Todd Bozeman

Many folks wonder what's the big deal about the NCAA basketball tournament aka March Madness. To me, it's simple...all year long, the radio and tv shows cover the "big guys" of college basketball, and the tournament in March is time to hear the rest of the stories. Today, I bring to you a story that carries a very valuable lesson. The subject of today's story is Morgan State head basketball coach Todd Bozeman.

Let's get right to the juicy parts of Bozeman's fame, as it were. In 1993, he took over as head basketball coach at University of California Berkeley, when their coach was fired with ten games remaining in their regular season. Bozeman led the Cal Bears into the NCAA tournament, where they upset two-time defending champion Duke, making Bozeman the youngest coach (29) to ever lead a team to the Sweet Sixteen round. It was a huge upset at the time, but that Cal team featured a pair of would-be NBA talents. Things seemed all rosy for Bozeman, until he was forced to resign iZn the fall of 1996. He admitted to paying 30k over two years, to a recruit's parents to be able to come watch him play. When the young man's playing time decreased, his parents turned Bozeman in to the NCAA. Along with sanctioning the university, the NCAA also imposed an eight-year "show-cause" order on Bozeman. The show-cause order meant that until 2005, no NCAA member school could hire Bozeman without permission. The NCAA came down particularly hard on Bozeman because he'd lied to school and NCAA officials about his role in making the payments. Since most schools will not even consider hiring a coach with an outstanding "show-cause" on his record, Bozeman was effectively blackballed from the college ranks for eight years. Let's get this straight...he didn't keep any money. He gave this money to a kid's parents to be able to come watch their son play ball. And for that, Todd Bozeman had his dream snatched right from within his grasp.

He cheated, he got caught, he paid the ultimate career price. When you pay for a debt with time, that is currency that you can never get back. So, he quietly worked as a scout in the NBA, as his name was totally associated with the word "cheater." He hope that one day, he could get back to the profession that he loved, and was good at, coaching. And then came Morgan State. It was a marriage made in heaven as both sides were hungry for success and both sides were completely desperate with things to prove. Bozeman needed an opportunity, and Morgan State needed someone to come in and change a losing culture. In his three years as the head coach, Bozeman has guided MSU to a 55-40 overall record. And just yesterday, they received the school's first ever invitation to the NCAA tournament.

The great thing is that Bozeman recognizes his story as a teaching tool. He doesn't hide, or shy away from talking about what he did. He is qualified to talk to any young man who might be thinking of doing wrong to get ahead in his career by saying "Look at what I did. I cheated and I lost eight years of my career. That is not the way to go!" He can even address a young man who has done wrong to say, "I cheated, I got caught, and I paid a very expensive price. But I didn't give up, and you don't have to give up either." Whatever angle taken to convey his story, Todd Bozeman's career has given him the perspective to be an excellent teacher...which is exactly what every coach should be.