By Steven DiMiceli
When Ron Everhart was hired at Duquesne, we were considered a coaching grave yard. We were a job no one wanted. Seen correctly as a fast riser at the time, John Groce flat out turned us down to remain assistant coach at Ohio St. I'm sure there were others to do the same. It took a certain type of coach with a certain skill set to take this job with any confidence that he could be successful. We found the right guy at the time, but really, I think we as fans would have been happy with anyone but Nee.
It's much more difficult to replace a coach coming off a 16-15 season than a 3-24 year. In the first scenario, you have big shoes to fill. In the second, you have shoes to fill. Greg Amodio and anyone else involved in the search for a new head coach will have a great deal of pressure from fans and the media alike. Amodio's risk for criticism moving forward is greater because not everyone agreed with this move like they did with Nee. Duquesne made a very controversial move today. The greater the level of controversy the easier it will be for hindsight geniuses with microphones and columns (and now twitter accounts) to pick the side history proves correct. If the next hire is poor, they'll be calling for Amodio on the basis that he should have kept Everhart.
Greg Amodio needs to make the men's basketball coaching decision like his job is on the line because his job is on the line. I see sports as the only American institution where a pure meritocracy should not only be implemented but celebrated. Greg's first hire proved to be a partial success in the sense that Everhart brought the team back to respectability. He did this is in three years. The problem is he allowed us to stagnate over the last three. As a result, he was held accountable as should occur in a pure meritocracy. The athletic department evaluated Everhart and made their decision based on what he did rather than what previous coaches did. It was decided that his results did not match their expected results.
Should the next hire fail to advance the program, not only will that coach be held accountable, Amodio will be held accountable in turn. Between the pressure that will come externally from the media and fans and internally from the administration, the athletic department can not hold back on their hire. Nor can the university hold back on the support
the coach is given once he is on the job. What this means is the continued willingness from the president's office to subsidize the financial losses we'll inevitably see until we begin to compete at the high level they have promised and they set some robust expectations today. Somebody else's job will be on the line if they aren't met.
