378 days ago, a reporter who will remain nameless (ME), claimed that a breakthrough had been made in college athletics when it came to hiring African-American coaches.

At that time, Indiana, Kentucky and Notre Dame all had black coaches leading its biggest programs at the same time.

As I looked through the archives, I even used the phrase “granted, it’s a slow progression, but it’s a positive progression nonetheless.” It’s at this point that if you are of any minority group whatsoever, feel free to get your friends together and beat me senseless if you see me at a bar. Trust me, I deserve it.

As of February 20, 2006 Kentucky head men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith is the only one left and if his team fails to make the NCAA Tournament, you may not see a burning cross in his front yard but you will see a sign that says “For Sale”.

I still maintain the argument that Notre Dame’s Tyrone Willingham and Indiana’s Mike Davis were not HIRED or FIRED because they happen to be black but I confident to say it didn’t help.

I wanted to feel sorry for Tyrone Willingham but he almost seemed ignorant to the social environment and really believed he was just another football coach at a prestigious university. I wonder how many people tapped him on the shoulder and asked, dude (he used to coach at Stanford so he’s used to the California lingo) you’re the football coach at Notre Dame, you don’t think you can make a difference? That kind of unwillingness to understand the importance of the situation gets no sympathy from me.

On the opposite hand, I do feel sorry for Mike Davis who resigned this past week. resigned this past week.

I was going to feel sorry for anybody that took over for Robert Montgomery Knight (who has turned into a character of himself at Texas Tech), I felt sorry for him when the Steve Alford to Bloomington countdown began the day he took the job and I felt sorry for him when the flu forced him to miss last week’s home game versus Alford’s Iowa Hawkeyes (a game where IU alumni wore black shirts) – the perception was he ducked out of messy situation. Or maybe jut maybe he was physically ill.

Smith is the lone ranger left in Bluegrass Country and his situation is starting to resemble Davis every day. His Wildcats are 17-9 and currently still one of those dreaded “bubble” teams heading into the NCAA Tournament. If they miss the dance, Smith will get fired. The perception would be he is underachieving in place where that is unacceptable. His only national championship was with former coach Rick Pitino’s recruited players and Pitino (college basketball’s version of the Sopranos) is coaching in Louisville.

The title of my piece over a year ago was “The start of something wonderful”, before anyone I could blink; it became the start of something sad.