You Lose Everything You Love

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages."--Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

It is difficult for me to see the tragedy in the college basketball coaching carousel. Over the past few weeks, Bill Donovan's stayed. Billy Gillispie's left. Bobby Huggins has slithered. Dana Altman has changed his mind. And a slew of mid major coaches have mortgaged their careers for a chance at glory. Amidst it all Gillispie and Huggins have caused the most

Fans at Texas A&M and Kansas State are in an uproar over the perceived betrayal by the two former basketball coaches. Both of whom spent the past week trying to assuage the doubt by saying that they left for their dream job.


Kentucky will always be on the same plain as Duke, North Carolina, UConn, and UCLA as the preeminent basketball schools in the country. Texas A&M was coming off a magical season and losing its top player, Acie Law IV. People justify Gillispie's decision by saying that you can't turn Kentucky down, it's a chance of a life time

Booby Huggins graduated from West Virginia But with Huggins, this seems like another Bill Simmons type revelation. Haven't we been watching Huggins for decades? Are we really surprised that he acted in a way that a reasonable, upstanding person would not?

A joke that will never get old: With Bobby Huggins at WVU, get use to incorrect spelling

In the end I suppose that's what the real tragedy. This is not just self preservation. It's more than the Big XII conference suffering. The real tragedy is that these coaches bolted for what they perceived as a better opportunity.

Basically, what I'm saying is should you always answer the door when a better opportunity knocks? Isn't there an inherent pride in building something and sticking with it. I should stop writing about OJ Mayo, but I find his story fascinating. He said the onyl reason he is going to USC is that he wanted to be remembered as the greatest player to ever play for USC. If USC didn't take him, he said he would have gone to an all black college and attempted to achieve the same recogniton. Many people see this as haughty, and when he invariably jumps to the NBA after one year, I suppose you could say the same thing as I'm saying here. But in some respects you can argue that what Mayo is doing is noble. He does not want to pick up where some else left off, he wants to build himself. Sure you could pay someone to cut your grass, but sometimes it makes you feel good to stare out on a lawn and know that you accomplished something.

In the long run, as usual, the lyrical stylings of Ludacris give us guidance on what most likely is the best way for K-State and A&M fans to handle the situation.

"We didn't take no money from Chingy/Thought I was cool with him/I wish his ass well, but I don't want nothing to do with him...Don't trust nobody but your goddamn self." --Ludacris,