Arizona's Byrne shows unusual patience, keeps Butts
Greg Byrne could’ve fired women’s basketball coach Niya Butts last week, and nobody would’ve said the athletic director was impulsive or unfair.
Butts’ past three teams went 8-46 in the Pac-12, the worst three-year period in UA women’s basketball history. And it’s not like it wasn’t bad earlier. Joan Bonvicini, fired in 2008, was 11-43 in her final three conference seasons. She was fired by Jim Livengood.
June Olkowski, 14-58 in four Pac-12 seasons, was fired in 1992 by Cedric Dempsey.
But Byrne kept Butts, whose $210,000-a-year contract ends in 2016, because he likes and trusts her. He likes the way she works with the people in her program and within McKale Center. He told me several times that if he had a daughter, he would trust Butts to be her coach and mentor.
Byrne flew to Seattle last week to watch as the Wildcats were blown out of the Pac-12 tournament by UCLA, to finish 10-20, making it a combined 15-45 the last two seasons. He might’ve put an arm around her shoulder and said, “You’ve had a fair chance; I’m going to make a change.”
Instead, he is showing unusual patience. Butts knows she doesn’t have a pass to lose basketball games at Arizona forever, but Byrne felt it would be the right thing if Butts had one full year to recruit to the new (and eye-popping) women’s facilities at McKale. One more year to grow as a coach. She is, after all, only 37.
I’m certain the two had an eye-to-eye, “we have to do much better” chat.
“Although the program is not currently where I want it to be from a win-loss perspective, we signed coach Butts to a five-year contract and we believe she should be able to see it through,” Byrne said in a statement Saturday.
There are two mid-major coaches who would’ve probably been available and viewed as home-run hires by Byrne. Wichita State coach Jody Adams, 26-4 this season, is on everyone’s radar. But she also is paid more than Butts, at $221,000 per year with a $400,000 bonus due.
And then there’s Colorado State’s Ryun Williams, whose Mountain West champs, 23-6, have become a league power. He’s being paid $215,000 this year, also more than Butts.
It would’ve been expensive to replace Butts and buy her out. That had to be a factor. But it’s not like Byrne has been shy to make changes.
In his first three years, Byrne nudged Hall of Fame golf coach Rick LaRose into retirement. He changed women’s soccer coaches after Lisa Oyen went 13-46-7. He fired football coach Mike Stoops in mid-season. And he weathered a messy situation in what used to be one of the nation’s top swimming programs before the man he hired, Eric Hansen, left to sell insurance.
There’s a bottom line here: A year ago, Arizona spent $4.1 million on women’s basketball and had revenues of $571,762. Another year, winning or losing, isn’t going to change that by more than a few dollars.
