After Newbauer: What the Florida Gators Need To Do To Turn Over A New Leaf

A few months ago I went as far as to call the University of Florida the “Almost Everything School” because of the women’s basketball program’s record of being the black eye on UF’s campus that just couldn’t quite get it figured out. That was shortly after former head coach Cam Newbauer resigned from his post citing personal reasons.

And now here we are.

Now we look at the program as UF’s black eye, bloodied nose and fractured ribs.

The Independent Florida Alligator, the newspaper covering the UF student body, released a report on Monday detailing alleged abuse that occurred within the women’s basketball program and how Florida’s athletic director Scott Stricklin knew about the toxic locker room culture but elected to extend Newbauer earlier this summer.

And following the last straw of Newbauer’s tenure, whatever that may have been, Stricklin protected Newbauer by allowing him to resign rather than publicly reprimand and/or terminate the coach who has now openly been accused of verbally and emotionally abusing his student-athletes.

I had no idea what I was saying when I called the women’s basketball program the black eye. All the while, it was much, much worse than consistent losing campaigns.

According to the Alligator’s report, Newbauer would go nose-to-nose with players, searching for a reason to kick them out of practice. Other reports state he made micro-aggressive comments towards players for their appearance and even their race.

Many of these accusations were brought to the UAA’s attention while Newbauer was still employed. But that didn’t stop the former Belmont women’s basketball coach from garnering an extension and glowing farewell from Stricklin when Newbauer left the program.

Since the bombshell report, Stricklin has addressed the news. But he did so behind closed doors -- with just four male reporters. Of which the Independent Florida Alligator’s reporter Zach Huber, who broke the story, was excluded.

However, in Stricklin’s opaque meeting, he took responsibility for keeping Newbauer around despite the troubling reports.

"We as a department have a responsibility to provide our student-athletes leadership for their particular programs, their sports. We are going to provide them the best atmosphere possible, and we failed in this situation. And ultimately that's my responsibility for the culture of this department. I'll take full responsibility for that,” Stricklin said. “Had I been aware of everything at the time he resigned that I when we made the contract extension, I never would have done the contract extension. I thought things were moving in a certain direction. Obviously, we weren’t. We didn’t pick up signs and clues and we’ve got to figure out going forward how to get better at that and make sure we know what’s going on.”

Going forward -- How does the University of Florida go forward from here as it relates to Florida’s women’s basketball program?

Here’s a few things that must happen now:

• Scott Stricklin and the University Athletic Association must come forward with full transparency and address what has transpired this week -- from the report, to the decision to have a closed-door press conference.

• The decision to keep Kelly Rae Finley as the interim head coach this season needs to be thoroughly researched and discussed with the student-athletes on the team. Following Newbauer’s departure, Finley was named the interim head coach after serving as Newbauer’s associate head coach. Though it’s unclear if Finley contributed to the toxic culture within the program, one player quoted in the Alligator’s report suggested that Finley be held accountable due to her reluctance to speak out on the abuse. However, before chalking Finley up as an accomplice, it’s fair to question whether or not she was too intimidated to speak out.

Here’s a few things that must be considered for the future:

• Investing in the program. Pardon my French, but the Florida Gators women’s basketball program deserves more than half-ass hires. I understand the reluctance to pour a large sum of money into a program that hasn’t generated the best results. But like anything else, you get in what you put out. If Finley isn’t retained, Stricklin must be willing to dig deep into the pocketbook with his next hire. Look at what LSU did to bolster its faltering program: It pulled Kim Mulkey from Baylor. Mulkey will make more than $2.5 million this season with a $400,000 base salary and $2.04 million in supplemental income. Newbauer was slated to be paid $500,000 this season with his extension. And while comparing the two makes it seem like the LSU Tigers are paying an enormous amount of money for Mulkey, the contract was nearly identical to what she was making at Baylor -- which further proves that it never hurts to ask and that the worst that can happen is a coach declines an offer. It isn’t always necessary to get into a bidding war.