Earlier this month, Dartmouth men's basketball head coach Terry Dunn resigned amidst scandalous rumors that, for my money, are too absurd to be dignified in print ("Men's basketball coach steps down midseason," Jan. 11). Regardless of what the real circumstances were behind Dunn's departure, however, a much more important question remains why the heck was he still here to begin with?
Over his more than five seasons with the Big Green, Dunn proved to be both a poor communicator and an inept tactician. He compiled a ghastly 47-103 record and never managed better than a break-even 7-7 record in the Ivy League despite having the brilliant Alex Barnett '09, last years' Ivy League Player of the Year, for four seasons. In recent games, Dartmouth radio play-by-play host Dave Collins could be heard echoing the frustration of many fans when he pointed out how vanilla, unadaptable, unimaginative and repetitive Dartmouth's offense had become without Barnett there to bail out the team late in the shot clock . To most observers, it was painfully obvious that Dartmouth was not running an offensive system with the level of sophistication befitting of a Division I team. It was also widely rumored that Dunn was an "ogre" in practices and was generally disliked by his players. It's hard to see what, if any, positives Dunn brought to Dartmouth in his years as a coach.
Given this near-ubiquitous failure, the fact that he was allowed to continue as long as he did, is both head scratching and galling, even in the low-pressure context of the Ivy League. Athletics at Dartmouth are not the big-money ventures found at major conference programs, existing instead primarily for the pride, honor and betterment of Ivy League student athletes and their respective institutions. Athletic administrators are justifiably more concerned with tradition, community and continuity than wins and losses.
It is not right, however, as Dartmouth has done, to completely discount winning and tolerate perpetual disappointment. Dartmouth's men's basketball players have played with a pride and passion that is an immense credit to both themselves and to their school. They have carried themselves with class and character, playing hard despite adversity and, at times, being overmatched. Dunn's mediocrity hamstrung them unfairly. All the players can do is practice hard, play hard and play together. It's up to the coaching staff to figure out how to best utilize each player's unique talents and collectively put them all in the best position to succeed a task that has rarely been accomplished at Leede Arena lately.
As Paul Glenn wrote ("A View From The Top," Jan. 11), Dartmouth's athletic department should thus take Dunn's resignation as a blessing in disguise; a chance to make amends for years of poor decisions and an inadequate commitment to the success of the program. Dartmouth's men's team has not won an Ivy League title in over 50 years, a simply astonishing fact given that they're only competing with seven other teams. Athletic Director Bob Ceplikas '78 should make it his mission to end that embarrassing run of futility by scouring the nation for a charismatic and tactically sound young coach to rebuild and grow with the program.
Even if he does so, however, that still won't be enough. The real change needs to be a complete shift in institutional mindset, and a commitment to performance and results. Whoever the new coach is needs to be on a far shorter leash than Dunn was, and Dartmouth must be willing to pull the plug if progress is not forthcoming. Doing so is neither unreasonable nor draconian, especially considering how low the bar has been set with this program over the years. While it is indeed more difficult to lure solid recruits to Hanover than New York City, Philadelphia or Cambridge, the success of Cornell in recent years out in frigid and isolated Ithaca proves that Dartmouth's location should not be so big an impediment.
Any coach that seriously can't do better than a break-even league record every once in a while doesn't deserve to continue to draw a paycheck from the College especially considering that many relatively competent employees may be facing layoffs in the wake of the proposed budget cuts. It's unfair to the players who bleed for the program, the fans that follow the team and the alumni that donate to the College. Terry Dunn should never have been given a chance to resign. He should have been fired long ago.
