Is willful ignorance of valid counter points bliss?
Originally Posted by
scottdude8
Coach Cut isn’t going anywhere until he decides to. Any fair-minded Duke fan who remembers the pre-Cut days, or even the early Cut days, would agree. Ignorance is bliss, but the Duke athletic department isn’t ignorant.
ScottDuke8,
Go Maize and Blue! That is not totally snarky, since I was born in Dearborn MI, and my first childhood football helmet was a Wolverine fiberboard model...and one of my most precious childhood possessions. I loved the maize and blue stripes and they gave me unwarranted confidence as I entered our neighborhood scrums. And, I was pained by the hurt that the Badgers laid on the Wolverines. I digress, but not totally, in that I am signaling that I'm not rebutting with adversarial intent. That said, your post puzzles and disappointments me, given your past highly informed and insightful posts, [thank you]. We all have profited from a robust discussion of whether Coach Cut [whom I greatly admire as a person and coach, and for whose contributions I am deeply grateful] should be replaced.
Yet you write: "Cut isn't going anywhere until he decides to." Is this a descriptive or normative assertion? As a descriptive statement, do you know from inside information, or from your own best judgment, that he in fact has the final say? That is a very strong and important statement. Do you know that he has the same clout as Joe Paterno who decided to stay on as long as he wanted to, even though his teams over the last several years became mediocre, vestigial remnants of PSU football? [I happened to live in PA during these years, and I tried to convince one of my engineering sons to consider PSU, since they were far better in Mech Engineering than Duke, and FAR less expensive. Alas, watching several years of PSU football wasn't helpful. He chose Duke, even though Roof was the coach. Go figure and I digress]
Normatively, do you agree that a Coach should be able to dictate his own tenure, regardless of performance? What are your underlying criteria and principles? Why should the viewpoint, preference and self-interest of one person determine the mission success probabilities of a major institution with profound stakeholder interests? As a management consultant for several decades, I can assert without qualification that mission-directed leaders and organizations value the mission foremost, and everyone's individual stakes must be subordinate. In fact, it is one of the most differentiating characteristics between a mission-directed, excellent organization and mediocre organizations -- whether they prioritize mission over any individual's interests and judgment. If Coach Cut decides to stay on the basis of his own preferences, that conflicts with his espoused values. More subtly, if he reserves to himself the ultimate judgment as to whether he should stay, that is also an abdication of his values and of his responsibility to the Duke community. Cut doesn't let any player decide his options, his position, his level on the depth chart and on his playing time. Not only would that create anarchy, it would be a violation of responsible leadership. Et tu, Coach Cut?
You write: "Any fair-minded Duke fan who remembers the pre-Cut days, or even the early Cut days, would agree." Really? After all the discussion on this board -- and even without it -- you are viewing all of us who disagree with you as not being fair-minded? This is not one of your best moments, IMNSHO. In case I need to spell it out, we disagree that superior performance, and exemplary professional and personal leadership, warrant a pass in perpetuity to continue in an executive position when one's performance has been consistently diminishing.
You write: "Ignorance is bliss, but the Duke athletic department isn’t ignorant" The implication is that we who disagree with you are ignorant and blissful. Pretty sure that we who disagree with you aren't ignorant, we disagree on the right response to a declining Coach and program. And speaking for myself, feeling blissful about this situation is not remotely how I would characterize my mental and emotional state. To cite just one example of my less than blissful state: With what mindset do I contemplate watching our game against WF? Looking forward to a great football game? [can't quite get there, pushing aside all of my ignorance] Hope for a decent game, look for specific positives, but without any realistic expectation of a W: [okay, I may be able to do that, and I will be thrilled and grateful for a well-played game, regardless of a W] Thank Coach Cut, sincerely, for upgrading the program big time since dog breath days, but not expecting a well-played, well-coached game [including something other than mind-numbingly pedestrian, offensive play-calling and porous defense]? This expectation, IMNSHO opinion would be disrespectful to Coach Cut.
One of Duke's espoused values is "Excellence." This is one of Duke's "moments of truth."
Go Wolverines! Go Duke!
“I love it. Coach, when we came here, we had a three-hour meeting about the core values. If you really represent the core values, it means diving on the floor, sacrificing your body for your teammates, no matter how much you’re up by or how much you’re down by, always playing hard.” -- Zion