Todd Bozeman is Back in the Game

Exiled Bozeman is back in business
Former Cal coach getting a second chance to impress
By DAN RALEY
P-I REPORTER

Todd Bozeman will send his Morgan State basketball team against the favored Washington Huskies on Tuesday night in Edmundson Pavilion, telling his players anything can happen.


UW BASKETBALL DOUBLEHEADER
WHEN/WHERE: Tuesday, Edmundson Pavilion

WOMEN: Washington (4-5) vs. Kansas State (11-0), 5 p.m.

MEN: Washington (8-3) vs. Morgan St. (5-7), 7:30 p.m.

TV/RADIO: Both games on FSN; women's game on KKNW-AM/1150; men's game on KJR-AM/950
And why shouldn't they believe him?

Bozeman was once banished from the college game, fired as the California coach a dozen years ago for NCAA violations deemed as serious as they can get, and he's working again.

The Huskies will be the first Pac-10 team he has faced since getting pushed into coaching exile, which ended when Baltimore-based Morgan State brought him back for the 2006-07 season.

Welcoming Bozeman to his old league will be Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar, who considers Bozeman a good friend, actually benefitted from Bozeman's previous misdeeds, and believes a second chance is in order.

"When we make mistakes, and I don't care what mistake it is, do we have to vilify that person for the rest of his life?" Romar asked. "You learn from your mistakes. I know Todd has learned from his mistakes. I root for him. I want him to do well."

Bozeman, 45, was one of college basketball's more sensational coaching stories of the 1990s, for reasons favorable and unfavorable. He was installed as Cal's interim coach midway through the 1992-93 season after the Bears fired Lou Campanelli. Bozeman led the Golden Bears on an 11-2 run and into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, upsetting two-time defending champ Duke along the way.

He was considered one of the NCAA's best young coaches after leading Cal to postseason play in three of four seasons. He became an undesirable after it was learned he paid $30,000 over two seasons to the parents of Cal player Jelani Gardner, basically providing the Los Angeles-area residents with travel expenses to games in the Bay Area and elsewhere. The money came from Bozeman's personal funds and was delivered through intermediaries.

Out of spite, Gardner's parents reported Bozeman to the NCAA once their son's playing time diminished.

"It was temporary insanity on my part, that's the only thing I can say," Bozeman told the Washington Post. "Initially, I wasn't going to do it, then I did it. The thing that kills me is we would have gotten the kid anyway. I would have had him anyway. I just got caught up in competing. I got crazy."

Cal was left with a three-year NCAA probation, a one-year postseason ban and the loss of two scholarships.

"This is one of the most serious infractions we've seen in a long time," David Swank, an Oklahoma law professor who chaired a six-person panel that dealt with the case, said at the time.

Bozeman, who was found guilty of lying to NCAA investigators, was handed an eight-year coaching ban, with most people in basketball figuring it was nothing short of permanent. The Washington, D.C., native turned to selling pharmaceuticals, coaching AAU teams, running camps and clinics, and scouting for NBA teams.

It was such a waste because Bozeman had shown a knack for coaching and recruiting in a manner as creative as anyone in the business. To sign center Shareef Abdur-Rahim for Cal, he studied Islam for a month, greeted the player's mother with a cultural bow and suggested practices could be scheduled around religious holidays.

"He's one of the best recruiters I've ever seen, and I'm talking with no rules broken," Romar said. "He's really smart. Kids really bond with him."

Since returning to the sideline, Bozeman has been greeted by opposing crowds chanting "Thir-ty thou-sand!" Spectators have called out to him and asked for loans. UW fans may weigh in on his past, as well.

"I made a bad mistake, but I'm not a bad person," Bozeman told the Washington Post. "I don't apologize anymore. I paid my price."

Gardner, the player at the center of Bozeman's Cal coaching ouster, transferred to Pepperdine and played two seasons for Romar. He later had a kidney transplant, went overseas as a pro player, married a French woman and had children. He still keeps in contact with Romar.

As for Bozeman, he brings a 5-7 team to Seattle. Ironically, his best player is a former Cal player, senior forward Marquise Kately. After a 13-18 first season, Bozeman demonstrated his coaching magic once more by leading Morgan State to a 22-11 record and an NIT bid last season -- the Bears' best record in 30 years and first Division I postseason appearance in school history.

"I think he's one of the best in the business at what he does," Romar said.