History is too often lost on the young. But here’s an old tale of two basketball coaches that might seem relevant at the moment:
In 1983, Lute Olson left the vaunted Big Ten to build a program in dusty Tucson. He was a great coach, a towering figure and he loved Arizona so much that he never left for bigger stages and greener pastures. All he ever needed was beneath his feet in Tucson.
During that time, Olson participated in a good-natured rivalry with Bill Frieder, the new head coach at Arizona State. Frieder arrived in Tempe in a swirl of controversy, having previously coached a great team at the University of Michigan. But on the eve of the 1989 NCAA Tournament, he announced he’d be leaving Michigan at season’s end to take the reins at ASU.
Frieder was fired on the spot. His successor, assistant coach Steve Fisher, was elevated to the big chair and rattled off six consecutive tournament wins to claim an NCAA championship.
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The story resonates because Lane Kiffin has become the new Frieder. Kiffin just accepted a job at LSU even though his team at Ole Miss (11-1, 7-1 in the SEC) had a good chance to compete for a national championship.
There is no doubt that the business of college football is broken. The sport cries for an unbiased commissioner, some form of central authority to install a sense of fairness and common good, someone to reduce the anarchy of the transfer portal and late-season coach poaching.
But as he must, Kiffin has raised the stakes. It’s one thing to leave a program before some celebratory, glad-handing bowl game, where the rewards are sugar-free and superfluous. It’s another thing to leave before a 12-team College Football Playoff with a chance to win it all. If that doesn’t matter more than anything, what are you selling? Why are you coaching?
It also matters because ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham has the chance to be the state of Arizona’s next Lute Olson, a head coach who values more than money and personal conquest. To wit:
After a Territorial Cup loss to rival Arizona, Dillingham posted the following comforting thoughts on social media, which he attributed to actor Denzel Washington:
“Beware of destination addiction: The idea that happiness is the next place, the next job, or even with the next partner. Until you give up the idea that happiness is somewhere else, it will never be where you are.”
Dillingham deleted the entry when he discovered Kiffin once posted the same thing years ago, and it might appear like the ASU head coach was trolling Kiffin for his latest move. But intentions are clear and reassuring, just like the subsections of family he has living around back and down the block.
In other words: Never chase happiness if you’re already happy. Granted, Dillingham might not spend 25 faithful seasons in Arizona the way Olson once did. At this point, I’d happily settle for 10. Nevertheless, he has the chance to be exceptional and the exception, the guy that sticks around, a ray of light in a sport full of transient greed.
Reach Bickley at [email protected]. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7.
Follow @danbickley
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