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Runge may have sealed fate already By Don Hunt In the next week or two, University of Oregon Athletic Director Bill Moos will face his toughest decision as an administrator: Whether to fire women�s basketball coach Jody Runge. Runge has come under tremendous scrutiny ever since eight of her players met with Moos on March 4 and complained about how she treated them. They asked that Runge be fired. The controversy has shaken the university every bit as much as the earthquake that rattled the northern part of the state four days earlier. The Register-Guard newspaper in Eugene has fielded dozens of letters, mostly in favor of the players but several in defense of the coach. Former players and parents of former players have spoken up. The crux of the issue is this: Should Runge�s apparent domineering, intimidating, manipulative personality trigger her dismissal in spite of her unprecedented success as a coach with the Ducks. Runge has posted a 103-42 record at Oregon and guided the Ducks to the NCAA tournament in each of her eight seasons, a feat that no former UO coach comes close to matching. The team put aside its frustrations for a day by beating Oregon State last Saturday, a victory that boosted the Ducks into the women�s version of the Big Dance and a first-round date at the Midwest Regional against Iowa at Salt Lake City, Utah, on Thursday. But all that did was delay the inevitable: Determine Runge�s destiny. Administrators have to be careful in situations like these. Are the girls a bunch of crybabies on a witch hunt? Didn�t they know college basketball was going to be demanding? Don�t they understand that coaches sometimes push players� buttons as a means of motivation? And with all the pressure to win these days, isn�t it reasonable for a coach to let off some steam once in a while? Moos is surely pondering questions such as these, and trying to figure out just how big of a mess this really is. Rest assured, it�s big. You know it�s big when two-thirds of the team � eight players � come to the athletic director to cry out. You know it�s really big when you consider that hardly any � one, to be exact � of Runge�s former players have taken her side. To the contrary, several ex-Ducks have blasted her this week, adding fuel to the firestorm. As repulsive as Bob Knight�s bullying tactics were at Indiana, a number of his former players came to his defense. Not so with Runge. Her ex-players have all said virtually the same thing, that any enjoyment they took from the program had everything to do with their teammates and the Oregon fans and nothing to do with Runge. They said that she was controlling, quick to criticize and unwilling or unable to give positive feedback. That Runge is an imposing figure � steely eyes, stern jaw and a physique that stretches to 6-foot-5 in her high heels � has been enough to keep most players from ever questioning anything. One of the more poignant letters to the Register-Guard this week came from a parent of an ex-player who said: "I watched my once successful, bright, committed-to-basketball daughter fall into deep depression and low self-esteem and agonized over every day that she was subjected to the horribly demeaning treatment that Jody Runge showered on her. My husband and I wanted to report this to the athletic department, but my daughter was fearful of the consequences and afraid that without her scholarship, she would have to leave the university that she loved. "The team has always been plagued by Runge�s negativity. They are never good enough, tough enough or successful enough to please her. I thanked God the day my daughter called to tell me that she had left the program and had managed to survive." Not that the swell of criticism has all been directed at the coach. Several people have taken Moos to task for not meeting with Runge before the players� complaints were made public. In fact, Moos still hasn�t huddled with the coach, stating that he�ll wait until the season is over. Most thought the end would arrive last weekend, but the Ducks beat Oregon State for their 17th victory and snuck into the NCAA Tournament. And so the chaos will linger a little longer. Runge certainly deserves credit for putting the Oregon women�s program on the map. She has built a winning program and a fan base that averages about 4,500 per home game � tops in the Pac-10 Conference. She took on the powers that be at Oregon and demanded � through the threat of litigation �a much bigger salary. And got it. She is viewed as an advocate for women�s coaches. Runge has done some good things, but it has become painfully evident that very few players have truly enjoyed the journey. A mother of a high school basketball player recently told me, "A coach can yell at my daughter until he�s blue in the face. He can run her into the ground. He can do all sorts of things and she�ll take it � as long as she knows that he cares about her." And that seems to be the problem with Runge. She doesn�t care. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.