It is an art that, over the past two years, Boston College has been unable to master.
Each of the past three times any of BC's programs have garnered substantial national exposure have been a result of the following: Jeff Jagodzinski's firing as football coach in January 2009, Mark Herzlich's cancer diagnosis in May 2009 and basketball coach Al Skinner's firing on Tuesday.
Of course, none of these events could really be planned ahead of time (although it seems that Skinner's was, which makes the timing of Tuesday's announcement all the more disconcerting). Firing a coach is something a program wants to complete ASAP for many reasons, primarily to begin the search for the successor and to be able to compensate for the potential loss of recruits.
So why didn't BC fire Skinner when his team's season ended?
Why is it that each of the last two times BC has thrust itself in the limelight for a somewhat acrimonious coaching change, it has completely overshadowed the positive accomplishments of a different (lesser) program?
At a time during which BC could be flaunting the fact that its hockey team is headed to its ninth Frozen Four in 13 years, the Eagles are making headlines for firing a coach who led their basketball program for 13 years.
That's not to say that BC shouldn't have fired Skinner. It's not to say that Skinner's time in Chestnut Hill shouldn't have come to an end after his teams have consistently underachieved since 2001-02.
But BC bowed out of the ACC tournament almost two weeks ago. Back then, the hockey team hadn't even begun its tear through the Hockey East tournament. Sure, it's great that the university wanted to give Skinner an opportunity to interview at St. John's and save face before giving him the boot, but still — why now? Why not focus on something good for a change?
In Chestnut Hill, sports successes don't happen all that often, and yet again, amidst one of those rare successes, the failure is the only thing getting people talking.
I am, of course, a bit hesitant to criticize (a) my alma mater and (b) a sports program that I have followed religiously since I was a kid. I am also hesitant to criticize BC for taking a step that could, in all honesty, do wonders to advance its hoops program. But the timing — it is horrendous. Completely.
If BC knew it was going to fire Skinner a week ago, why wait until now — when the men's ice hockey team is celebrating a major achievement — to make the big announcement? NCAA hockey doesn't get much exposure nationally, but hockey is BC's most consistently successful program by a long shot — not to mention the fact that, in this market, college hockey consistently draws higher ratings than college basketball. In fact, in this market, a random Hockey East game will get higher TV ratings than any BC basketball game, including BC-Duke and BC-North Carolina.
College hockey is a big deal around here. Yet, when the university could choose to focus on the success of its strongest program — when it could be celebrating the fact that the Eagles have clearly solidified themselves as the Blue Devils, the Lakers, the Yankees of college hockey — all anyone is talking about is the fact that the coach of the basketball team got fired.
Controversy, more than anything, gets people talking. That is understandable, and in the case of this particular school, that would be acceptable — except for the fact that not too long ago, this same exact thing happened, at the expense of the basketball program.
Last January, there were about two minutes left in BC's eventual upset of then-No. 1 North Carolina when something suspect began trickling across ESPN's ticker: Boston College fires head coach Jeff Jagodzinski.
Once again, instead of celebrating the fact that the Eagles had just pulled off an upset of epic proportions, it was all overshadowed in the name of Jagodzinski's controversial ousting from BC's football program.
It's just unfortunate. For a program that gets so little exposure, respect and recognition in a market that is so heavily dominated by professional sports — for a program in which successes tend to be few and far between — you'd think that the school would do its best to focus on those successes for as long as possible.
For fans of the program, it is especially frustrating when we experience one of those rare successes — the basketball team triumphs over Goliath, or the Goliath hockey team sets off in search of its second championship in three years — and nobody even notices because, once again, something negative has completely overshadowed it.
Most likely, there's no one at fault here. Most likely, this is just a really terrible coincidence.
Most likely, though, that explanation isn't doing much to placate Jerry York's troops right about now.
