How much is "good enough"?

Quiz time! Random (alright maybe not so random, just stick with the story) college basketball coach has been with his school for five years. He is now in the midst of his fifth straight winning season, his fourth straight twenty win season and fourth consecutive year of finishing in the top three or four of his conference. The coach is young, energetic, likes to recruit (seems rather decent at it too) and his teams play a fast paced game. Sound like your version of a dream coach?

In the words of Lee Corso of the evil empire (ESPN), "Not so fast!". What if I told you that the school where he was coaching is the University of Kentucky or North Carolina? Now what? Is what I described above enough to keep him? Well, for Kentucky, it wasn't enough to keep a coach that had won a national championship ten years earlier, had gone to an elite eight three years earlier and had won multiple conference championships. Those schools expect to compete for national championships and when the program does not appear to be headed in that direction, they make changes.

But lets change the scenario a little bit since we are obviously not talking about those schools. What if I told you that this coach has yet to win his conference? Now what? For many schools, this is not a huge issue either (just look at teams such as Iowa with former coach Tom Davis or Notre Dame with Mike Brey or many other middle of the pack BCS conference schools). If your college is a football school such as Alabama or Florida State, you really don't care what the basketball coach does, so long as he is does nothing to discredit the school. Twenty win seasons and at-large invites to the NCAA tournament are gravy to those places.

So lets change things up a bit more. Our coach is not at a football power, but is at what some people refer to as a mid-major. In fact, he is at a mid-major with a rich basketball tradition and he has not made it to the big dance in any of his years as a head coach. Now what do you say? The scenario that I put forth is playing out for all of the public to see and for an administration to decide upon very soon at Western Kentucky University.

Coach Darrin Horn is in his fifth year there and, unless his team wins the Sun Belt tournament, as an underdog, he will miss the NCAA tourney again. Horn has had seasons of 15-13 (8-6 conference), 22-9 (9-5), 23-8 (12-2), 22-11 (12-6) and currently is 22-6 (14-2). He has had at least one preseason all Sun Belt Conference player every year of his tenure and currently has one of the best players in both Sun Belt and WKU history in Courtney Lee. Yet, once again, he must win his conference tournament or know that the season will be considered a waste. Yes, a waste. Unfair as it may seem, WKU wants to play for conference championships and win them. People in Bowling Green have not forgetten that in the three years prior to Horn taking over, Western had won three straight conference championships.

So, what do you think about it? Frankly, I think that Horn is (and should be) coaching for his job in the coming days. To me, it defies the mind to believe that this team has not been to the NCAA tournament in the past five years. Call me spoiled if you wish, I like to think that I have high expectations for my alma mater. This is not the Sun Belt Conference of old. Go to the conference website and look at the greatest players in conference history. Barely any have played during the past five years. Darrin Horn has been coaching during a time period when the Sun Belt has gotten progressively weaker and has not been able to win a championship, even though he has had what could turn out to be WKU's alltime leading scorer during this time.

I could spout off on many reasons why I think Horn should be gone, there is no need. The only opinions that matter belong to the administration at Western. Those folks need to decide if twenty wins per year and a decent showing are good enough or not. To me, I say no.