Originally Posted by
HogDawg
I find your post thought provoking, and at the same time exhibiting some denial. Let me say up front that I've always respected your posts, so this is not an "attack". To the contrary, I simply want to see my university learn from its mistakes.
First, Tyler Summit is not Mike Krzyzewski. Very few people produce those kind of results in a lifetime. So comparing any 23-yr old (or 25-yr old now) coach to Coach K is just another bad idea.
Secondly, while "how long a coach (Summit) should have to turn a program around" was certainly a primary concern in this thread, some of us expressed other misgivings from the outset. My main concerns were multi-faceted: his age, his lack of experience, his unproven judgment (which typically comes with age and experience, and ended up being the killer) and just the idea of having a 23-yr male authority figure over a bunch of 18-23-yr old girls.
Next, while I certainly congratulate you TD for your professional success at the young age of 24, I'm sure you can see the distinction between working with a bunch of men in an offshore yard at age 24 vs being the ultimate authority figure --at age 24-- over a bunch of college girls ages 18 to 24.
Lost in all this is that --IMO-- the people around Tyler Summit have actually done him a disservice. They put him in a terrible position. It was too much, too soon. By giving him too much authority over so many young women at such a young age, they actually put him in a position to fail --in a big way-- at an early age. I'm not making excuses for him. Tyler Summit certainly bears all the responsibility for his actions and his deficient judgement.
But, the fact remains that Tyler lacked the experience, the maturity and the acumen to qualify for this HC job in the first place. Tyler's resume should have been tossed out with the others. But everyone got caught up in the "legacy" stuff. Lady Techster fans, T-Mac, Leon Barmore, Mickie DeMoss....even Pat Summit. They all got sucked into the legacy talk, and they wanted to connect the old Lady Techsters with the new. Now, Tylers career could be negatively impacted for many years, if not forever.
I kinda feel sorry for the kid in a way. The people around him (including LA Tech) were so starved for a savior of a legacy program that he was pushed before his time.