Bowling Green State University Athletics
Hammond (Indiana) Times Article on Dan Dakich
May 02, 2002 | Men's Basketball
May 2, 2002
Dan Dakich has it all figured out. Don't sweat the small stuff. Don't worry about cheap shots from media who live in someone's pocket, like a big university, corporation or blowhard politician.
Too often, these are PR slugs without a clue, quick to defend their people and condemn outsiders.
Dakich, the Bowling Green basketball coach who took the West Virginia job, then quit eight days later and returned to lead the Falcons, caught the wrath of columnists in Pittsburgh and Virginia by bailing on the Mountaineers. If a public restroom resembles a barnyard in appearance and smell, most of us would drive up the road and try another. Isn't Dakich, or any coach in that position allowed to change their mind?
WVU's program, minus the flies, had a distinct foul odor that might explain why four other candidates had said "no" before Dakich agreed. There is a potential NCAA investigation regarding one of its players. The team had all the discipline of an Indy 500 infield. In Dakich's first team meeting, he kicked five players out because they had arrived several minutes late.
But it's the Andrean grad, the former street-smart IU player and assistant, who catches hell for being too moral, too misinformed, too greedy, in their words. Local media charged that when Dakich actually saw all the challenges and potential headaches firsthand, he demanded to restructure his unsigned five-year, $2.5 million contract.
WVU said no. He said good-bye.
"To sit there and say we tried to hold someone up, that isn't the case," Dakich said. "I really don't have anything to hide. It was a tough decision. Like I said at the press conference, it was in the best interest for me and my family, for West Virginia, and hopefully for Bowling Green.
"People think that's a cop-out, but you don't make these decisions based on what some writer in West Virginia is gonna write. I couldn't care less. That doesn't affect me one way or the other."
WVU officials expressed great disappointment in losing Dakich. The word "shocked" was thrown around like Fido's rag doll. And then they quickly gave the job to Richmond coach John Beilein -- for about $150,000 more than what the university had originally offered Dakich.
"My mother goes to church every day and prays that myself and my brother and sister don't let money become our God," Dakich said. "Damn, when you're making $500 (thousand) at one place and you come back to $125 (thousand), it's kinda hard to convince me that this deal was about money.
"Maybe that's the Region attitude I got growing up, but I'm not really concerned about what anybody writes about me or says about me. I've got a wife and I worry about what she wants. I've got parents and I worry about what they think. I worry about what my brother and my sister, people who know me, think. But other than that ... what others say is just the nature of coaching."
Dakich said he can look in the mirror at night and not shy away in shame. He's always been tough but fair to his players, has always run a clean program, has always demanded they be solid students and citizens above all. And he's smart enough to know you don't get in over your head when a wife and kids are involved.
"I don't know why this is so hard for people to grasp," Dakich said. "You don't make a decision based on any one thing. I've never looked at life as being that simple.
"You make it based on a number of things that come into play."
Coaches coach to move up in their profession, to be in a position to recruit the very best high school talent, to gain national coverage, and perhaps, carve a path to the NCAA tournament each year.
Dakich's players at Bowling Green admitted he had done all he could to bring the program full circle. He applied for the WVU opening because it represented a career move upward.
The fact he had to walk over so much garbage to reach the ladder made him think twice, hardly a federal offense.
Instead of chastising Dakich, local media should've gone after the WVU program and exposed its many problems, demanded an explanation, offered solutions.
But then, that would require crawling out of someone's warm, cozy pocket.
