The coach of the Iowa State basketball team was photographed partying and drinking with students after games with Mizzou and Kansas…bad mouthing his own team and cuddling with coeds
Yes without a doubt…
He has to represent the University… that is why he gets paid a million a year…+ any endorsements… that is in his contract.
going to a dorm of a team you just lost to… to do god knows what… is unacceptable…
If he gets to keep his job because of some dumbass disability plea… I will be so pissed off…
alcoholism is a disease… blah blah blah… yadda yadda yadda…
ok whatever… that may be true… but I don’t think drinking with 19 year old college girls is part of that when you are a 50 year old coach… with millions of dollars…
I assumed this was common behaviour. Why wouldn’t the coach want to party after work too? What’s the big deal? Who gives a rat’s ass what he does when he clocks out as long as he isn’t breaking the law. (If he was breaking the law, such as supplying the alcohol to the underaged kids, then ticket/arrest the guy and get on with it.) I don’t know why he said he was an alcoholic (also none of their business until it affects his work), I would’ve said “what does that have to do with my coaching basketball?”
#1. It is a bad image for the school. No school wants their coach going out and drinking with kids from the school they just lost to!!!
#2. It is going to hurt the ability to recruit.
any coach can now go to a potential recruit and say.
“do you really want to play for a guy that is going to go out and drink after a loss? Or do you want to play for someone who is going to work on getting better?”
#3. When you have a position like that… you are a public figure…
you don’t have a 9-5 job… you can’t just go around and do whatever you want…
That is why they pay you over 1,000,000 per year!!!
As a Northern Iowa alum, I too have a rivalry at heart with ISU. That being said, I looked at those pictures and thought: “So?” What did he do that was really wrong here? Granted he is a representative of the school, but I just don’t see his actions as being that harmful.
Merge with regard to your statement #2, going out for a drink after a game, win or lose, has nothing to do with whether or not he is going to work with the team to get better. Most teams don’t go to a practice immediately following a game, so he could do both.
Give him a stern talking to, maybe, but he shouldn’t be fired over this (now, if there were other things happening with those coeds besides a few pecks on the cheek…then I might rethink my stand)
To be fair, I should also mention that, as a one time theatre major I went to many parties where the theatre dept. faculty were present, and it was considered normal.
I’m not really sure why he came out as alcoholic. This type of behavior isn’t really indicative of alcoholism, but rather of just being someone too old to be in the situations he was in. Then again, I can remember drinking with my track coach after meets during college; as such, I don’t really think is such a big deal, and he certainly doesn’t need to be fired. I can think of many things that would be much worse than allegations of him attending college parties (i.e. actually being caught, as a married man, cheating on his wife with the girls he was caught kissing on the cheek).
Since my opinion doesn’t matter one whit to this situation, I will instead guess what will happen.
ISU will not fire Eustachy. He will resign for the “good of the program” in a move that lets him save a little face by supposedly going of his own will even though it is essentially a non-firing firing.
He will reach an undisclosed settlement with ISU.
ISU will say that this was a move that needed to occur to uphold the integrity of the school and program. They will say that his behavior was questionable and that they would have been concerned with the direction of the program under his care. However, they wish him well.
Eustachy will step back from caoching for 2 years. After 2 years, he will be hired at a small division 1 school that is looking to make some sort of splach with the hiring of a recognizable name (think Davidson or Idaho State).
Iowa State will hire Tim Floyd back in an attempt to restore the program to it’s previous level of stature.
From what I’ve heard, Eustachy had a “morals clause” in his contract that might be relevant to this situation. IANAL, so I can’t really inetrpret how that plays out here.
From the Register article, apparently taken from Eustachy’s contract in a clause about ‘just cause termination’:
So, assuming he didn’t buy beer for any underage students (which would fall under the ‘violation of crimanal statute’ part), it appears that his termination would have to be based on the ‘gross misconduct’ piece. My gut instinct says that this shouldn’t qualify as gross misconduct, but nobody can question that it will have ‘a materially adverse impact on the university’.
Therefore, I guess I conclude that firing him is the right thing to do.
Full dislosure: I graduated from an Iowa college (not ISU, UNI, or U of I) two years ago. And as a football player, I remember drinking with a few of the assistant coaches at the local watering holes, but then again, they were just a few years older then I.
The problem as I see it is that the head coach is also the head disciplinarian. Part of every coach’s retinue is the “don’t go out drinking and make a fool of yourself and the program” speech. Larry’s just lost his high ground.
There’s also the simple question of bad PR. It’s as if the CEO of a company was at a party at a college after he attended to speak at graduation, or something. It just looks bad. Eustachy is the highest-paid employee of the university, and even the state of Iowa, apparently. Part of his job is PR. Sucks for him but it’s true.
I would have no problem firing him for that reason. If the contract doesn’t allow for it then they were careless in drawing it up. There are plenty of things that are embarrasing as hell but not illegal.
Sports coaches must lead by example. Bad mouthing your own team and drinking with the opposition is worse than poor leadership. It is a direct undermining of the school’s own team morale.
I have been a part of a College basketball program…
You are right in that there are very few practices after a game…
but there are a good number of coaches who will get back to their room, or office if it is a home game… and watch the tape of the game to point out things for the next days practice.
Anyone who recruits against Iowa State will be able to say that the coach doesn’t take his job seriously… and doesn’t care if he wins or loses (i.e…out drinking with college kids after a loss)
It will hurt recruiting…
a lot of kids parents have a voice in the recruiting process…
would you as a parent want your son playing for this guy after this has come out?
I am a University of Iowa Alum, just for the record. ISU is our rival, so having him fired is no skin off my back.
It shows a complete lack of integrity on his part, and most parents or students cannot respect this type of behavior or consider him a “mentor” after this. Very bad decision… it doesn’t mean he can’t do his job, but that is no example to be setting.
Oh, who cares, really. Are college students adults or aren’t they? Society says that they are, and if a coach has a few beers after work with the adults that he works with, who gives a fuck? If he’s broken a law, fine, another story. AFAICT, he went to a party. Don’t Iowians have more important things to worry about?
