Pulling a Joe Scott

It's been a tough week for speechwriters around the college basketball world.

In three places, coaches have had to act like they'd just gone from Southeastern State U. to UCLA when they switched jobs.

In reality, they'd gone from Princeton to Denver, Iowa to New Mexico and Kentucky to Minnesota. Not because they were going to have a better job, but because they were still going to have a job.

Joe Scott, Steve Alford and Tubby Smith may have had just days or weeks before they were going to be fired. I can't be sure; I'm not close enough to any of the programs.

But if not, they might have all made the right move, going to places where they weren't yet a tired act to avoid an axe that was getting closer and closer to their heads. All three went to lower-pressure jobs where they can build a program instead of having to uphold high standards.

It's an interesting trend that I can't remember seeing too many examples of before the coaching carousel spun three of these revolutions in two days. But if somebody can help me out, please post and enlighten me.