Tuesday with President Cooper for Carter

Tuesday with President Cooper for Carter

August 7th, 2009 by Following the Bulldogs

The start of preseason camp and reinstatement of Greg Harrison may have temporarily quieted head coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough’s concerns about the athletics department.

Now it’s the school’s turn to placate men’s basketball coach Tim Carter. A source at S.C. State has confirmed Carter will meet Tuesday with School President George Cooper to address issues which he claims have resulted in a breach of contract.

Carter was still on vacation Friday and had no comment about when or if a meeting will take place.

According to a letter delivered to the school by attorney Joseph R. Lefft, Carter was concerned about S.C. State not living up to a plan to develop the Bulldogs into a mid-major contender. The plan included a guarantee that Carter would be able to comprise his own staff of three assistants and one director of basketball operations. According to Lefft, South Carolina State has reduced Carter’s staff by one assistant following the departure of Kyle Perry to USC-Upstate.

The lack of investment in building modern athletic facilities, specifically a new gymnasium to replace the 40-year-old Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center, to keep up with the other Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Schools, has also concerned Carter.

Despite these adversities, Carter led the Bulldogs to their first winning season in three years and the semifinals of the conference tournament. Also significant was the fact he became the first S.C. State coach hired by current athletics director Charlene Johnson to post a winning record.

Given the way the Harrison situation was handled, Cooper and the S.C. State administration needs to seriously address this matter. The problem is many of Carter’s concerns will not be settled overnight, especially since the school let go the man in charge of athletics facilities Brantley Evans.

It would seen this is another example of S.C. State finding itself reactive instead of proactive towards any program it faces. If all of these promises were made in writing, the school should have taken steps to at least assuage Carter.

Instead, this raises the prospect of perhaps other S.C. State coaches coming forward to express concerns. Even worse, the possibility that if the administration does not right itself, some other school will manage to snatch these quality coaches away.

Truly, the ball is in the administration’s court.