Moonwalk easier on superstar coaches

Since college basketball is best explained in quartets this time of year, here's a new Final Four to consider.

Security. Adoration. Peace. Happiness.

Those are the changing priorities of coaches. They're all upsets. We're accustomed to thinking four potent P's rule college hoops: power, prestige, pressure and promotion.

Last week, however, two more coaches contributed to what is slowly becoming a trend. Tubby Smith and Steve Alford moonwalked. Smith left his perch at Kentucky for Minnesota. Alford resigned from Iowa to coach New Mexico.

They stepped backward, in the traditional sense, to lesser jobs. They joined Herb Sendek, who left North Carolina State for Arizona State last year, and Dave Odom, who fled Wake Forest for South Carolina six years ago, in this new line of thinking.

Moonwalking always has been more appropriate for dance moves than career aspirations. So one must wonder if these coaches are as wacko as Jacko now.

We know college hoops coaches so well, right? Got 'em down perfectly. They're opportunists in tailored suits. They always want more respect, more money, more victories. They'd offer a date with their sister for a Final Four.

Now they're acting human? Now they're feeling pressure even before a firing is imminent? Now they want to put down the clipboard and smell the gardenias?

"I think that's what life is all about," said ESPN analyst Rick Majerus, the former Utah coach. "It's the feng shui of coaching, what they're doing. I think balance is becoming so important to coaches.

"Be careful what you look for. If you take the Kentucky job, you better understand they're not hanging any Southeastern Conference championship banners."

All of the four cited cases come with their own intrigue, but none is more attention-grabbing than Smith leaving.

He exited after averaging 26 wins over 10 years. He won a national championship. He went to the Elite Eight three other times. He's widely regarded as one of the top 10 coaches in the sport.

But he didn't win enough for Wildcats fans.

Over Smith's past two seasons, UK had a 44-25 record. In my home state, where there are no major professional sports teams and college athletics are revered like nowhere else, the scrutiny suffocated Smith.

By going to Minnesota, Smith gets those four essentials of living.

He'll have job security. If he goes 44-25 during his first two seasons with the Gophers, he'll have a street named after him.

As Smith stepped to a podium in Minnesota last week, fans chanted his name and looked at him with as much awe as joy.

He'll have peace. No more firetubbysmith.com. No more T-shirts that say "Drain The Tub." No more intense media scrutiny.

And best of all, he'll have happiness. Smith hasn't looked happy since he won the 1998 national title. Nine years later, many fans unfairly declare he won solely because he was coaching the players Rick Pitino left behind.

"I think it takes a different type of guy to coach there," said Pitino, who coached Kentucky for eight years. "I do think it takes a different type of personality. You're never going to go out to dinner and lift a fork to your mouth without somebody coming up to you. And you're going to have to be able to put down your fork, put your arm around that person and say hello.

"You have to be able to handle the interest in the program, and you have to do it with a smile on your face. And then you have to control the program with great integrity to make sure it doesn't revert back to boosters getting involved in the wrong way."

And, oh, you can't let the pressure inhale you.

That's what happened to Smith. Sendek and Odom, too. Alford couldn't stand the watchful eye of a new athletic director who didn't hire him.

So now the trendy thing is to flee. And those coaches already in sweet situations at smaller schools -- Gonzaga's Mark Few among them -- would be wise to stay put.

"Sometimes, it's more fun to do what Few's doing," said Majerus, who seemingly turned down two jobs a year while he was coaching Utah. "Life is more balanced. If you're at UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, those are entitlement jobs. Everybody wants them, but they don't realize what they're getting into.

"It's like recruiting an alcoholic to a New Year's Eve party."

More and more, prestige-obsessed coaches are requiring rehab. They're beginning to understand serenity is only a moonwalk away.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com