It happened in Providence on Saturday night when, as the Friars were heading to their fourth consecutive loss, contingents in the crowd began yelling, “Fire Welsh!”
Tim Welsh won’t be the only one hearing it around the country the last month of the regular-season. Trust me.
I’m not saying these guys are necessarily on the way out, but plenty of coaches are feeling the pressure.
Here are 10 of them:
LSU’s John Brady
St. John’s coach Norm Roberts
Northwestern’s Bill Carmody
Oregon’s Ernie Kent
Maine’s Ted Woodward
Sacramento State’s Jerome Jenkins
Jacksonville State’s Mike Laplante
Mount St. Mary’s Milan Brown
Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton
Rice’s Willis Wilson
PITT WAITING FOR FIELDS
Its doubtful anyone would say it publicly, but Pittsburgh has to be happy with a 6-4 mark in the first 10 games since playing without Levance Fields and Mike Cook.
Fields remains out indefinitely with a broken left foot and Cook is out for the season with a torn ACL. Remember, this is the same team that handed Duke its only loss on a neutral court in Madison Square Garden prior to losing 40 percent of its starters.
Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon refuses to put a timetable on Fields’ return, but don’t be surprised if his starting point guard is back for the Feb. 21 road contest at Notre Dame.
"The biggest challenge we’ve had to face is foul trouble,” Dixon said after his team’s road loss at UConn. “Every loss – and it’s surprisingly been our guards.”
RANDOM NOTES: My favorite player to interview in the entire country may be West Virginia’s Joe Alexander. Not sure what it is about the program, but Mike Gansey took the honor a couple years ago. Both are blunt, articulate and terrific players. Runner-up may go to Pittsburgh’s DeJuan Blair. … Providence’s versatile forward Geoff McDermott had his knee drained for the second time this season and while he said he felt OK on Saturday night, he didn’t look it. … How about the fact that the team’s most talented player, Weyinmi Efejuku, didn’t even play a single minute in the loss to Notre Dame last week.
Welsh has been snakebit somewhat by injuries and knuckeheads. I think he may be a better coach than the "Friar Loyals" think. That being said, the team has underachived during his ten years. If they are looking for a coach, they should look for Jim Miller at Xavior, who probably woulden't come as he makes more money than coach Welch now, or the coach at Bradly, who has a better program at PC and is not from the east but may jump at the chance to work the Big East. Another possiblity would be Tommy Amaker at Harvard (fomer Michgain & Seton Hall).
Most of those coaches on that list are black. Shows the racism that is involved in college sports today and the good ole boy system. Lets run these black coaches out and bringing white "geniuses" who are smarter strategy coaches and can bring in more money from the alumni.
Welsh and the Friars will have to totally collapse and get bounced in the first round of the Big East tourney for him to get fired. The fathers don't have the heart to fire anyone, only Gordie Chiesa and that was after the players staged a mutiny.
Oh I see. White coaches, rightly or wrongly get fired for not winning enough games, but when black coaches are in jeopardy it's racism. At least they're not blaming it on Bush . . . yet.
jqaeti.... are you a bigot? racist? or, just an ####?
the teams these coaches coach, are perrenial LOSERS with LOSEING SEASONS. being black does not make you a loser... or your team lose. being white does not make you a winner... or your team win.
find some BLACK COACHES whose TEAMS CAN WIN, AND WIN CONSISTANTLY... they will be paid big money and enjoy legendary status.
I think Bama's Mark Gottfried ought to be on this list as well. As an alum, I am getting really tired of readng pre-season assessments that put the immense Bama talent high in the polls but watch Gottfried get average play out of them - every year. He's been there over a decade. Time to find someone who can not only get talent but use it effectively.
Thank God someone outside of NYC realizes how bad Norm Roberts is.... he hasn't recruited. . coached poorly and is leading the program to its worst record in his 4 years as coach... hopefully a change is made at year end...
The coaches on the list are not mostly Black. It more like half and half. I think the poster of the comment is a race baiter, only wanting to get a race argument going. I'll bet he or she is not Black.
KNOTHEADS ! Will you stop the "Black vs. White" #### ? Louie Orr was fired from Seton Hall, despite achieving above the pre-season Big East predictions each year. Rutgers has fired black and white coaches, and they still can't get out of the Big East cellar. Tommy Ammaker, a protege of Coach K got canned at Michigan. Has anyone heard from another Coach K phenom, Quinn Synder lately ?
I don't think race plays a role in selecting college basketball coaches. If you think so, why not come back to this blog with some hard facts, instead of racist rants.
Not being much of a basketball fan, I couldn't tell you who on your list of coaches is black or white. I believe however, that Leonard Hamilton's problem is only that he can't recruit many blue chip players. Our(the Noles) basketball facilities are not that good, AND... who wants to play at/for a school that is football/baseball oriented??!!!!!
jgaeti - that was the racist comment, it's not about black or white silly azzz, not in this day & time - it's about winning and recruiting! get off the race gig. if that's the case look at the states Obama (hussein) won, the ones w/the most black population, so you point is not valid these days!!! grow up.
an nother thing not related to sports, any american that would vote for someone w/the name Hussein needs his/her head checked/ esp w/all those troops we've lost over there because of the name Hussein. yes ppl - the candidates name is Borak Hussein Obama - a reformed muslim he says - i fear for our country if he's elected!!! just my opinion
Nav, why don't y'all take a page from the U of Florida. They were primarily a football school as well now they're good at both. I mean sometimes the way to beat your rivals is to find out what they do well and duplicate it. And last time I checked Florida State's football team hasn't been so hot either. Just saying...
Welsh does not know how to win the "big game." He's never got past the first round in the NCAA's and can't seem to win when they're on ESPN for the life of him. They make some nice wins (They've been very succesfull at UCONN the last few years) but when it matters in March, he's terrible. This is not a player issue, but a coach and team preparation issue. He chokes and it costs his team and PC. He can make a player (Ryan Gomes, Herbert Hill) but he's not a leader, and it has cost the Friars some big time opportunities and all PC fans should praise the day he's out of there.
Don't even bring the race card into this. If you suck as a coach it really doesn't matter if you are black, white, purple or red or are going to get fired.
Being a PC fan, I can say the boos toward Welsh are well deserved. He shows with each game he is out of his league, and can’t coach. He subs like a mad man and has no idea what he is doing while subbing to start with. He sits some players one game or for games at a time. He puts players in for a minute and takes them right back out. He sits one of his leading scorers, and wonders why did we lose? If they don’t show him the door at the end of the season there may be little to no fans at the Dunk to boo him next year. He has the talent on the team right now just does not have a clue what to do with it. He does not have a clue how to bring out the best in his players. All the booing hurts his team his players suffer and the schools athletic director is being begged to step in now and fire him. The fans, student body, and some alumni are expressing there dislike for Welsh on the projo site daily.
Jeff Goodman is a senior college basketball writer for FOXSports.com - This is the only place you'll find continuous daily updates from the world of college basketball, so check back as often as you'd like.
