Commentary
Howland may still leave Pitt PITTSBURGH-It was just a year ago that the University of Pittsburgh called a news conference to announce that basketball coach Ben Howland wasn’t going anywhere.
Howland signed a seven-year extension that was designed to stop the annual rumors that he was going to parlay his success at Pitt into something bigger and better.
Now here we are an interesting combination of circumstances: Pitt is in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament while UCLA is without a coach and apparently very interested in hiring Howland.
Howland, presumably, would be interested in UCLA, too.
John Wooden made UCLA one of the nation’s storied programs and Howland is a west coast guy.
What about that seven-year extension?
It’s still in place but it does have buyout options. Those are significant but wouldn’t be an insurmountable obstacle for a big-time program like UCLA.
Even the most-iron clad contracts involving college coaches seem to be printed in invisible ink on the kind of paper that magicians make disappear before your very eyes.
If Howland is to leave, what was the point of the extension? In the end, it would do nothing but obligate the university to pay him even if the program reversed direction and a change was needed.
That idea seems ridiculous now but things can change in a hurry.
When Mike Gottfried was football coach, the Pitt administration was so smitten with him that they made him “coach for life,” with a complicated rollover clause.
Things soured and it cost a lot of money to make Gottfried go away. Pitt was so anxious to get rid of him that the change was made the week before the team played in a bowl game.
Pitt is no stranger for being used as the big step in a coach’s career.
Johnny Majors left the football program after a national championship in 1976. He was called away by the irresistible lure of his alma mater, Tennessee.
His successor, Jackie Sherrill, left under similar circumstances when Texas A & M called a few years later.
More recently, athletic director Steve Pederson left for Nebraska, to fulfill his personal homecoming.
Pederson was the man who hired Howland and the one who put together the seven-year extension, so he knows how these things work.
Howland makes a reported $800,000 per year. That’s more than the salaries of Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon and Penguins coach Rick Kehoe combined. Money shouldn’t be the issue; although it’s possible UCLA’s interest will convince Pitt to come up with even more for Howland.
If Howland leaves, it will be a blow to Pitt and not just because the university will be faced with hiring a replacement, which is always a dicey proposition.
It will also demonstrate that Pitt is still seen as a step along the way to a greater opportunity.
The Panthers have a legitimate chance to get to the Final Four, which would represent a dazzling turnaround for a basketball program that was in big trouble five years ago.
But if they lose their coach, that kind of success may vanish, too.
Howland’s great strength has been in making the whole better than the sum of its parts. He’s done a remarkable job.
Which is exactly why Pitt was so interested in keeping him with last year’s extension.
And why administrators have to be stressed out at what should be an incredibly happy time in the Pitt athletic department.
Sadly, that’s standard operating procedure in college sports.
n n n
The NFL owners should just say no.
Don’t expand the playoff field and don’t change the rules for overtime.
There are enough 9-7 teams vying for playoff sports to the last week of the season. Add a couple of more qualifiers and that’s inviting the 8-8 and 7-9 teams to join the hunt.
Want to get an opportunity to run an offensive series in overtime, even though you’ve lost the coin toss?
Stop somebody. It’s that simple.
n n n
The Pirates are getting ready to finalize their roster with the season opener less than a week away.
Don’t be surprised to see a trade involving either Matt Stairs or Craig Wilson. They have too many of the same kind of player and need to create some space.
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: john mehno@lycos.com.