While you are wondering who in his right mind would take over the ravaged basketball program at St. John's, what coach of substance would come to a university recently associated more with lap dances than with big dances, remember this: Someone took the head coaching job at Baylor.
Someone quit a secure position and accepted Baylor's last summer, soon after the guts of what had to be the most stomach-turning scandal in college basketball history spilled out across the country in horrifying headlines.
"In sports, you love challenges," Scott Drew said from the Baylor campus in Waco, Texas "This to me was a challenge worth taking."
He took the proverbial step up in size, leaving his post as the head coach at Valparaiso, quitting the small Indiana university with the big-time basketball aspirations. Drew left behind his family legacy and went to Baylor for the same reason that virtually assures St. John's a quality coach unless it bungles the search, because one man's calamity is another man's opportunity.
"I would imagine that with the success and reputation that St. John's has had, they'd be able to put a list together of strong candidates who will want to rebuild that program," Drew said.
St. John's may now be the worst Division I team in America, but you can bet a year's tuition that there will be no shortage of coaches boxing out for position on the A list. One person with an ear to the college grapevine passed along the information Wednesday that Rick Pitino wants to be one of them. Sounded like suspicious industry gossip, but then:
Lincoln High School's Sebastian Telfair is looking and sounding more like an NBA lottery pick than a college recruit, while Pitino has already achieved his primary goals of restoring Louisville to national prominence and of sticking it to his old friends at Kentucky. Based on reputation, it does stand to reason that Mr. Fix-It, a New Yorker, has at least allowed himself a few fleeting thoughts of rebuilding St. John's, filling Madison Square Garden again with red-shirted fans.
Three things college basketball coaches are often on the lookout for: more money than they're earning, a long-term commitment that applies only to the university, and insulation from blame if they don't win. In other words, a setup where you are saint and savior or it's so long, suckers. Nowhere are such jobs more readily available than at colleges dusting off the dirt of dishonor.
To that end, has there ever been a more acute discrediting of a college program than at Baylor, where one player stands accused of murdering another and the coach was caught orchestrating a cover-up? Yet, just 28 days after Patrick Dennehy's body was found following the alleged shooting by his teammate Carlton Dotson, 16 days after coach Dave Bliss resigned in slime and shame, and 10 days after a search committee was formed, 32-year-old Scott Drew arrived in Waco to speak about his mid-America values.
Yes, it was true that he was leaving Indiana, bolting Valparaiso after nine years as an assistant and one 19-11 season as head coach. No problem, for anyone. His father, Homer, his predecessor for 18 largely successful seasons, was coming out of retirement to continue the proud Drew run that included brother Bryce's heroics in a Gonzaga-like run to the Round of 16 in 1998.
"Most people listen to their parents, but the fact that my dad has been in the profession for so long made it much more valuable," Drew said.
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