"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Friday, March 24, 2006

Coaching Searches: Lies, Damn Lies and Smokescreens

With the IU coaching search squarely in his site, Jerry Brewer slays a few sacred cows in his column from this morning's Louisville Courier-Journal. His lead is spot-on:

I hate coaching searches.

They are the bane of sports journalism. They turn honest people into liars and open ones into shady characters. They inspire embarrassing misreporting, constant speculation and absolutely no public confidence.

And then they end with a hire, but finality leaves you with more questions than you had at the start.

Brewer goes on to tar his own profession, chastising "journalists for lowering our standards to compete in this new world of instant news." Too bad he didn't go for the throat and single out Andy Katz as the leader of this infamous fraternity.

Still -- bravo, Jerry!

1 comment:

Chas said...

Well, I wouldn't call Katz the leader in this. He is part of a triumverate (sp?) with Seth Davis at SI.com and Greg Doyel at Sportsline.com. He gets the most attention, I guess because of being part of the WWLS.

And I happen to enjoy reading all three. Not necessarily because I believe what they are writing, but because it is more about who's leaking them the info, or trying to plant the story.

I prefer seeing the rumored stuff in the open. With the net, there are so many different resources and anonymous sources, it may be confusing and duplicitous, but it can also be considered for triangulation. What are the consistent parts, what seems to be coming from one place and what just does not fit.