Abar Rouse, the assistant basketball coach at Baylor who taped a conversation with disgraced former head coach Dave Bliss in which Bliss discussed labelling slain player Patrick Dennehy as a drug dealer in order to cover up Bliss’ illegal payments to Dennehy and others, has been terminated as a coach. As Lasso noted, he was told he’d be paid for the rest of August, small comfort given that he was canned on August 28.
I’d be happy to pile on Baylor as much as the next guy for this, but Rouse was probably toast anyway since new coach Scott Drew had announced that he was not retaining any of Bliss’ assistants, as is the norm in these situations. Rouse is not bereft of options. He can apply for another job at Baylor (unlikely), or try to be an assistant somewhere else.
Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association, said Baylor cannot be criticized for its handling of Rouse’s situation because new head coaches are typically allowed to hire their own assistants.
Calling Rouse’s actions at Baylor “admirable,” he said the association could provide Rouse with assistance in landing another coaching job.
“He did the right thing,” said Keith, formerly head football coach at the University of Rhode Island and Howard University. “There are probably friends of his previous employer [Bliss] he couldn’t work for, but whether he’d want to work for them, I don’t know. I don’t think this young man is in a position to worry. Anybody who wouldn’t want to hire him because of what he did, he shouldn’t want to work for them.”
I hope he’s right, and I hope Rouse does find another, better position quickly. The hoops season starts in less than two months, so there’s no time to lose.
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