Coach of the Year

Colorado's Head Coach, Tad Boyle/AP Images

As the season winds down, the race for the Pac-12 title is just as unclear as the Coach of the Year. 


By Kristina Callahan


As the regular season comes to an end and the postseason begins, the time for award season is approaching. The award for coach of the year is still very much up in the air. Newcomer, Tad Boyle from Colorado, and veteran, Mike Montgomery of California, seem to be the favorites. Oregon’s Dana Altman has put together a team that has continuously been winning on the road and prevailing in close games. Washington’s Lorenzo Romar could also step away with the prize if Washington wins the league title.

Tad Boyle has won with a team that was picked to finish 10th in the league this season. He lost two of his players off a 25-win team to the NBA, and instead of finishing near the bottom of the Pac 12, he has assembled a team that is sitting in third place. The Buffs are only one game behind the league co-leaders.

Mike Montgomery is not a newcomer to success. He has installed standout defense and unselfish offense in the Cal Bears. What he didn’t expect was being diagnosed with bladder cancer on the eve of practices beginning. Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News talked to Coach Montgomery about how he didn’t even know if he was going to be able to coach at all this season. Although there were early struggles with strength following the surgery, Montgomery is back and leading his Bears.

Jumping the Gun

Scott Gordon deserved better.
(This is Scott)

Sure, coaching jobs don't come around every day. But this is the Islanders. The team that has two great young forwards in Matt Moulson and John Tavares, and...that's about all that's left on the roster.

Top defenseman Mark Streit? Out till February with a injury caused by a hit from Matt Moulson during an intra-squad scrimmage.

Future captain Kyle Okposo? He's out indefinitely, recovering from surgery that repaired a torn labrum. He also has been out since the preseason.

Bruno Gervais, the surprisingly successful defenseman from last season? He's on pace to only play 41 games this year, a drop from last year's 71.

Now, normally, those injuries would hurt a team, but not cripple it. And so it seemed for the Islanders, who rolled off to a 4-1-2 start. But as fast as the team started, it sunk, going 0-9-1 in its last 10 games. The offense looks stagnant, only topping 1 goal in one game, a 7-2 blowout at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes.
(This describes the game to a T)

Is it a bad stretch of games? Absolutely.

Is it a fireable offense? That's a trickier question.

It's not like Garth Snow, the GM of the Islanders, had it any easier than Gordon. He inherited a team with no salary cap room, thanks to awful decisions to sign the KHL's Alexei Yashin and injury-prone goaltender Rick Dipietro. Instead of pursuing any top defenseman, like Dan Hamhuis or Paul Martin, he was forced to patch over the defense with role players Mark Eaton and Milan Jurcina.

He also knows that his team doesn't have any depth to deal with injuries. For example, P.A. Parenteau has been a staple of the offense, the same P.A. Parenteau who has spent his last six years in the AHL. Then again, last year's leading scorer, Matt Moulson, had spent three years in the same league and played a grand total of 29 games in the NHL before breaking out with the Islanders.

Gordon tried to make this hodgepodge of a team work. But he couldn't, that much was obvious. And with his hands tied due to cap space, the only logical move for Snow was to fire Gordon.

At the end of the day, it might be the right move.

But it doesn't mean that Scott Gordon didn't deserve better.