LIKE IT IS : Nutt disappointed, but still takes high road

WALLY HALL

Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/217447/

It was just before 2: 30 p. m. Tuesday when the phone rang.

Immediately the hurt and disappointment were obvious in Dickey Nutt’s voice.

He said it was over, that he had agreed to resign with three games remaining on the regularseason schedule, three victories short of being the all-time winningest coach in Arkansas State basketball history.

“I’d like to have finished the season, but that didn’t work out,” he said.

For almost 20 years Nutt has been a part of the Indians family, 13 as the head basketball coach.

It just doesn’t seem right to usher out the only coach to take them to the NCAA Tournament with games left on the schedule, but then history is a great teacher.

In 2000 Nolan Richardson was going to be terminated by the Arkansas Razorbacks, but he won four consecutive games in the SEC Tournament and made it to the Big Dance.

Just two years later, after the Kentucky game, he made his infamous statement about giving him his money and he would be gone.

It has become something of a trend since 2000 for schools to get rid of a coach before the season ends to avoid the team rallying and pulling off enough victories to make it to March Madness.

There is little doubt that was what happened at LSU when John Brady was terminated.

And there is little doubt that is what was on Dean Lee’s mind Tuesday morning when he and Nutt met to discuss the future of ASU basketball.

That seems a bit heartless, but it is also becoming a smart business move to make a change.

It has not been a secret that Lee, the athletic director, and Nutt were rarely on the same page.

Lee cut Nutt’s pay from $ 250, 000 per year to $ 180, 000 because boosters were expected to make up too much of a difference and they were grumbling about not getting back to the NCAA Tournament.

There were tough schedules with guarantee money games for the Indians every year, too.

So what happens now ?

Nutt will most likely find a head coaching job at a lower level or become a top assistant at a major program.

He’s only 48, his run at ASU was mostly successful, and he was always a good ambassador for the university and the state.

Most likely Lee already has a short list. Any athletic director who intended to make a change would be prepared.

Richardson’s name was one of the first to hit the rumor mill, and he was quoted in this paper Wednesday as saying he would listen.

Now that he has said that, he might hear from other schools. His final payment from the Razorback Foundation is June of this year.

Apparently the fire is still in his belly, too. Richardson coached Mexico’s national team in hopes of making the Olympics, and even though the bid came up short, the team improved under his direction.

There will be others interested. A couple of names that come to mind had success at UALR, ASU’s top rival and its opponent tonight. Porter Moser and Mike Newell would like another shot at Division I head coaching.

The name everyone will hear the most is James Dickey, the former head coach at Texas Tech and now an assistant at Oklahoma State. Dickey is a native of Arkansas and so is his wife, who hails from eastern Arkansas.

Lee said he would conduct a national search, but a smart guess is he was already prepared for this day and will move forward.

Nutt pretty much knew this day would come for him at ASU, but he never quit trying to build the program. Even with his deep disappointment, he took the high road.

Resigning was better than being fired.

Next week when the Indians close the season against Louisiana-Monroe, there will be a ceremony that retires the Indians mascot and introduces the Wolves as the new one.

Dickey Nutt should be invited as an honored guest.