Linda Bruno On Leadership

Not.

You'll remember the John Chaney affair? I blogged about it enough on this blog, here, here, here and here. I've also talked about the vaudeville act of someone named Linda Bruno, who could have been arrested for impersonating a commissioner of a major college sports conference. Who perhaps should have been subpoenaed by Congress for her role in what is wrong with accountability in college athletics.

Linda Bruno had about three chances to do the right thing with John Chaney, which, in most estimates, was to suspend him for the remainder of the college basketball season, which meant the regular season, the A-10 tournament, any post-season play, and, yes, practices.

But Linda Bruno stood idly by.

First, she let Chaney suspend himself for one game. She said it was appropriate.

Then she let the Temple administration suspend him for three games, the equivalent of the remainder of Temple's regular season. She had some benign comment.

Then she let Chaney suspend himself for the A-10 tournament because the injured St. Joe's player, John Bryant, was done for the season. Again, nothing from the A-10 office.

And, she gave a hall pass to Temple senior Nehemiah Ingram, arguing that he just was following orders, was just a kid, and that the coach put him up to a form of vigilantism seldom seen in college basketball. For that, Ingram wasn't held accountable.

He should have been. He should have been suspended for the year too. A message should have been sent -- the right kind of message, a message designed to prevent coaches and players from any future temptation to send messages like the one Ingram tried to send to the St. Joe's team.

But Linda Bruno sat idly by.

Until a few nights ago.

Possibly determining that she needed a bold stroke of leadership to help define her A-10 men's hoop season, Linda Bruno banned Ingram from the A-10 awards banquet before the A-10 tournament, citing security reasons. The Temple team boycotted the dinner as a result. Which might have made Linda Bruno happy or, in her mind, justified her actions. After all, without the Temple players there, there was actually zero risk that the Owls and the Hawks would have turned into the Jets and the Sharks and rumbled in Dayton (or wherever the heck the Atlantic 10 held this dinner).

Linda Bruno should have done a bunch of banning after this affair, but this move just shows how curious and misguided her brand of leadership is. If Ingram shouldn't have been at the dinner, he shouldn't have been there because he shouldn't have made the trip, and he shouldn't have made the trip because he and his coach should have been suspended -- by their league -- for the remainder of the entire hoops season. But failing that -- and Bruno went out of her way to give Ingram his pass -- what purpose did banning Ingram from the dinner serve?

Except to draw more attention to the awful leadership of the A-10 conference and the matter that Ingram should have been suspended in the first place. And that the A-10 botched the handling of John Chaney.

If I'm an A-10 Athletic Director I would look to remove Linda Bruno immediately.

Or at least suspend her.

For a while.