K-State’s deal with assistant basketball coach is reckless
It’s not just gas prices. Everything is astronomically more expensive today than it was 20 years ago.
Take, for instance, the price of a marginally qualified assistant college basketball coach with long ties to the game’s best 18-year-old player. In the late 1980s, you could snag an Ed Manning for $42,000 a year and the liberal use of a Ford Taurus. Today, a Dalonte Hill will run you $420,000 a year and a contract that can secure the liberal use of a tricked-out ride.
And you’re whining about gas prices.
Just think if you were Bob Krause, Kansas State’s new athletic director, and you’d just signed your name on Hill’s latest contract. Krause didn’t quite strike the deal that Monte Johnson, Kansas’ old athletic director, put together along with Larry Brown to acquire the coaching services of Danny’s daddy.
Oh, we all understand what inflation has done to coaching salaries, but the agreement that Hill reached with K-State is jaw-dropping — in the same realm as Kevin Garnett’s $126 million deal with the Timberwolves a decade ago.
Actually, it’s far more impressive than Garnett’s pact. Garnett was a more proven commodity coming out of high school than Hill was when he left UNC-Charlotte and AAU basketball. Garnett deserved it. Hill just happened to be in the right place at the right time, befriending the right tall grade-schooler.
Before we dig deeper, let’s go back to gas prices.
In the late 1980s, I was pushing a little Honda Prelude around Ball State’s campus, and I could fill up its 15-gallon tank with $15. That’s a dollar a gallon. Gas is now four times more expensive than it was 20 years ago.
An Ed Manning costs 10 times more than he did 20 years ago.
Here’s what’s really alarming: $4 gas still performs at pretty much the same level as $1 gas, but a $420,000 Dalonte Hill doesn’t get you anywhere close to what a $42,000 Ed Manning got.
Danny Manning played four seasons at Kansas, put together a legacy that rivals Wilt Chamberlain’s, won a national championship and a player of the year award, has always maintained a home in Lawrence and is probably the most popular man in Larry.
You could argue that Ed Manning was one of the greatest investments in the history of college sports.
What will we say about Dalonte Hill?
As of now, he delivered Michael Beasley for two semesters, a home victory over Kansas, an NCAA Tournament appearance and a postseason victory over USC. That’s not a bad haul. But you have to factor in that USC got virtually identical results from O.J. Mayo without lavishing a baby-sitter-turned-coach with a five-year, $2 million contract. The Trojans finished 21-12 (same as K-State), beat UCLA on the road, advanced to the NCAA Tournament and lost to K-State in round one.
To be fair, given the possible NCAA rules violations that Mayo accumulated while at SC — he allegedly took money from an agent — maybe the Trojans would’ve been wise to use the K-State model and stayed within NCAA rules by giving one of Mayo’s lifelong friends a $2 million job.
Don’t you just love the NCAA and its rules? You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. There is no right answer, only ways to keep ahead of the appearance police.
K-State clearly appears foolish — at the moment — for overpaying for Dalonte Hill. Maybe that perception will change in two years when (or if) Wally Judge and Rodney McGruder, two more DC Assault recruits from the Beasley AAU pipeline, make it to campus. Maybe then paying Hill $2 million will make sense.
Right now, it’s just plain crazy. He’s making twice as much as KU’s top assistants. They helped deliver a national championship and top-flight recruits that stay two or three years. I understand that winning in Manhattan is more difficult — and therefore more expensive — than winning in Lawrence with all of Kansas’ tradition. But it’s not twice as expensive.
What K-State has done is irresponsible and will elevate assistant coaches’ salaries across the country. At a time when NCAA schools need to be directing finances toward improving educational opportunities for its players, the money continues to be wasted on a handful of coaches and administrators.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.
