Krzyzewski: NCAA should share wealth with lesser conferences

(AP)—The Final Four coaches, aware of their own precarious job security, were critical Wednesday of athletic directors who succumb to pressure and fire coaches before there is a chance to succeed.

“An awful lot of coaches just as good or a lot better than our staff have not been given the opportunity that we’ve had,” said Seton Hall’s P.J. Carlesimo, whose resignation was demanded by the student senate and newspaper last year, just 14 months before he guided his team to college basketball’s pinnacle.

“What’s happening in college athletics is wrong. It’s very alarming and it’s happening because you have athletic directors who are unwilling to stand up to alumni and boosters. At Seton Hall, we were lucky enough to have people who were strong enough to take some criticism.”

Carlesimo’s comments, made in a nationwide telephone conference call that included Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Illinois’ Lou Henson and Michigan’s Steve Fisher, were made more relevant by Fisher’s shaky position.

He took over the team two days before the NCAA tournament began, when Bill Frieder took the Arizona State job, and has guided the Wolverines to the four victories that got them into the Final Four. Despite that, he has received no word from Bo Schembechler, the athletic director and head football coach, on his status.

Nevertheless, the 44-year-old Fisher, who acknowledged that “I’d love to be a head coach here,” got one endorsement Wednesday.

“I really feel Steve Fisher deserves the head coaching position,” said Henson, whose Illinois team, two-time victors over Michigan in the regular season, will meet the Wolverines Saturday after Seton Hall and Duke play in the first game.

“When he takes over and they beat the people that they’ve beaten by the scores they’ve beaten them, he’s proven he’s a big-time coach and is ready for the job.”

Carlesimo and Krzyzewski were more general, talking about the hazards of a profession in which more than a dozen division I coaches have been fired since the regular season ended three weeks ago.

They both noted that the four teams left represent what are generally considered to be the top three basketball conferences—the Big Ten (Illinois and Michigan), Big East (Seton Hall) and Atlantic Coast (Duke).

All regularly get five or six teams in the NCAA tournament, generating millions of dollars and creating a self-perpetuating cycle in which those conferences continue to thrive at the expense of others who get one team into the tournament and have it eliminated early. That, in turn, puts more pressure on athletic directors.

“We should be getting money to lower leagues,” Krzyzewski said. “A lot of the coaches there are losing their jobs because they don’t make the tournament or advance far enough. Then the athletic director comes in and sees his budget and decides he has to do something.”

Carlesimo, who is in his seventh year at Seton Hall, was even more blunt about the pressure.

During most of his tenure, the Pirates were at the bottom of the Big East, playing each year in the 8-9 game that determined who got into the regular phase of the league tournament.

“I really believe that coaching is overrated,” Carlesimo said. “I know how lucky I am to be here. If things hadn’t worked out last year, Seton Hall would be here and our players would be here but our coaches wouldn’t.”

Krzyzewski, a close friend of Carlesimo from the days when he coached Army and Carlesimo was at Wagner, concurred. He noted that sometimes a team is ready to gel, as Seton Hall was this season, when the old coach is fired and a new one comes in and gets credit.