Re: “Why do universities coddle abusive coaches like CSU’s Larry Eustachy?” March 2 Vincent Carroll column.
Vincent Carroll’s column on Colorado State University’s long acquiescence to Larry Eustacy’s treatment of players on the CSU men’s basketball team demonstrates how far a school will go to protect a winning coach. If winning puts fans in the bleachers, and money in the university’s bank account, then keeping the coach becomes a paramount goal at many schools, not just CSU. My son is a student at CSU and goes to the games. I want him to see a team and a coach who believe in bigger things than winning. Maybe CSU should, too.
George A. Purcelley, Windsor
I had no problem with Vincent Carroll’s column about the coaching controversy at CSU — until he invoked the “raging” comment about former Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight.
No question, Knight was a perfectionist and a disciplinarian. The same is true with most successful conductors, choreographers on others in the performing disciplines. Young performers sometimes fail to concentrate or accept “good enough” as a standard, especially if innately talented.
For the record, during his tenure at Indiana, Knight had the fewest technical fouls in the Big Ten conference relative to other coaches. Admittedly, he made them count. More importantly, his record for running a clean program and graduating his players was exceptional, exceeded by few. Maybe these are the standards by which we should judge coaches.
վվDZ, Golden
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