The mystery is over and we have a new basketball coach at Southeast Missouri State. I wish nothing but success for Dickey Nutt and Athletic Director John Schafer. A career .500 coach who comes from an almost identical situation in Jonesboro, Nutt will try to spice things up at the Show Me Center. That is what the optimist in me keeps saying but why am I filled with so much disappointment? Maybe because I know the field day the St. Louis media is going to have with this one. Here is my reasoning. Jay Spoonhower has applied for this job twice and been turned away both times. The great Whitey Herzog made a special trip down to lobby for him to get the job. The St. Louis press thinks of him as their little brother who they watched grow up on the sidelines of St. Louis University while his dad took them to the tournament. It's a well know fact the discord that exists between radio personality Kevin Slatten and Nutt who works on the station that carries Southeast games. This is not good when Southeast has been trying to get positive coverage, or any coverage at all in the St. Louis market. We passed up a great opportunity by not hiring the young proven winner in Spoonhour. Just wait until Post-Dispatch writers Jeff Gordon and Bernie Miklasz get a hold of this one, and with the name, the jokes and the putdowns write themselves. Soderberg, Sutton, Bean, Watson, Hinson all young coaches that have bright futures applied but were left for others.

Another thought is this payback for John Carr of the Carr Associates for helping find our new Athletic Director? Remember two years ago when we paid those folks a ton of money to tell us we needed to get into the St. Louis market and make women's tennis media guides? You know how this goes, I got you the A.D. job, now hire my friend and client. That comment might be unfair but can someone else please explain how a 13 year .500 coach gets the job? I really thought we would get someone from the SEC Conference maybe someone that Shafer has worked with before or some of his friends had worked with but this truly came out of left field and has a lot of us searching for answers. 111 applications (according to Ken Dobbins) and this who we get?

Speaking of mystery, why the announcement on Monday and then the introduction on Thursday? If I would have proposed something like that in one of my marketing classes Charlie Wiles would have flunked me for sheer stupidity. Why was this done? To create a splash, gin up excitement, this was a huge mistake another blunder from the administration. Winning cures a lot of problems and it will be the only thing that will make sense of this hiring.

Again, good luck Coach Dickey Nutt.