New coach welcome now, but may not be later
So the big news on campus the past couple of days has been the recent hiring of Jeff Bzdelik as the CU men’s basketball coach, and I’m scared to death for him.
That isn’t to say that I’m not wholly enthusiastic about the move. I’ve been silently wishing for it since Bzdelik signed with the Air Force Academy. I’ve seen Bzdelik’s resume; I’ve watched him coach; I listened to nearly all of the radio broadcasts during each game of the Nuggets’ 2003-2004 season when he helped transition the franchise from a 17-game winner the year before into a playoff team that hadn’t made the postseason in 9 years.
Carmelo Anthony took the credit for the franchise’s vast improvement, but the truth is that he was only partly responsible for the shift. Bzdelik was the brainpower behind the production, the motivational and mathematical facet of the basketball equation in Denver.
Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe fired Bzdelik in the middle of the 2004-2005 season amid a flurry of debilitating player injuries. The Nuggets had refused to renew Bzdelik’s contract the year before and basically left the coach pondering his future all season. After an embarrassing loss to Cleveland on national television, it was clear the Nuggets players weren’t responding to their coach, and Vandeweghe sent Bzdelik packing just after Christmas 2004.
Bzdelik moved down to Colorado Springs and coached the men’s basketball team at the Air Force Academy, overachieving again and leading the Falcons to the NCAA tournament in 2006 and a Final Four appearance in the NIT last week. He led the Falcons to a 50-16 record in two years, bringing respectability and promise to an otherwise unknown basketball program.
After it became clear CU head coach Ricardo Patton would not return, athletic director Mike Bohn furtively targeted Bzdelik while the NCAA Final Four played out. It was only a matter of time until big, bad CU waved its black and gold flag and some serious cash Bzdelik’s way. Bzdelik assented, taking the reigns of a seemingly indifferent program in hopes of injecting it with pure hoops energy.
Bzdelik is going to come to Boulder and do what he always does. He demands respect. He wins basketball games. He maintains a constant air of quiet professionalism and handles himself with integrity. He does his job with dignity, and more importantly in the realm of sports, with results.
What scares me is what this place might do to him.
What happens next season if the Buffs are riddled with injuries like the ’04-’05 Nuggets? The student-athletes at the Air Force Academy are much different than the student-athletes at the University of Colorado. What happens if his players refuse to be pushed to his level of excellence? What happens if they won’t play for him? Will Bohn side with Bzdelik then? Will CU stick by its coach?
Bzdelik signed a five-year contract with CU on Thursday, and his presence will be immediately felt. Former coach Patton was a good coach and a respectable man, but his passion seemed to wane. Watching a CU men’s basketball game at the Coors Events Center the past couple of seasons, it was easy to see that he had lost something. Maybe he didn’t lose it, but for whatever reason, he didn’t want to use it anymore.
Bzdelik will not have that problem. The man appears to be immersed in the Xs and Os of the game. He refuses to lose. He lives to win, and win he does.
I can only hope his stay at CU and in Boulder is a pleasant experience for the team, for the fans and for Bzdelik himself. I hope the politics of this place doesn’t eat him alive and spit him out akin to his treatment in Denver.
But somehow I know if CU eventually turned its back on Bzdelik, he would walk away with dignity and professionalism and the quiet pride of knowing he brought wins to Boulder.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Tim McAvoy at tim.mcavoy@thecampuspress.com.
