The Best: Don Meyer or Jim Calhoun?

I recently did a post on Don Meyer, who has now won more NCAA men’s basketball games than anyone else. He did it as a small university head coach at three different schools. Though not a household name despite his achievement, he’s not only a great coach but a great leader.

Then there’s Jim Calhoun, well-known head basketball coach at the University of Connecticut. A few days ago, as reported in the New York Times, he won  his 800th game (more than 100 games behind Meyer). At a press conference after the game, someone asked him how it felt to be the highest paid state employee ($1.5 million per year) when the state had a $2 billion deficit and many state employees were being laid off. Calhoun exploded.

The men’s basketball program brings in $12 million a year to UConn, he said, easily justifing his salary. Implicit in what he said is that people who run successful college sports programs are different from other school or state employees. A sports program is a separate subsidiary, though Calhoun might say that the university is a subsidiary of the sports program.

Calhoun’s hubris makes it increasingly difficult to stomach big-time head coaches and their compensation packages. As Calhoun made so clear, their roles in institutions of higher learning are “higher” than those of employees connected with learning.

Don Meyer has never come close to making $1.5 million in a year. But in addition to being a winner, he understands his role in learning and leading.

Calhoun has more in common with Bobby Knight, whose record Meyer broke. Calhoun and Knight will be on any list of the best college coaches in history. Meyer may or may not. When it comes to leadership, however, Calhoun and Knight are pitiful. Meyer is a star.