EDITORIAL: “Wofford coach can do better than UNCW”

April 9th, 2010 12:35pm
Young shouldn’t go to Wilmington
by Todd Shanesy

Wofford basketball coach Mike Young took his staff to a practice round at the Masters this week, but don’t think it was a get-together to say good-bye.

I can’t see him accepting any offer from UNC Wilmington.

Sure, it’s a flattering flirt and a nice conference and he could live at the beach and make double, maybe close to triple what he is getting now. But make no mistake about it. He would not buy a house. He would rent.

It took him seven years to have a winning record and eight to build Wofford into a Southern Conference champion. Can’t see UNC Wilmington being that patient. The last coach was out in less than four.

I saw how much losing tore up Young’s guts. And that was in a program where he felt safe. His boss, Richard Johnson, was the one who hired him two decades ago and took the athletics director job so Young could be promoted and would not leave.

Ed Conroy from The Citadel turned down UNC Wilmington. He’s very good. But Young was the Mid-Major coach of the year. He beat out Brad Stevens, who took Butler to the NCAA title game and got a 12-year extension.

Young can do better than UNC Wilmington.

If he wants to go somewhere, he should wait until after next season. Even if the Terriers somehow slip up and don’t win a second straight league title with three all-conference players and basically the entire cast of characters back, they would surely be good enough for the job offers to start flowing.

Maybe I’m out of whack because I’m a low-paid sports writer who has convinced himself there are more important things than chasing the higher paycheck.

Young brings home about six digits. And the last time I checked, his wife was a partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers. They ain’t starvin.’

Maybe, just maybe, Young follows the example of football coach Mike Ayers and stays at Wofford to maintain the program at the level he has taken it.

And maybe, just maybe, Young’s guts won’t kill him and he can keep the rest of his hair and watch his kids grow up right here at home.

http://campuscommuter.blogs.goupstate.com/12160/young-shouldnt-go-to-wilmington/