Marcus: Welsh won't tolerate excuses as he eyes NCAA bid

Hofstra president Stuart Rabinowitz quickly threw down the gauntlet of expectations for new basketball coach Tim Welsh.

"Today's a great day for Hofstra basketball,'' Rabinowitz began at yesterday's introduction of Welsh. "And it's a great day for Hofstra athletics because this marks our hiring of Tim Welsh, who I truly believe will enable us to move our basketball success to the next level. By that, I mean conference championships and NCAA championships.''

Presumably he meant to say NCAA Tournaments, which is pressure enough.

With that statement, Rabinowitz allowed the elephant into the room. Welsh has a bona fide resume as a veteran coach, but can he produce what all of Tom Pecora's winning seasons could not - a bid to the NCAA Tournament?

Welsh delivered a "bring it on'' address. He doesn't want to hear about how difficult it is to win the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament on the road at Richmond Coliseum.

"It's ridiculous. It's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard,'' he said. "Stop with that, whoever is saying it. The game is played in between the lines. There's 10 guys on the court, two coaches, three referees, and it doesn't matter if it's in Richmond, next door at the Coliseum or Italy. You are playing basketball.

"These guys have to develop confidence and that can't be used as a crutch. Maybe I even said it, being a media guy [with ESPN]. I don't know. Sometimes you start saying it enough, you start to believe it. We're not saying it anymore. This is the league we're in; we're going to love it, embrace it. We're going to try to win it every year. We're going to attack it, figure it out.''

Hofstra will pay Welsh $3 million for five years, the most it has paid a coach in school history, with the expectation that the Pride will make the NCAAs in his tenure.

Said Rabinowitz, "This university is willing and able to make strategic investments to those athletic programs in such a manner that we can improve them to reach national acclaim.''

Welsh spoke with coaches from Jim Boeheim to Jim Calhoun to Jay Wright and said no one told him not to tackle the job - including Pecora, who went to Fordham for more money and the lure of multiple bids in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

"Nobody called me and said you can't win [at Hofstra],'' Welsh said. "All the people I trust. Maybe there is something there I don't know about, but that's all right. There's something everywhere. Because they haven't won it before doesn't mean they can't do it. That's like saying Louisville and West Virginia can't win the Big East Tournament because it's in New York City. It's kind of the same, isn't it?''

Thus far, no. After winning the America East Tournament and reaching the NCAA Tournament in its final two years under Wright, Hofstra was 0-for-9 in the CAA Tournament under Pecora. Hofstra's best chance of making the NCAAs might come if the tournament expands to 96 teams.

Welsh spoke about taking Iona to the NCAAs in the 1997-98 season after a 13-year drought. "That's what we'll try to get to. That's what we are going to get to,'' he said. "There's no question about that. [Hofstra] has been there and the foundation is set. It's not like you have to come in here and blow up the game plan. Congratulations to Tom; he's done a tremendous job here.''

Charles Jenkins, Hofstra's best player, listened to his new coach speak and said, "As a coach, maybe he knows what it takes to get us over that edge. Maybe he knows something different that's going to help us do it.''

Time will tell.