Bozo immunities in college basketball

By John McManus Sports Central Columnist

Have you ever watched a game where the coaching was so bad you were just disgusted? I recall a few Bengals games with Bruce Coslet at the helm.

What about a coach who has an abundance of talent on his team and just underachieves in a big way? Pat Kennedy and DePaul ring a bell?

There is a word that my friends have made synonymous with bad coaching. That word is "bozo."

Many bozos have come and gone, and come again and gone again, in the turbulent world of coaching. Having watched college basketball games for many years now, my friends and I have had many opportunities to call a coach a bozo. Sometimes it was definitely appropriate, and other times it was in the heat of the moment. We sometimes regretted it. In 2000, one of my friends tagged the bozo label on then North Carolina head coach Bill Guthridge, but he removed it when the Tar Heels made their unexpected run to the Final Four as a number eight seed.

The intent of this piece though is not to bash coaches. After all, I feel that administrators are sometimes too quick in pulling the trigger and firing a coach. It's one thing to call a coach a bozo; it's another to strip him of his livelihood.

Let's honor the coaches, especially those in the college basketball fraternity. I've taken my friends' bozo phenomena and developed my own little idea from it, a sort of elite coaching fraternity. It is called Bozo Immunity. Think of it as achieving tenure in teaching, earning a gold shield in the police department or being made in the mob. Earning Bozo Immunity is not easy, it is truly an elite group. Here is my criteria:

* You must be actively coaching in Division I college basketball.

* You must have won a national championship or have a proven track record as an outstanding head coach.

Let's face it, winning the NCAA Tournament is one of the most difficult coaching feats in all of sports. Many great coaches haven't even made it to the Final Four. So I feel that if you can take your team through the madness of March and win it all, you've earned Bozo Immunity.

There is another catch, Bozo Immunity is granted to only one coach at the end of each season. Obviously, if the winning coach at the Final Four is a first-time national champion as a head coach, he gets it automatically. If otherwise, like last season when Duke won a third national title with Mike Krzyzewski, a charter member of the club, someone else must be selected.

In last season's case, Lute Olson already had it, Tom Izzo already had it, and while Gary Williams did an outstanding job getting to the Final Four, he needs to do a little more to earn it. So, after much thinking, I selected someone who came close to winning it all twice and has been a winner on a consistent basis throughout his career. I finally granted Bozo Immunity to Jim Boeheim.

Please note that I only began granting Bozo Immunity during the 1997 season. So here goes, the following coaches are immune from being referred to as "bozo" for as long as they shall coach:

Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) - granted 2001

Jim Calhoun (Connecticut) - granted 1999

Steve Fisher (San Diego State) - charter member

Jim Harrick (Georgia) - charter member

Tom Izzo (Michigan State) - granted 2000

Bob Knight (Texas Tech) - charter member

Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) - charter member

Rick Majerus (Utah) - charter member

Rollie Massimino (Cleveland State) - charter member

Lute Olson (Arizona) - granted 1997

Rick Pitino (Louisville) - charter member

Nolan Richardson (Arkansas) - charter member

Tubby Smith (Kentucky) - granted 1998

Jerry Tarkanian (Fresno State) - charter member

Roy Williams (Kansas) - charter member

So, who are the top candidates to join this exclusive club in 2002?

Well, there are many great coaches out there who are still not immune to being referred to as bozo. Billy Donovan at Florida, John Chaney at Temple, Gene Keady at Purdue, Mike Montgomery at Stanford, and Bill Self at Illinois immediately come to mind. There is also that new wave of young coaches like Tommy Amaker at Michigan, Steve Alford at Iowa, and Quin Snyder at Missouri.

If one of these coaches runs the table in the NCAA Tournament, then the answer is simple. Otherwise, I'll be faced with another tough decision.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.