Jere Longman's article about Florida State's women's team in today's Times raises a host of issues: is the coach's duty to the fans, to his own players, to the team's ultimate goal of winning the NCAA's? Are conference tournaments a good idea? If the conference does not crack down on resting starters during a tournament, could it spread to higher profile sports, namely men's basketball? Doesn't this happen in Europe all the time?
What we're talking about here is that Florida State's coach Mark Krikorian, who was the successful coach of the Philadelphia Charge, was suspended by the ACC for leaving seven starters home during the opener of the conference tournament against Wake Forest, which the Seminoles lost. The reason, Krikorian said, was they needed to rest up for the NCAA national tournament.
According to the article, coaches generally supported Krikorian. It was the ACC that had the problem - to the extent that it fined thee school $25,000 and denied it $15,000 in travel reimbursement and suspended Krikorian for the first game of the ACC.
Longman, as always does an excellent job of covering both sides of the issue.
I'm with Krikorian. He was doing what was best for the team. It is a dangerous precedent if a conference official can ell a coach whom to play. If he had brought the seven players along but had them sit on the bench to rest them, would the same sanctions have been imposed? “He should have them miss class and sit on the bench to appease the conference?”asked Ray Reid, the men's coach at Connecticut.
Here's the link to the Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/sports/soccer/19seminoles.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hpw
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