If Kermit’s In, Then Charade’s Over At Idaho

The way basketball used to work at the University of Idaho was much less painful.

Hire a guy from down south, have him recruit a bunch of players from anywhere but here, win like crazy and let the GPAs fall where they may. Then wait for another school to fall in love with him and do it again two years later.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

But this business of trying to create something lasting? Damn. The character-building aspects of riding out the tough times? Talk about overrated.

Better to just cut your losses, even if it means firing a good man before his work is done and dreaming up a rationale as you go along. Even if it’s messy and mean and leaves a dreadful odor your other hired help will smell for weeks.

Idaho has tried growing pains and cried uncle.

Time to go back to the way basketball used to work.

So Joe Cravens is out of a job today - maybe out of the coaching profession, but let’s hope not - and Kermit Davis, the once and future coach, is all but signed up for direct deposit.

The circumstances and repercussions are cruel. Firings always are. Some are less just than others, but with a family involved and a career at stake there’s little point in keeping score. As it happens, already this year 19 Division I coaching jobs are in some state of turnover - most of them firings. By Monday afternoon, Joe Cravens could manage a small joke - he told a reporter he’d been accepted at roofing school - and so the healing begins.

As for the Vandals, there is good news, as well.

Having settled on Kermit Davis as their salvation who knows how many weeks ago, Idaho’s leaders can now stop kidding themselves about what they want.

They want to win. That is all.

They will to mitigate this lust with lip service to growth in the program - the all-purpose caveat - and matters academic, but it’s about winning.

“Just being .500 or having the prospects of it is not what the Vandal tradition is about,” athletic director Pete Liske was quoted as saying. “Our standards conceivably might be higher than others. It’s not solely on winning, but yes you have to.”

Too bad this signal wasn’t flashed to Joe Cravens three years ago.

We have exhumed this quote before, but it’s ever pertinent. Also a finalist at the time of Cravens’ hiring was Steve Antrim, since fired at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It’s hard to imagine Antrim being told one thing and Cravens another - and after his interview, it was Antrim’s impression Idaho “wanted somebody to settle in, start recruiting freshmen and take some losses to build over a few years.”

Take some losses. Idaho had averaged only nine a year the previous five seasons. “Some” must have meant 10.

Not to be unsympathetic to Liske’s position. Cravens’ team caved in in February. Soliciting volunteers for IRS audits is easier than selling a ticket. Downstate alums scream each time the Vandals lose to Boise or Idaho State, and they’re nearly hoarse. And, yes, the freshmen have been problematic.

But lots of successful programs go through difficult rebirths. Wazzu. Gonzaga. Other examples available on request.

Alas, the state’s predisposition to single-year contracts made it convenient for Liske to not stand up for his hire. Patience at Idaho doesn’t have a shelf life beyond three years. This message will not be lost on Kermit Davis.

He’s also been fired before, of course - for some willful rules violations at Texas A&M. Like Antrim, he was considered when Cravens was hired, but the baggage was still a little heavy then. No longer. College basketball can be about second chances, too.

But some suggestions for this second chance:

Scholarships for a couple of in-state kids. Recruit a freshman or two. A graduation rate to match the winning percentage. And why not a seven-year contract with a stiff buyout clause, to test the depth of his avowed love for Idaho? Just in case he’s tempted to bolt after a couple good years.

Oh, right. That’s the way that works at Idaho.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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