Rick Greenspan is a genius

Greenspan takes over the IU Athletic Department knowing he has a failing football program and a basketball program with a coach that is in over his head. What a great opportunity to make a mark on a program that can only go up.

With a football season ending at 3-8, Greenspan had everything he needed to remove Coach DiNardo. By doing so, Davis put his mark on the Football program, but he also set the stage for what he would need to do come spring with the Basketball program. Had he not gotten rid of DiNardo, he would have been hammered for being inconsistent had he wanted to get rid of Davis.

With the Football hire Terry Hoeppner in place, Greenspan's attention switches over to IU Basketball. What an ugly sight there. A six game losing streak and a team without a direction. Alumni are calling for Davis' head on Talk Radio, Internet message boards and blogs. Greenspan being the genius that he is, realizes that at the end of the year, everything will be set to remove Davis and conduct a full search for the best possible candidate. But he also sees an opportunity. Use this unrest to find if he has any holes in his staff. Lose lips sinks ships. So Greenspan floats some information to his staff that "big donors" have offered to buy out Davis' contract and that he could pull the plug at any time. This gets out to the media, so Greenspan now knows he has some work to do to get his staff tight lipped. But it also gives him a chance to talk to the media and sound like a very fair and compassionate guy.

That way at the end of the season when he gets rid of Davis, he can reflect back and show that while the rabid IU alums wanted Davis gone early in the year, he was willing to give him a full season to justify his contract and prove his worth. The media will not be able to play the race card like they did with Willingham. It truly was about performance and Davis had plenty of time to prove his worth and he just didn't do it.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Greenspan Quotes:

"I've said it before, and I don't want it to sound trite, but every day is an interview in this business at this level," Greenspan said. "The expectations are high. They're high of me. I feel pressure, but if I didn't want to be in this environment, I wouldn't have accepted this job. I think that's true for Mike and I think it's true for high-profile coaches in the Big Ten or other similar conferences.

"And particularly at an institution like ours that has a very proud and distinguished history in basketball. There are expectations to win regularly and perform at a high level. Both Mike and I understand that completely."

Greenspan Defends Davis - Indy Star