COLUMN: STANDING ROOM ONLY

We have put all of our faith in them. In the last few years, they have become our final hope. All other defenses broke down, and they suddenly were left fighting alone. In spite of it all, they continue to fight -- against the pressure, against the greed and against the odds. Their war is our last chance. It is our last chance to save the thousands of young men who play college basketball in this country. Our last chance to save them from being victimized and contaminated by the evil that sports has become. America's college basketball coaches are losing the war. For they, too, are being overwhelmed. The writing has been on the wall for years. As the TV spotlights have gotten brighter and the alumni donations have gotten bigger, that writing has become even clearer. Perhaps we have been too blind to see it. Or perhaps we have been too busy filling out tournament brackets for the office pool. Right in front of us, though, the game of college basketball has undergone changes. These changes have been for the worse. The game has lost what always made it so special -- its youthful innocence. It is no longer a fairy tale world of spirit, enthusiasm and desire. Rather, it has become a materialistic world of balance sheets, greed and pressure. We have traditionally expected the nation's coaches to protect their student-athletes from the selfish, win-or-else nature of our society. But how can the coaches protect their players from such an atmosphere when they themselves have cracked under the pressure? A player will often look to his coach for guidance. It's not easy to be far from home and faced with the burdens of classes and college life in addition to those of big-time college basketball. But when that look reveals not a coach, but a man who can't handle the pressures of his own lifestyle, then something is clearly wrong. It is a disturbing trend indeed. But the warning signs should have not been hard to miss. They were televised nationally last year for all to see. There was Northwestern coach Ricky Byrdsong, who inexplicably left the bench during a game at Minnesota and decided to sit in the crowd. He later attributed the outrageous showing to the pressures of losing in the Big Ten. There was also, of course, the shocking video of Temple's John Chaney trying to attack UMass coach John Calipari after a game at the Mullins Center. This year, coaches are not just losing control at the game. They are walking away from the game, unable to cope with the pressure to win applied by the alumni, fans, media and university officials surrounding them. In some cases, the vacations these coaches are taking are permanent. George Raveling coached college basketball for 22 years. He spent last summer doing more of the same, coaching Jerome Allen and the USA Goodwill Games team. But before this season, he was in a terrible car accident driving to pick up a recruit. The stay in a Los Angeles hospital got Raveling thinking, and he decided coaching was no longer fun. The spirit and competition had given way to stress, headaches and grief. Raveling walked away -- for good. Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, regarded by many as the best in the business, has coached for 19 years. After preseason back surgery, the doctors said Coach K would miss much of this year. Giving "basketball exhaustion" as his reason, Krzyzewski himself decided to miss all of it. The most bizarre developments have occurred at UNLV. Tom Grgurich, who replaced Rollie Massimino, resigned earlier this season due to overwhelming stress and pressure. Grgurich is trying to return. He currently runs UNLV practices while assistant coach Clee Edwards handles the games. Stories like these are becoming more and more commonplace. If we let college basketball's problems destroy its coaches, then its student athletes will be next. And the consequences will be truly tragic. Lee Goldsmith is a College junior from Huntingdon Valley and a sports writer for The Daily Pennsylvanian. He is also Dick Vitale's "guy." Standing Room Only appears alternate Thursdays.

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