Tad Boyle is no hero. He’d be the first to tell you that. The heroes are the men and women in PPE, fighting coronavirus in the trenches. The heroes are the grinders who make sure the shelves at grocery stores are stocked every morning.
“But I’ve always felt, with this situation, itap not something that I wanted to necessarily go public with, or come to public light,” Boyle, the venerated CU men’s basketball coach told The Post. “But if it did, thatap fine.”
Boyle’s boss, Rick George, went public Thursday afternoon. The Buffs athletic director noted during a conference call with media that he had, indeed, granted his men’s hoops coach a $105,000 NCAA Tournament appearance bonus for a tournament that never happened. And that his class move got trumped by an ever classier one by Boyle, who declined the bonus entirely.
“Well, to me, it was the right thing to do,” Boyle explained later. “There are some decisions that you feel like are a no-brainer. This was a no-brainer.”
Principles 2, Cynics 0.
“It was a very easy decision to make, and not one that I’d even thought twice about,” Boyle said. “I discussed it with my wife, and we didn’t think twice about it. I think Rick George deserves as many accolades in terms of his integrity, because he didn’t have to do that.”
You respect winners.
You cherish the guys who get it.
Boyle’s a unicorn, one of those rare high-profile collegiate coaches with flags planted firmly in both camps.
Bill Self doesn’t grab the microphone after home games and thank the acolytes for coming.
Steve Alford doesn’t turn up at the introductory presser for a new football coach to lend his support.
Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t tag along at a gridiron kickoff luncheon, as Boyle did last August on Blake Street, and then humor the scribes in attendance.
The guys who get it also get whatap coming next. Missouri announced Thursday that men’s hoops coach Cuonzo Martin was taking a voluntary wage reduction, along with his athletic director and four other Tigers coaches. Washington State’s Kyle Smith has agreed to slash his checks by 5% through 2021. Iowa State’s Steve Prohm saw his pay cut 10% and bonuses forfeited for a year.
If a shave off the top of Tad’s paycheck helps the CU athletic department with COVID-19 shortfalls going forward?
Groovy. Sign him up.
“Absolutely,” Boyle replied. “And I think itap probably coming down the pike, as you look around the country.”
Principle 3, Cynics 0.
“Those are discussions that happen internally,” Boyle said, “and I’m going to let Rick and (chancellor) Phil DiStefano — I’m going to let those kind of things come from them, not from me. Thatap not my position, not my role.
“But certainly, itap something, as I talk to other coaches around the country, itap been talked about. And some schools have already done it, others haven’t. I do think, as the economic fallout continues to happen, I think there are a lot of things that are going to be discussed, voluntary pay cuts being one of them.”
Even when the curve thankfully flattens, the invisible hand of the free market is going to probably need more time before the shakes subside.
Boyle’s bringing home a salary of $1.8 million in an economy that just hit the mother of all icebergs. Again, he gets it. As a native son, the man’s as worn down by the local headlines — if itap not deaths, itap layoffs or closings — as the rest of us.
“I’ve had some people that I know, they’ve had (COVID-19),” Boyle said. “And they’ve recovered. And thatap been a good thing.”
Boyle’s been one of those good things for the game, and for CU, through thick and thin. Despite a confounding finish, the Buffs’ 21-11 mark in 2019-20 was the coach’s seventh season with at least 20 victories during his decade at the helm. A ticket to Bracketville was all but assured before coronavirus closed the show.
That would’ve been CU’s fifth bid in nine years – at a program that had been to only two NCAA tourneys, period, over the 40 winters before Boyle took the reins.
Detractors will sometimes point to the Buffs’ ceiling and make a low grumble. The floor’s never been higher.
“Now we would’ve been and should’ve been (in),” Boyle said of the Big Dance.
“But it didn’t happen, so Rick was not obligated in any way to grant that bonus. But he did it, which I think speaks to his integrity. And it made me feel very good that he did.”
Which says something about George. Says even more about Boyle, too, now that you mention it.
