There has been a great lamentation arising from Cult of the Coach members in the past couple of days.

Ben Howland was fired at UCLA Sunday and it was a gross injustice, according to the cultists. Tubby Smith was fired at Minnesota Monday and it was more of the same, they said.

(What it might really be is the sprint to Shaka Smart, but that's another column for another day.)

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The schools were unreasonable, unrealistic and unfair, the cultists said. They have a warped view of their place in the college basketball hierarchy. They were lucky to have those coaches and will be even luckier to find a replacement as good.

And so forth.

Pardon me for not sharing their outrage.

Howland (three Final Fours) and Smith (one national title) have had excellent careers, probably both worthy of Hall of Fame consideration someday. Both will be snatched up on the open market if they want to continue coaching. But the notion of them as blameless, powerless victims being chewed up by the College Sports, Inc., machine does not ring true to me.

I'm not just talking about on-court production, though we can discuss that as well.

Divide Howland's 10-year UCLA tenure into two periods and you see a major dropoff: the first six seasons were Camelot; the last four were Losealot. The Bruins had three 30-win seasons and four top-12 Pomeroy Ratings in those first six; they averaged 13 losses per season and were no higher than 43rd in the Pomeroy Ratings in the last four. For a school with UCLA's traditions and aspirations, that's trending the wrong way.

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In the case of Smith, he gave Minnesota six years of good and zero years of great. And with a salary of nearly $2 million this year, the school was paying for great (or at least really, really good). Tubby had a losing Big Ten record and took the Gophers to three NCAA tournaments in those six seasons, never getting better than a No. 10 seed and winning just one of three NCAA games. That, coincidentally, came against Howland and UCLA Friday night.

But there are significant off-court reasons why the two schools are justified to make a change, even if it means firing a big name and incurring the wrath of the Cult of the Coach members.

There has simply been too much mess and doubt at UCLA. Too many players transferring out or being kicked out, and arguably too many concessions made and risks taken for those coming in.

Howland took a swing at a freshman class that was supposed to deliver what Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague delivered at Kentucky in 2012 – a national title during their layover on the way to the NBA. UCLA's class delivered a Pac-12 title and a round-of-64 NCAA elimination. That's not worth everything that went along with the freshmen.

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