Asked about the tumultuous off-season in the basketball coaching profession, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski noted that problems pop up in all jobs.
"Maybe our code of ethics can be used in other professions so that unnamed sources wouldn't be the basis for articles," Krzyzewski said.
Also admonishing those who paint with a broad brush was Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who reminded journalists that a New York Times reporter was fired for fabricating stories.
"Do I think if it's happening there it's happening at every place in the country?" Boeheim said.
Texas Tech coach Bob Knight reminded a crowd that today's woes don't compare to the gambling scandals of the 1950s and 1960s.
"Is there anything that happened the past year that's worse than kids shaving points, the mob being involved in games, or an official fixing a game?" Knight asked.
"I don't think things have changed a (heck) of a lot."
Geez, maybe the coaching profession doesn't have an image problem after all. Perhaps it was just coincidence that after a spring and summer of scandal in basketball and football programs that Vanderbilt president Gordon Gee plowed over his athletic department.
It was clearly a case of overreaction when Jim Haney, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, called an unprecedented emergency meeting of all major college coaches last month.
In reality, the coaches-gone-wild off-season couldn't have come at a worse time for a game that's fighting fires on several fronts.
The biggest story in the amateur game last season was about a high school player, LeBron James, who never considered the option of higher education.
When Syracuse defeated Kansas for the NCAA title, Boeheim repeated how fortunate his program was to include a player as talented as Orangemen freshman Carmelo Anthony for one season.
The early exodus does damage on several levels.
"It's destroyed the fabric and history of the game," CBS commentator Billy Packer said.
And with the underclass talent drain, who are the talented seniors and juniors who mentor the youngsters? Roy Williams, the North Carolina coach who led Kansas to the title game in March, said he was lucky to have seniors such as Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich.
"That doesn't happen much any more," Williams said.
That's the snapshot of college basketball entering the 2003-2004 season: coaches whom NCAA president Myles Brand called "bad actors," and a level of talent so great that it considers college a pit stop, if that at all.
You want more good news? Last year's NCAA Tournament ratings were the lowest in history, mostly because the event started on the day war broke out in Iraq. The Syracuse victory was watched by 16 percent fewer viewers than the previous year's title game. Overall the tournament was down 24 percent.
Fewer stars, fewer fans, more bad coaches-2003-04 has to be better.
The 2002-03 season couldn't have been much worse.
Jim Harrick got fired at Georgia after allegations of academic fraud and improper benefits to a player.
St. Bonaventure dumped coach Jan van Breda Kolff, athletic director Gothard Lane and president Robert Wickenheiser when it was discovered the Bonnies had a player who had gained entrance with a welding certificate instead of a junior-college degree.
Larry Eustachy stayed too late at a few student parties and posed for too many pictures to keep his job at Iowa State. Cyclones assistant Wayne Morgan was elevated, and he said the first two months on the job was like "standing behind a palm tree during a hurricane."
Baylor simply blew up. As the murder of player Patrick Dennehy was being investigated, a list of rules violations emerged. Then coach Dave Bliss instructed players to portray Dennehy as a drug dealer to divert attention from the problems and save his job.
Not to mention the developing situations at Missouri, Auburn and Fairfield.
From a coaching standpoint, the replacements have played to strong reviewsin the behavior column.
Baylor's Scott Drew has gotten the "Why did you take this job?" question more times that he can count. After all, the Valparaiso program that he left is the big fish in the Mid-Continent Conference and a postseason regular.
But Baylor appealed to his ambition to coach in a major conference, and he remembered the good reviews given to the program and area by his father, Homer, who took his Valpo team to Waco about 10 years ago.
Plus, he's up for a challenge, and there's no bigger task in the game than wiping the mud from Baylor's name and making competitive a program that has won few than 30 percent of its Big 12 games.
Drew will forge ahead with eight scholarship playersthe best returning talent was permitted to leave without missing a year of eligibilityand three walk-ons. Drew has a couple of football players in mind but must wait until later in the month when the season ends.
"This is a time now when we can step up and represent Baylor in a positive way," Drew said.
"What player wouldn't relish this opportunity to lead when we're supposed to be down?"
Iowa State's situation isn't as desperate, but the Cyclones also find themselves digging out of a hole.
The coaching transfer went smoothly enough when athletic director Bruce Van De Velde passed on such candidates as Wyoming's Steve McClain and Tennessee-Chattanooga's Jeff Lebo and promoted Morgan. Hiring in-house appeased the Eustachy loyalists.
The immediate damage to the roster was minimal. All the recruits remained recommitted and only one veteran decided to transfer; starter Adam Haluska has enrolled at Iowa.
But the program suffered some damaging blows after the coaching change. Starting center Jackson Vroman has been suspended indefinitely after a drunken driving arrest, five months after he was arrested for a marijuana possession.
Also, point guard Tim Barnes has been arrested for drunken driving and has academic woes. He'll be out for games played during the first semester.
"We're trying to put things behind us and move forward," Iowa State senior guard Jake Sullivan said.
"But a couple of guys made mistakes, and we're in a situation now where we have to help the young guys come along as quickly as possible."
Morgan was thrilled when practice started. Basketball at last.
"When I get on the court, I don't hear or see anything else," Morgan said. "Some of the things that have happened around here have been atypical. But we've dealt with those things."
Morgan went 91-84 in six seasons at Long Beach State before moving to Iowa State last year to become an assistant and recruiting specialist. He spent much of last season on the road and helped land recruits from Boston, New York and Chicago. That he didn't spend as much time around the program as other coaches probably worked in Morgan's favor.
Georgia went outside the program and hired Western Kentucky coach Dennis Felton, who laid down the law for players. No facial hair below the lip, no gaudy jewelry when representing the team, coats and ties and no headphones on road trips, no hats indoors, mandatory 7:30 a.m. breakfasts, and if one player messes up everybody runs at 6 a.m.
A few couldn't hack it. Two players have been dismissed. Earlier this month, Felton criticized a senior for not being a leader.
"It's a whole lot easier to do it the other way than to uphold some standards," Felton said. "But I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror."
Georgia crashed just as the Bulldogs were building momentum for the postseason. An investigation revealed that a former player, Tony Cole, had received improper benefits and credit for courses he didn't take. The scandal forced out Harrick and his son, assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr.
The program hopes to go before the NCAA Infractions Committee in December and wants to know where it stands by March, but Georgia isn't expecting more punishment after pulling itself out of last year's Southeastern Conference and NCAA tournaments.
There probably won't be any play beyond the conference anyway. The 11-man roster includes four scholarship freshmen and three walk-ons.
St. Bonaventure figures to hear from the NCAA by December, but future sanctions can't do much more damage to a program that should fall to the bottom of the Atlantic-10. The top talent has fled, leaving the program with a major rebuilding task.
Enter new coach Anthony Solomon, who arrives from Notre Dame, where he served as an assistant under Mike Brey.
"They couldn't have come up with a better choice," Brey said.
Solomon was a walk-on for Virginia's 1984 Final Four team loaded with future head coaches. Terry Holland's assistants were Dave Odom (South Carolina), Jim Larranaga (George Mason), Jeff Jones (American) and Seth Greenburg (Virginia Tech). On the team were Rick Carlisle (Indiana Pacers) and Rickey Stokes (former Virginia Tech head coach).
During the team's opening practice celebration, Solomon came on the floor through a wall of smoke, stood in the spotlight and revealed a T-shirt that on the front said "Marching Forward" and on the back "Together."
The Bonnies have nine scholarship players and three walk-ons.
"Since May we've looked only at the future," Solomon said.
"That's what this team can control."
So what does this season bring? The final year of several conferences as we know them. The ACC, Big East, Conference USA and Western Athletic all get new looks for 2004-05.
We'll see plenty of new faces to preseason All-America teams. Of last year's first-team members Kansas' Nick Collison, Marquette's Dywane Wade, Texas' T.J. Ford, Xavier's David West and Wake Forest's Josh Howard none return.
Neither does anybody who made the second team. Or the third team.
This year's crop of stars may need some introduction to fans outside their regions. Players such as Missouri's Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson, Arizona State's Ike Diogu, Oregon's Luke Jackson, North Carolina's Raymond Felton, Connecticut's Emeka Okafor, St. Joseph's Jameer Nelson, Texas Tech's Andre Emmett and Syracuse's Hakim Warrick are expected to step forward.
But the usual suspects figure to return to the polls. Connecticut, Michigan State, Duke and Kentucky are getting plenty of preseason love. So are Missouri, Kansas and Texas.
The Roy Williams-to-North Carolina, Bill Self-to-Kansas and Ben Howland-to-UCLA moves would have been the major off-season stories were it not for scandal in the coaching profession.
