Analysis: Should Guerrero still be at UCLA?



Analysis: Should Guerrero still be at UCLA?

UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero
UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero



Guerrero was incredulous.

"Of course, there's never been any question of that," Guerrero said in a hallway outside the Bruin locker-room. "There's no doubt. Why would you ask that question?"

Nearly 17 months later UCLA chancellor Gene Block should be asking himself a similarly obvious question:

Should Guerrero be back at UCLA in 2012-13?

Lost in the storm over a Sports Illustrated piece on the sad state of the UCLA basketball program Wednesday, a storm fueled in no small part by the university's inept reaction to it, and the ensuing hysterical debate over Ben Howland's future a more pressing question is facing the Bruin athletic department.

UCLA players smoked dope, and drank. Howland's people skills need some work. He favored allegedly talented players. Reeves Nelson is rotten. Take away Nelson's alleged urinating on a teammate's clothes and you've pretty much described any number of top flight, major football and basketball programs. Do you really think Mike Krzyzewski is warm and fuzzy? I know a national championship winning football coach who couldn't remember the names of starters when he bumped into them in the hallway or elevator. Pete Carroll "connected" with his players and look where it got USC. And this notion that "this wouldn't have happened with Coach Wooden!" is either naive or disingenuous. Would John Wooden have allowed Nelson to bully and torment teammates (including his own great grandson)? No. Would he have let Nelson to join the team in Maui after showing up late for a team meeting, getting into a heated verbal confrontation with him and then missing the team flight to Hawaii? No way. Would he have allowed Joshua Smith to eat himself out of a spot in first round of the NBA Draft and the Bruins out of the NCAA tournament? Nope. But UCLA players did drugs, drank, partied and even fought with one another while playing for Wooden. They also received a lot more than free limo rides from Sam Gilbert.

No, the real question isn't whether Howland should be fired (he shouldn't). The much more important question is whether Dan Guerrero should be allowed to continue making major decisions about the direction of UCLA's athletic department?

Should Block really let the same man who botched two football hires and stumbled onto Jim Mora only after his first four choice weren't interested continue to do the hiring and firing at the Morgan Center?

Under Guerrero UCLA has become a gymnastics and volleyball school.

Balance Beam U.

UCLA has won 21 NCAA titles in Guerrero's nearly 10 years at his alma mater. But the Rose Bowl on autumn Saturdays has become as empty as Neuheisel's repeated promises to make UCLA nationally relevant. The Bruins have not played in a BCS bowl game during Guerrero's tenure and have a 41-45 record in conference play.

Guerrero was forced to fire his first two football head coach hires, Karl Dorrell, after five seasons, and Neuheisel, after four.

Dorrell and Neuheisel, both former Bruin players, were a combined 56-56 at their alma mater. Guerrero passed up Mike Riley to hire Dorrell. Riley, with fewer resources and a signifincantly smaller talent base, went on to twice lead Oregon State to within a game of the Rose Bowl.

At least six Bruin football players have been suspended for failing university drug tests during the past two seasons. That's even with a UCLA drug policy in which athletes cannot be suspended until a third positive test.

More from UCLA


Join the conversation

Comments are encouraged, but you must follow our User Agreement
