Decisions, decisions

Basketball’s new season is getting started even while the NCAA tournament is still in progress. The musical chairs of college coaching changes and the dreaded I’m going pro or better yet the transfer portal for the players.

EWU’s Shantay Legans is on his way to Portland to try to revive a Pilot basketball program that couldn’t be revived by two pretty good coaches, the last being a former NBA star with the Trailblazers, Terry Porter. I’m thinking that Legans will try to get some kids from Australia, or JC transfers or transfers from other schools. Legans' job is not easy when the Pilots are contending with Gonzaga, St. Mary’s and BYU in the WCC. There are several other schools that have recruited and will be tough to compete with but a bigger paycheck should keep the family a little warmer in winter. Good luck, Shantay!

Shaka Smart was the big hire for Texas just over three years ago. Smart had all kinds of success at Virginia Commonwealth and was in the Final Four, which made him a hot commodity. He finally made the move to Texas with a big money contract. This year’s team was at one time a top-five team but with several cancellations and losses things still looked good when the Longhorns won the Big 12 tournament by outlasting the OSU Cowboys. But 14-seeded Abilene Christian edged the 3-seeded Longhorns 53-52. Texas had so many turnovers one would have to wonder who was wearing the white with burnt orange-trimmed jerseys. Smart took three Longhorn teams to the Big Dance and ended up 0-3.

This past week Smart resigned as head coach and took over the Marquette basketball job. Texas is a football school for sure, but between fall football and spring football the alumni still like to see a successful basketball team. Good luck, Shaka!

Oklahoma Coach Lon Kruger has announced his retirement after his Sooners took a third-round loss to Gonzaga at the NCAA tournament. Kruger has had a lot of success at several schools, including Florida and UNLV. He also took his coaching experience for a short time to the NBA. Kruger is a decent man who has coached some great talent over the years. For some reason I’ve always liked this guy. He seems to coach the right way and is a great mentor. Good luck, Lon!

There will be a lot of different players that will try to take their talents to the pros either with the NBA or overseas with several different leagues in Europe, Asia, Israel or Australia. I understand the thought process, “I might as well get paid for playing the game I love!” True, and you don’t have to go to class, either. But professional sports is a business and once you sign a contract, well things change. Now you have to perform or there is a good chance that you can be traded to another team in another state or overseas to another country.

Former Gonzaga great J.P. Bautista talked about his career as a professional, and all of the different teams and leagues that he played in would make your head spin. He said that he really loved to play basketball and getting paid to do it has been a great benefit but what he missed most was playing at Gonzaga because of the closeness of the fans. He felt a real bond playing at the Kennel. He said that when you are in college playing basketball you kind of take it for granted that that feeling would be everywhere, but it isn’t.

As a transfer from a JC school, Bautista only played two seasons for the Bulldogs and from what he was saying it sounded like he wished he had been there for four.

The saying goes that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but that certainly isn’t always the case. The other day I overheard a conversation from a women talking about her son. She said that he was very fortunate because everywhere he had been the people that he was around were really great people. To me it sounds like he may have been the reason that everyone he met was wonderful. Sometime it is important to bring the greener grass with you so you don’t have to look across the fence.

There will be a ton of decisions made in the next month and each will have an effect on a lot of futures for coaches, college and pro athletes. The hope is that the majority of those choices are good ones.