up. Frank Haith is no better of a coach now as he was last week. The question for Alden and anxious Mizzou fans everywhere is: 10 years on, in which direction will Frank Haith have blown up.
Quick Reactions:
Dan Patrick, former ESPN Anchor: "Hire is uninspiring."
ESPN.com's Pat Forde: "If Missouri has really hired Frank Haith, Mike Alden better have the Explanation of The Century."
CBSSports.com's Gregg Doyel: "And this, people, is why I said NC State was a better job than Mizzou. Because Yow > Alden. It matters."
CBSSports.com's Garry Parish: "Really, Missouri?"
SI.com's Seth Davis: "I like Frank Haith and have been impressed by him, but this is one of the most perplexing hires I've seen in a long, long time."
More from Davis: "First Mike Alden flies to Florida and gets played by Matt Painter. Now he is going to introduce a coach who is 23 games under .500 in conference."
ESPN's Doug Gottlieb: "Good morning, tweeps. Sorry, Mizzou fans. The Frank Haith hiring was not a bad dream."
St. L Post Dispatch Vahe Gregorian: "But by the time all was said and done late Sunday night, MU had set its aim so off the radar that the college basketball world could only say... huh?" Also called it a "curious hire."
St. L Post Dispatch Brian Burwell: "The coach from the University of Miami is not the sort of hire who will win the news conference, not after so much buzz over the past two weeks about Painter, Smith and even the one-in-a-million dreams of Smart. But that is what makes the Haith hire so intriguing. Alden has staked his legacy on this move, because he knows that Tigers fans with stars in their eyes will greet Haith with a lukewarm reception. But think about it for a moment. Haith went to an impossible job at Miami and made something of it."
St. L Radio Host Tim McKernan: "At first, I thought it may be a joke on the part of a national website. But, then Joe Walljasper, a columnist with The Columbia Daily Tribune, tweeted that he had it confirmed. And then Gabe DeArmond of insideSTL and PowerMizzou.com. And then Vahe Gregorian of the Post-Dispatch. And then a bunch of national guys. And, it began to become real. And real confusing."
Link if you still don't know who the hell Frank Haith is:
http://www.rockmnation.com/2011/4/4/2089851/meet-your-new-mizzou-basketball-coach-frank-haith#63098098
Links if you want to feel better about life:
Big 12 Hoops: http://www.big12hoops.com/2011/4/4/2089593/breaking-frank-haith-missouri-miami Premise: The U sucks ass as a basketball school. His W/L was deceiving records. He'll do good/great at Mizzou.
ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6119933 Premise: Coach K loves Coach Haith! (which probably also includes loving to beat him twice a year)
Links if you are going to get through your Monday by being irate about the Haith hiring:
CBS Sports: http://gregg-doyel.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/view/5881996 Premise: Everyone in Miami is happy andMizzou got nervous and hired the person that would say yes.
Rivals.com: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Irate-Missouri-fans-blindsided-by-hiring-of-Miam?urn=ncaab-wp1785 Premise: Not everyone's upset about the Haith hiring. Miami fan's are ecstatic!
Sun Sentinel: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports/columnists/hyde/blog/2011/04/hyde_haith_did_um_a_favor_by_t.html Premise: Not everyone's upset about the Haith hiring. Miami fan's are ecstatic!
Link if you are interested in the Painter non-hire and subsequent media mistakes:
From the BoCoMo Trib: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/apr/03/high-tech-rumor-mill/?sports
Summary:
Fans are pissed and national media are pretty much making fun of us--openly. Citizens of the Great State of Missouri seem to hate two people at lot: Tony LaRussa and Mike Alden. Its perplexing at best. Both put people in the seats by creating exciting products and both recently have won quite a few games. Days like today make them hate Mike Alden even more. He's no dummy, he knows this. He knows he took a risk. He has to be pretty confident in why he took the risk. I believe in the "dance with who brung ya" philosophy in life. Alden has earned the right to be proven wrong.
All that being said, I'm not optimistic. I think at best Haith grades out at Anderson's level and probably grades out a good bit below. I don't see him taking us to the next level of consistently winning Big 12 minus 2 championships and finally getting that elusive Final Four appearance.
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