Oregon State cans John; still left with a mess

The inevitable happened last night when Oregon State decided enough was enough and gave the OSU men's basketball coach Jay John his pink slip. The team had sputtered to a 6-12 start and was winless in six Pac-10 games. Assistant coach Kevin Mouton takes over as head man through the end of the season.

Before the season started there was much speculation about John's job. He had been there five years after working under Lute Olson at Arizona but had failed to put the team in the NCAA tournament. Fan support was dropping and the future was growing bleak.

All of the blame though, can't be placed on John and the job he did while in Corvallis. The 11th winningest program in Division I, Oregon State has only had one winning season since the 1989-90 season and John is the man that gave that to them. Struggling to recruit top-notch players away from Pac-10 powerhouses UCLA and Arizona is a well-documented fact. USC, Washington State, Oregon, and Arizona State are also on the upswing so that leaves OSU scrambling for scraps.

Add in aging facilities and insufficient resources and the outlook isn't very promising. ESPN college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb says that until OSU does some "soul searching", they will continually face situations just like this one. Placing blame for on court failures solely at the coach's feet isn't going to solve the root problem.

Once Eddie Sutton gets his two wins and rides off into the sunset, Jay John might just rebound as the new USF coach. He has ties to that program, having been on the staff there in the late '80s. Whether that happens or not isn't important right now. The fact of the matter is his twenty-five years of coaching experience coupled with a patient but straight-shooting style can't be ignored by ADs looking for a quality coach.