It has been a while since I have done a DI Diatribe, but this one is a few months in the making. I am sure the title has left you with questions about what the heck I am even talking about now and what it has to do with our move to Division I athletics.

Years ago I was watching The Bloomberg Business Channel and was pleased to see one of my favorite basketball coaches, Bob Knight as a guest. Knight was head coach at Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech, and was best known for his 3 national championships at Indiana and resurrecting a dormant Texas Tech program and even to this day, the Red Raiders ascent to a national power can have Knight’s finger prints on it. Knight was on the program to discuss his book called “The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieve Positive Results.” The name was a play on the book The Power of Positive Thinking by the late Norman Vincent Peale, a Presbyterian minister and counselor. I bought the book for my brother Andy as a gift for his first year as a Coach when he started in a town south of Fort Worth and figured he would love it as he is a Tech grad and was there when Knight was Head Coach and maybe give him some good pointers since he was starting his own coaching career.

I had wanted to read the book myself, so I ordered a second copy and started to read. I was expecting great stories, basketball philosophies, the importance of education, and a lot of f bombs in between, but I got so much more. I had stopped reading it maybe 7 years ago but finally finished it up and I had a thought; “so much of what Knight writes we should apply to our Division I transition and our athletic department and university writ large. Here are the lessons that I learned-

Don’t accept status quo.
Look for better when others are satisfied. In our case, apathy used to be our worst enemy. “Oh well, we are just little old Commerce, TX, not much we can do here.” I don’t accept it then, and don’t accept it now. There are so many things we could do as a University when we think big and go bold. For example, the opening of the School of Nursing and Biomedical Sciences. 20 years ago nobody thought Texas A&M-Commerce could have something like that, and here we are! A beautiful, state of the art building with a nursing school that will be a pipeline for DFW and Northeast Texas students who wish to become nurses and nurse practitioners into the area’s healthcare system. We should be looking for things to improve on, and not traditions to uproot. Some people get the two confused. That money that was used to rename the lake and library could have been used to renovate the Halliday Student Center, or get a new press box at Hawkins Field at Memorial Stadium.

Always question.
The best of all questions: “Why?” I think this is something that will hit home, especially recently. There was a move to try to change the name of our school. Ok, tell us why. Why is this a good idea? Why is this going to make things better? Why is this necessary? Put every idea through the acid test of “why?” And make darn sure you get a good answer and not a load of bureaucratic BS. Don’t just jump in and assume everything is going to be ok, that is a recipe for disaster.

Always worry.

If you can’t think of a thing to be worried about, worry about being overconfident. I remember when the decision was made to go Division I in sports without proper planning, there was this pollyanna attitude of “everything will be fine, we are Division I now!” As if that is the end goal. We still have to worry about a lot of things, because the job is not even close to being done yet. Status is not the end goal in sports, championships are. I still worry how we are able to compete in the future when we have basically the worst facilities in the entire conference. How does that affect giving, recruiting, the quality of coaches and administrators that we get? What does it say about our institution writ large? Just like every academically rigorous school and outstanding athletic school, they worry about the future generation, and they build with the future in mind, next week, next semester, next year, and whatever else comes later.

Look for improvements to make in yourself or bad habits to break.

Hiring bad administrators is a start. Accepting mediocrity. Giving chances to coaches who don’t deserve them. I could go on and on. One bad mistake a lot of places make all the time is promoting or keeping people strictly on longevity. Promote and reward based on accomplishment and meritocracy.

Don’t act without evidence or buy something without checking thoroughly.

The way our move to Division I was handled 2 1/2 years ago is a great example of this. Also, this ill fated name change attempt falls into this category as well. The difference is, we could stop one and not the other. It was clandestine to say the least, but both decisions were made with talking points and not true empirical or even anecdotal evidence. Again, look before you leap, because that fall can be deeper than you realize, and often times more painful.

Be skeptical-untrusting.

In every theory, look for proof. Verify, as President Reagan said. Once again, a group of people tried to sell us a bill of goods that changing our name to Texas A&M-Dallas would be greatly beneficial for our school and our “brand.” I knew the second it came out of the mouth of the person that said it that it was baloney, and so did thousands of others. Anytime a change is coming, anticipate someone is trying to pull a fast one on you, or in our case, on our University, or at it’s expense.

Make your players or employees work to get better-encourage them, challenge them, maybe even inspire them to do it, but make it clear that the “same old, same old” is not acceptable.
When they’re saying “The boss is never satisfied,” count it as a compliment. Knight says in his 4th chapter that he heard that one of his players once said, “He’ll never be satisfied until we hit every shot and shut the other team out.” He didn’t know Knight well enough. They’d better all be A+ students, and never have thrown the ball away either.) Point being, the issues that we face as a University and an athletic department started WAY before our current powers that be got into office. This has been going on for years. Do you know why our football stadium is so lacking in so many things? It was abandoned for years. No improvements, nothing. Same thing with the University Fieldhouse. You can add some student housing and an academic building to that as well. Same old same old because really really old. That was because the people in charge down through the years neglected their duties to keep the school at it’s best inside and out.

Never think talent alone will determine the outcome, whether it’s your side versus the other side in a game or a competitive deal.

Plan and train so that your side makes fewer mistakes. Right now, we have a lot of talent in the athletic department and in many academic schools. We have a great AD in Jim Curry who has some ideas and has done a superb job in his role so far. Before him, we had Tim McMurry and Ryan Ivey, two extraordinary athletic directors. We have great coaches in most sports, but that does not mean everything. Having talent just means you can do it, being prepared to win determines whether you will do it or not. Hire people and recruit players that will make the fewest mistakes, and I just don’t mean on the court or on the field. I mean in the front office and when making big decisions.

Never talk too much.
Get yourself a degree from the Shut-Up School and remember it when talking about your competitors, whether they’re a sports team or a sales team. Self-promotion and gloating never have a place; let your products or your performance do the talking. I hate it when a coach or a player boasts about his own team before a big game. That’s an incentive to the other side. As I write that, this is something I myself have been challenged to do. I talk and have opinions and have no issue saying what I care to say, however, there is a time to talk and a time to be silent. I have an Associate’s Degree, a Bachelors Degrees, a Master’s Degree, and 3 Stock Broker Licenses, but what I need to add to that collection is a degree from Shut Up school. I have had some people who I know want me to make an impact tell me “pick your battles with what you say and be sure your information is correct, and if you aren’t sure, either say that or don’t talk at all.” I love those people and appreciate them because they are looking out for me and the school. The others who just want me to shut up because they don’t like what I have to say or think they know more than me can take a jump off the top floor of Whitley Hall. That might be the biggest difference, know the difference between those who want you to be careful about what you say and those who just don’t care to hear you at all. When it comes to an institution, if we are going to talk about what a great school we are, we better make darn sure we have the things that made us great to begin with, strong academic rigor, prestigious degrees, strong athletic programs, and a vibrant student life with a rich history and a bright future. If you have don’t have that and talk like we are just on the cusp of greatness with no evidence, you might want to enroll in Shut Up School.

Never stop looking for new ideas.
Be self-critical of your beliefs when others offer possible alternatives. Remember, you’re not the inventor of the wheel or the Internet. Learn from the wisdom of others-listen to people who came before, like the playwright George Bernard Shaw: “Some see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ I see things as they  could be and ask, ‘Why not?’” There is so much that can be done at the smaller level right now while we wait for the bigger things, like a new events center or a possible new stadium, we can start making progress and start planning for the future and learn from what has worked in the past and what has not worked in the past or is not working in the present. Quit thinking that older means out of touch or not relevant, and that the term “Okay Boomer” is an argument when in reality it is just an ignorant response from an ignorant person. All the glittery things don’t mean anything if you don’t have a guiding light, and be open to the idea you are wrong. If you want the truth, I felt we would tuck our tails and run back to Division II after 3-4 years and that the move would be a catastrophe. I was wrong because I did not take certain things into consideration, like the transfer portal and also the dynamic of Division II sports and Division I mid major sports. Be open to the idea you might be wrong, like I was.