Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Wowser.  Another Blunt in trouble in Illinois. This time it's their head football coach, Tim Beckman.

 

As between Beckman and Bollant, one of those Illinois head coaches still has a job.  And the other one doesn't.  But it ain't the women's basketball coach who's been given the pink slip.

 

According to ESPN http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/13533196/tim-beckman-fired-coach-illinois-fighting-illini, Beckman was fired amid allegations that he was forcing players to play hurt.

 

So they fired him.  A week before the season is set to begin.

 

Of course, all of his supporters should keep their pie holes shut because one should NEVER defend a coach who's been accused of wrongdoing, of any sort, apparently.

 

But this begs a question:  If a school can fire a football head coach for getting players to play hurt, how can that same school NOT fire a women's basketball coach for all the things Matt Bollant was accused of?

 

I suppose maybe it's because you don't fire people just because of accusations.  Maybe that's it.

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Silver, there was a rush to judgment in the Illinois situation in part because I think some people don't really like their coach.  I didn't see the same rush to judgment in the case of Pitino.  There were some people saying it looks bad.  And it does.

 

However, I see some significant differences in the two situations.  In the case of Louisville, the allegations are much more concrete as to what was done and who did it.  And no one has said Pitino did it or even that he knew about it and tacitly approved of it by not putting a stop to it.  What I've seen is that people say, with it going on as long as it did and being as involved as it was, how could Pitino NOT have known?  I don't know.  I haven't offered an opinion on that case one way or the other as it relates to Pitino.

 

But, again, with Louisville, the woman says she was paid something like $10,000 over time to supply dancers?  And she would then serve as an intermediary between the dancers and the graduate assistant coach striking the deals for prostitution.  Her daughters have both come forward and named specific recruits that they slept with and have asserted they were paid money to do it.  And some news outlet, can't recall which, has apparently independently (?) confirmed wire transfers between this coach and this woman.

 

I don't know if those allegations are true.  I'll repeat:  I don't know if those allegations are true.  But names have been named with concrete accusations of patently illegal activity.  And not a soul has stepped forward to say it didn't happen.  At best -- at BEST -- Pitino has said, "none of us knew."

 

With Illnois women's basketball, the allegations were comparatively fuzzy and others who would have had to have been there and known what was going on have jumped forward and stated unequivocal support for the coaches.

 

I think the two situations are only comparable in that they involved accusations against basketball programs in major conference in middle America.  Outside of that, I think they're very dis-similar.

  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...