Greaney's Open Letter to Bayno

[stonewall]

OK I vowed that I was moving on. But I read Clay Greaney's open letter to Bill Bayno in today's Loyolan and found it compelling:

www.laloyolan.com/sports/bill_bayno%252C_we_want_answers-1.1354564

Text of the letter:

Dear Bill Bayno,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you for landing another job with the Portland Trail Blazers. From the looks of it, you’re already back in action even though it has just been a few short weeks since you resigned as head coach of our men’s basketball team. In case you hadn’t noticed, they now have the worst record in the country at 1-22. It’s an all-out battle between us and the New Jersey Institute of Technology for the bottom spot.

Quite frankly, for the past few days I have been losing sleep. I’ve been twisting and turning in bed with an unquiet mind, Gonzaga’s slaughtering of LMU last week still fresh. I really can’t decide how to feel about you.

When I learned that you had taken the job in Portland, and had even called Portland’s Head Coach Nate McMillan two weeks into your official leave of absence from LMU my immediate reaction was shock and befuddlement, which quickly turned to resentment.

I was thinking, “This guy jumped ship when the going got tough! When he saw the team was heading to a rocky shore he bailed, leaving every single player, recruit and coach hanging out to dry; not to mention all the students on this campus who believed for a brief moment that this program was finally heading in the right direction.”

I instantly felt like the jealous lover whose girlfriend just gave him the “It’s not you, it’s me” line but is then caught messing around with a bigger and much more handsome guy just weeks later.

Upon hearing this news I really hated you; I thought you could have at least waited out the year to give everyone the assurance that recuperation from a “serious medical condition” takes time and therapy.

However, after discussing the situation with my friends and family and mulling it over, I realized that remaining hateful toward a man whose career is in tatters takes a cold heart.

Let’s be honest, your future in collegiate basketball, at the D-I level, is a corpse; dead, done, kaput. You will never be offered a head-coaching job again. That is a huge window of job opportunities to be closed and in this economy, God knows, we all need work.

Also, I know personally that mental illness is a condition that millions of people in this country deal with every day, and forgive me if it seems like I’m making light of it. I don’t doubt that you love the game of basketball and that you find satisfaction in coaching. In some respects coaching may give you some sort of therapy in itself.

However, I do believe that if you have the energy to resume coaching at the NBA level again, you can at least find the energy to sit down with pen in hand and respond to this letter because there are a few questions that have been pressing on this campus.

First of all: When did you know that this year’s team had no chance of ending with a winning record, and did that have any bearing on your decision? In other words: Are we wrong to believe you resigned because of a bad team; that you weren’t able to commit to seeing this team through the harsh reality that it just wasn’t up to snuff this year?

Secondly: How were you able to recuperate from your illness in such a timely fashion? Why didn’t you wait to take the job with the Trailblazers, at least until the end of the year?

Finally: Where do you see the men’s basketball program going in the future givin your absence? What can you say to the recruits you attracted to LMU, is there any reason for them to stay when you did not?

I wish you the best of luck in the future, and I’m sorry I won’t be watching you coach LMU out of the ditch it’s in right now. Please keep in touch.


Best,

Clay Greaney

[LIONS90045]

Thank you Clay for asking these difficult questions. I would like to hear from "coach" Bayno. Why did he desert his recruits? And the LMU s fans? We would have endured and understood a losing season with hope for the future. Now Vinson is gone and hopefully not his other recruits.
As a community season ticket holder, I am disappointed by the developments since Bayno took his leave of absence. I was excited about his coming season and ready to suffer this disappointing season (our second in a row) despite the fine play of our new freshman recruits.
Let's hear from Bayno. Or Husak.

[phurther]

I have to say that I'm as frustrated as many people on this board and perhaps have even been as furious as Mr. Greaney at certain times. The rhetoric in his letter and echoed by on this board, however, seem to completely ignore the fact that A) Bayno is coaching less than 15 hours per week, almost exclusively in practices and B) the man was actually going through what appears to be severe depression and other mental problems.
Now, at the end of the day the hiring of Bayno was a complete and total cluster-you-know-what, and very well may have set this program back several years and cost us talented recruits. (Tention doesn't look so bad now, does he?) And as an alum and self-described obsessive Lions fan, I'm pretty pissed about it. But the rhetoric on this message board seems to more or less assert that Bayno was FAKING this condition. I would bet anything that his condition was very real and that it wasn't some sort of complicated plan to ditch all the hard work he'd put in thus far because the first three games didn't work out. Come on, now. The guy's not some mustachioed cartoon villian. He had a breakdown and literally could not continue in the job and found a less high-profile gig in the basketball world that he could handle and took it. In other words, he realized that a college head coaching position was no longer something he could physcially and mentally handle, so he found something else with the Blazers.
I am almost shocked at some of the comments that have been slung around that basically toss aside the fact that this was a man suffering from a mental illness. Depression and anxiety are very real diseases that run rampant in our society and to toss out assumptions, as Greaney does in this letter, that he was never ill in the first place is frankly insulting to the intelligence of all level-headed individuals.
Again, I'm pissed as hell about this season, just like many of you. I'd just like us to be a little more realistic and, well grounded in the real world.
Thanks for listening.

[lyongaultier]

Feb 6, 2009 2:25:06 GMT -5 phurther said:

I have to say that I'm as frustrated as many people on this board and perhaps have even been as furious as Mr. Greaney at certain times. The rhetoric in his letter and echoed by on this board, however, seem to completely ignore the fact that A) Bayno is coaching less than 15 hours per week, almost exclusively in practices and B) the man was actually going through what appears to be severe depression and other mental problems.
Now, at the end of the day the hiring of Bayno was a complete and total cluster-you-know-what, and very well may have set this program back several years and cost us talented recruits. (Tention doesn't look so bad now, does he?) And as an alum and self-described obsessive Lions fan, I'm pretty pissed about it. But the rhetoric on this message board seems to more or less assert that Bayno was FAKING this condition. I would bet anything that his condition was very real and that it wasn't some sort of complicated plan to ditch all the hard work he'd put in thus far because the first three games didn't work out. Come on, now. The guy's not some mustachioed cartoon villian. He had a breakdown and literally could not continue in the job and found a less high-profile gig in the basketball world that he could handle and took it. In other words, he realized that a college head coaching position was no longer something he could physcially and mentally handle, so he found something else with the Blazers.
I am almost shocked at some of the comments that have been slung around that basically toss aside the fact that this was a man suffering from a mental illness. Depression and anxiety are very real diseases that run rampant in our society and to toss out assumptions, as Greaney does in this letter, that he was never ill in the first place is frankly insulting to the intelligence of all level-headed individuals.
Again, I'm pissed as hell about this season, just like many of you. I'd just like us to be a little more realistic and, well grounded in the real world.
Thanks for listening.

ah a voice of reason

[jlion]

Jeopardy style trivia question (answers will only be accepted in the form of a question):

He retired from coaching in 1960 at only 44 -- in part because of the self-induced stress that contributed to his chain-smoking, chugging coffee and going without food before games, and in part, he later suggested, because of his discomfort with the adulation surrounding him.

After retiring from coaching, he served as team executive or scout for several NBA teams, among them the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors. As general manager of the Lakers, he was instrumental in trading for star center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from the Milwaukee Bucks. He retired from his job as Lakers General manager in 1976 to spend more time with his ailing wife.

Who is.....?

[lmutex]

Are you comparing Bill Bayno to Pete Newell?

[jlion]

Not really comparing, just saying that sometimes people (even HOF coaches) have issues that arise in their lives that force them to re-evaluate their situation...and make decisions based on what they feel is best for them.

It's unfortuate how everything went down, but, I'm optimistic about the future.

[LIONS90045]

Agree with phurther - disappointed but let's move on!

[ihatehusak]

You are all missing the point. Bill Husak is an emabarassment to the University. He is the worst AD in Division I atheletics and is responsible for running the baseball and basketball program into the ground! How he has kept his job I will never understand.

[LIONS90045]

Hey Redshirt - ihatehusak says it all - you don't appreciate the complications of actual responsibiiy when many stakeholders come into play and you are not totally your own decision maker. I don't know about baseball but I think the basketball team has a bright future due to Dr. Husak's decisions (and his bold decision to bring in Coach Bayno who sparked our program) and I don't want to go back. Whom would you prefer for AD - Elgin Bayler?

[ihatehusak]

Bill give it up. The gig is up and we know who you are. Comparing yourself to the puppet that was Elgin Baylor does not get you off the hook. I am an active alum who is well aware of the dynamics of the college atmosphere and politics. That being said.....you are a buffoon and a disgrace as an AD. I have met you many times my friend "aka wrschnicke", but you are more suited for a job as an AD at an all girls Catholic school. Not a division I University. Please quit holding our atheletic departments hostage and find a job you can handle.

[fanblade]

wrschnicke has stated he is not Husak so stop trying to "out" him as Husak. Thanks.

[ihatehusak]

OK, I'm sorry. Would Mrs. Husak quit posting for her husband. Bill must go which means you need to find a new job Mrs. Husak.

[LIONS90045]

I am not Mrs. Husak either just a fan in the Westchester community - thanks for thinking of me though!
And great job Dr. Husak, the best AD in the country or world or galaxy! He is not my dad either as I am older than he is!