There is a word that my friends have made synonymous with bad coaching. That word is bozo. Many bozos have come and gone and come again and gone again in the turbulent world of coaching. Having watched college basketball games for many years now, my friends and I have had many opportunities to call a coach a bozo. Sometimes it was definitely appropriate and other times it was in the heat of the moment. We sometimes regretted it. In 2000, one of my friends tagged the bozo label on then North Carolina head coach Bill Guthridge, but he removed it when the Tar Heels made their unexpected run to the Final Four as a number eight seed.

The intent of this piece though is not to bash coaches. After all, I feel that administrators are sometimes too quick in pulling the trigger and firing a coach. It's one thing to call him a bozo; it's another to strip him of his livelihood.

Let's honor the coaches, especially those in the college basketball fraternity. I've taken my friends' bozo phenomena and developed my own little idea from it, a sort of elite coaching fraternity. It is called Bozo Immunity. Think of it as achieving tenure in teaching, earning a gold shield in the police department or being made in the mob. Earning Bozo Immunity is not easy, it is truly an elite group. Here is my criteria:

• You must be actively coaching in Division I college basketball.
• You must have won a national championship or have a proven track record as an outstanding head coach.

Let's face it, winning the NCAA Tournament is one of the most difficult coaching feats in all of sports. Many great coaches haven't even made it to the Final Four. So I feel that if you can take your team through the madness of March and win it all, you've earned Bozo Immunity.

There is another catch, Bozo Immunity is granted to only one coach at the end of each season. Obviously, if the winning coach at the Final Four is a first-time national champion as a head coach, he gets it automatically. If otherwise, like last season when Duke won with Mike Krzyzewski, a charter member of the club, a third national title, someone else must be selected.

In last season's case, Lute Olson already had it, Tom Izzo already had it, and while Gary Williams did an outstanding job getting to the Final Four, he needs to do a little more to earn it. So after much thinking, I selected someone who came close to winning it all twice and has been a winner on a consistent basis throughout his career. I finally granted Bozo Immunity to Jim Boeheim.

Please note that I only began granting Bozo Immunity during the 1997 season. So here goes, the following coaches are immune from being referred to as "bozo" for as long as they shall coach:

Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) - granted 2001
Jim Calhoun (Connecticut) - granted 1999
Steve Fisher (San Diego State) - charter member
Jim Harrick (Georgia) - charter member
Tom Izzo (Michigan State) - granted 2000
Bob Knight (Texas Tech) - charter member
Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) - charter member
Rick Majerus (Utah) - charter member
Rollie Massimino (Cleveland State) - charter member
Lute Olson (Arizona) - granted 1997
Rick Pitino (Louisville) - charter member
Nolan Richardson (Arkansas) - charter member
Tubby Smith (Kentucky) - granted 1998
Jerry Tarkanian (Fresno State) - charter member
Roy Williams (Kansas) - charter member

So who are the top candidates to join this exclusive club in 2002? Well, there are many great coaches out there who are still not immune to being referred to as bozo. Billy Donovan at Florida, John Chaney at Temple, Gene Keady at Purdue, Mike Montgomery at Stanford, and Bill Self at Illinois immediately come to mind. There is also that new wave of young coaches like Tommy Amaker at Michigan, Steve Alford at Iowa, and Quin Snyder at Missouri.

If one of these coaches runs the table in the NCAA Tournament, then the answer is simple. Otherwise, I'll be faced with another tough decision.

Have something to say? Visit the message boards and discuss this article. Comments? Agree? Disagree? Send in your feedback about this article.