Izard lawsuit unfounded

Former IU women's basketball coach Jim Izard filed a federal discrimination complaint Thursday against IU, claiming his dismissal was based on his gender. This claim is without merit.\nIzard was fired because his teams didn't compete on a level up to par for the University. Granted, he was the last male women's basketball coach in the Big Ten, but he was also one of the worst when it came to conference games -- as illustrated by his record.\nDuring his 12 years as the coach, his teams went 84-126 (a .406 percentage) against Big Ten competition. Only two of his teams -- 1993-94 and '94-95 -- were selected to the NCAA tournament. Neither of those teams made it to the second round.\nUsually at least six, and sometimes seven, teams from the Big Ten are selected to the tournament because the conference is regarded as one of the best in the country. A typical determination of whether a Big Ten team is invited is whether that team won at least half its games during the season. By these guidelines, he had a good team less than 10 percent of the time he coached at IU.\nHis supporters say Izard is IU's winningest coach of all time. True. But he coached at IU longer than any other coach at IU. He was bound to break the record sooner or later.\nEven his team captain from last year doesn't believe he was fired because he was male.\n"I don't think that's the reason," junior Jill Chapman told the IDS. "It was just his philosophy and not having a winning season last season."\nThe key word here is "winning."\nIzard couldn't do it during the Big Ten season. \nHis only gripe should be that new coach Kathi Bennett is making more money than he did. But that is by no means a reason to file suit. The decision to pay her more than him was made long after he was fired. \nIzard told the IDS in March, "I wasn't surprised. There was a lot of innerworkings that people don't know about, and I think I got caught up in some of them."\nSo why is he angry enough to file a lawsuit against the University? Who knows. \nIndianapolis attorneys Ida Lamberti and Patricia Grow are representing Izard and Lamberti said Izard's performance as a coach was never examined during his 12-year IU career.\n"He was never formally or informally evaluated during his time there," Lamberti said.\nTeam's records were all the athletic department needed to evaluate Izard, assuming all off-court responsibilities were met.\nBecause we're not lawyers, Izard might have a decent chance in federal court.\nBut just like his basketball teams, he'll probably lose.