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email John Stansberry |
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AROUND THE NATION
Feb. 3, 2010
Will a big time program roll the dice on Todd
Bozeman?
Morgan State is 7-0 in the MEAC and a safe bet to
win a third straight regular season MEAC title. Last
season, the Bears won the MEAC Tournament title to
secure the school's first NCAA Tournament bid. Will
that kind of success propel head coach Todd Bozeman
to a higher profile job?
That's an extremely complicated question because
frankly, his track record is pretty complicated. In
the case of Bozeman you have a guy whose greatest
successes as a coach have been obscured by his
greatest failures.
Bozeman first rose to prominence at Cal way back in
1993. With 10 games to go in the 1992-93 season, he
took over as interim coach when Lou Campanelli was
shown the door.
Despite a roster that included studs like Jason Kidd
and Lamond Murray, Cal was sitting on a 10-7 record
at that point. It appeared that Bozeman was simply
playing out the string of a disappointing season.
But under his leadership, Cal went 9-1 over those
final ten games of the regular season and secured an
NCAA Tournament bid. After a 66-64 win over LSU in
the first round of the Midwest Regional, the Golden
Bears drew two-time defending national champion Duke
in the second round.
In one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament
history, Cal held off a furious second half rally by
the Blue Devils to secure an 82-77 win. At the
tender age of 29, Bozeman became the youngest coach
to ever lead a team to the Sweet Sixteen.
Following the season, Bozeman was handed the job on
a permanent basis and he responded with a 22-8
record in 1993-94. But the campaign ended on a sour
note with a surprising first round loss to
Wisconsin-Green Bay in the NCAA Tournament.
Two short years later, it all came apart for the
Golden Boy. In 1996, Bozeman admitted to paying
$30,000 to the parents of Cal player Jelani Gardner.
This came after he initially denied the charges.
As a result of the subsequent investigation, the
NCAA forced Cal to forfeit the entire 1994-95 season
and most of the 1995-96 season.
And it didn't stop there. The Bears were banned from
participating in the 1998 NCAA Tournament and
required to vacate their 1996 NCAA Tournament
appearance, which was a first round loss to Iowa
State.
The university also returned 90 percent of its share
of revenue from the '96 Tourney. But the NCAA gave
what turned out to be a much harsher penalty to
Bozeman, slapping him with a show-cause.
With that on his record, Bozeman was pretty much
forced to drift in the Phantom Zone with General Zod
for the better part of a decade.
No colleges would even give him the time of day. An
assistant coaching job? Please, Bozeman was lucky to
even get his calls returned.
There were stints as a regional scout for the
then-Vancouver Grizzlies and as an advance scout for
the Raptors. He even took a job as a pharmaceutical
rep in the D.C. area.
What dogged Bozeman as much as the show-cause was
the rumor that he got the Cal job because he had
orchestrated a coup to get Campanelli fired. Wow,
talk about adding to a guy's baggage. In his
defense, he has always denied having any role in
Campanelli's ouster.
Morgan State took a chance on Bozeman in 2006 a year
after his show-cause probationary period ended. In
terms of on the court results, it's turned out
better than the powers that be at the school could
possibly have imagined.
More importantly, there hasn't been a hint of
wrongdoing on the part of Bozeman since he was
hired. So do a winning record and no hint of
impropriety at his current job make him a candidate
for a big time position?
That depends on who's doing the hiring. Take a
school like Auburn, for instance. With Jeff Lebo's
seat getting hotter by the day it appears that a
coaching change is imminent.
But getting into hot water with the NCAA was a big
reason why Auburn hired Lebo six years ago. Would
they replace him with a guy who has a show-cause on
his record? Probably not.
If Bozeman is approached, I can see it being a
mid-major program with a strong athletic director
who's secure in his or her position. Might that be a
school like UNC-Wilmington out of the Colonial?
Hmmmmm.....
Regardless of what his future prospects are, it
appears that he has pretty much paid for his past
transgressions. In terms of perseverance there are
few coaches out there that have shown more than
Bozeman.
John Stansberry is in his thirteenth season as
a senior writer for collegeinsider.com. Check out
John's blog
LonelyTailgater.com.
EMAIL JOHN |
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