Turnabout Is An Equally Foul Play

In a way, University of Idaho officials deserved what they got Wednesday when carpetbagger Kermit Davis quit as basketball coach to return to his native South.

They gambled on a cheat and lost.

In fact, Tom Bell, UI’s respected interim president at the time, put his reputation on the line when he vouched for Davis’ integrity and character before the Idaho Board of Education. The recruiting violations that got Davis fired in 1991 as Texas A&M’s coach concerned the board - more so than Bell, ex-Athletic Director Pete Liske and UI boosters.

Often, common sense goes begging when you’re smitten.

UI officials and rooters definitely were star-struck with Davis, who’d won 50 games for Idaho in two years before jumping to Texas A&M and notoriety. They needed a coach of Davis’ calibre - clean or unclean - to win games and attract fans. At the time, UI was looking ahead to its first season in the Division I-A Big West Conference after abandoning the lower-division but competitive Big Sky.

Now, a year after Davis claimed he had “a ton of loyalty” to Idaho, forever and ever, amen, UI officials are scrambling to fill the ingrate’s shoes - and to deal with a sports deficit of $359,000, the first losing budget of the 1990s.

The decision to keep up with the Broncos by joining archrival Boise State in the Big West hasn’t produced the expected big paydays. Maybe Idaho should consider rejoining the Big Sky, where natural rivals like University of Montana and Idaho State lure Inland Northwesterners.

Interestingly, while football and men’s basketball languished at Idaho this year, Montana succeeded. The Grizzlies played for the Division I-AA football championship for a second straight year and sent a team to the NCAA basketball tournament.

UI should have seen Davis’ treachery coming. Like most college head coaches, “ambition” is his middle name. It didn’t take him long to realize that UI had gone from a big fish in the Big Sky to the smallest fry with the poorest location and the worst facilities in the Big West.

Ultimately, who can blame Davis for forsaking his benefactors and seeking greener pastures as a Louisiana State University assistant? Didn’t Idaho do the same when it renounced its charter membership in the Big Sky Conference? UI sports and Davis were made for each other.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board