By John Feinstein
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 2:48 PM

Back in the 1960s when the Boston Celtics were in the process of winning 11 NBA titles in 13 years, Red Auerbach would hold his postgame media sessions just outside the door of the Celtics locker room. There were no interview rooms in those days; no live feeds of postgame press conferences, just a handful of writers gathered around the coach.

After a Celtics win -- which was most nights -- Auerbach would talk to the writers for about five minutes, tops. "After a few questions I'd say, 'hey fellas, I didn't score a point or get a rebound tonight. Go talk to the guys who did,'" Auerbach said long after he retired. "When we lost I would stay and answer every question. I'm the coach, we lose, I take the responsibility. That's the way it should be."

Auerbach died a little more than two years ago and it often seems that the notion of coaching accountability died with him.

Nowadays, coaches appear more than ready to separate themselves from their players after a loss while willingly taking bows after a victory.

The king of this new sport is Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis, who performs miracles worthy of female gymnasts in twisting himself into position to pat himself on the back after victories only to act as if he spent the game sitting in the stands waving a pom-pom after losses.

Two weeks ago, when the Irish were more than fortunate to hang on to a 20-point lead in the final minutes against Navy, Weis talked in his postgame conference about his decision to run the football at halftime. "I just said we're going to run it until I get bored running it," he said.

He said very little about his team losing its composure in the final minutes and allowing Navy to recover two onside kicks other than to say he would be sure his team practiced onside kick coverage more in the next week. He gave almost no credit to Navy -- just as he had done a year ago when Navy ended its historic 43-game losing streak against the Irish -- for not giving up when the game was clearly lost.

Last Saturday was much worse. Notre Dame coughed up a 23-10 lead in the fourth quarter against a Syracuse team so awful that Coach Greg Robinson had already been fired during the week. The NBC announcers yammered on about Syracuse's inspired performance but, with all due respect to their players, Notre Dame had about 100 chances to put the game away, and didn't.

Even one of those perfectly timed, 'Luck of the Irish,' holding calls on Syracuse's last drive couldn't keep Notre Dame from losing, 24-23.

"I feel sick to my stomach for the seniors," Weis said. Nice of him. How about saying, "I let the seniors down."

You see that's what Auerbach would have said. That's what Bob Knight, who crushed his players behind closed doors but always put the blame on himself in public would have done. "I didn't do a good job getting these kids ready to play this game," was a frequent Knight post-loss comment. Have you ever heard Joe Paterno or Bobby Bowden say their players failed them? Dean Smith? Mike Krzyzewski?

No coach in history has been better about giving credit to the opponent after a loss than Krzyzewski. Not only does he talk about how well the other team played he will almost always insist he was out-coached, whether that's the case or not.

"You will never hear me say anything bad about one of my players in public," Dean Smith said years ago. "I recruited every one of them. I'm responsible for them. If they don't play as well as they should, that's on me, not them."

Weis let his players down the week before the Syracuse game. He didn't get them to understand that even a bad team can beat you if you don't come emotionally ready to play. When the game was over he talked about the team going 'flat,' with a 23-10 lead. Whose fault is that? How can a team that has exactly one win all year over a team with a winning record (Navy) overlook anyone in an era when a 13-point lead in college football is about as safe as putting your entire portfolio into the stock market tomorrow?

Weis is now 28-20 since arriving at Notre Dame almost four years ago talking about his brilliant offensive schemes -- they seem to work a lot better with Tom Brady at quarterback don't they? -- and making threats to media members who didn't march in lockstep to the Notre Dame fight song. He's 9-14 the last two years since most of the players recruited by Tyrone Willingham -- including Brady Quinn and Justin Tuck -- graduated.

He has seven years left (seven!) on a contract which pays him about $4 million a year, that includes a buyout worth about $20 million. That buyout may be the only reason he'll still be around to throw his players under the bus again next season. Here's a man making millions, coaching kids making nothing and he blames them for every loss. And almost never gives credit to the opponent.

As Dean Smith often used to say, "the other team gives scholarships too."

That's why it was very surprising to hear Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen, who has rarely been an 'I win, they lose,' guy putting all the blame on his players after their 37-3 loss to Florida State on Saturday night. A loss like that is a team effort -- from the head coach down to the freshman managers -- but Friedgen went on about being stunned that his players weren't ready to play.

"It boggles my mind that we can play so poorly in such a big game," Friedgen said. "They did not compete, did not play with any effort."

They? The guy making millions is absolved of blame, but the broken-hearted kids in his locker room, they didn't play with any effort?

In fact, effort hardly seemed to be the issue if you watched the game. Florida State was just better, much better, in every phase of football. Turnovers -- Maryland had four -- are rarely the result of lack of effort. Often they are the result of too much effort, trying to get an extra yard, forcing a pass into coverage at a critical moment. Maryland quarterback Chris Turner, who threw two interceptions, spent a lot of the game staring at the black night sky above Byrd Stadium from his back because Florida State's defense was just too fast and too quick for Maryland's offensive line.

The Seminoles, at last check, give scholarships too.

I-Win-They-Lose-Disease can be cured. Louisville Coach Rick Pitino all but invented it when he was coaching at Kentucky and then with the Boston Celtics. One year (1994) after Kentucky had been upset by Marquette in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in large part because Pitino was too stubborn to back off his press when he needed to back it off, Pitino came in after the game and said his team had lacked, "leadership, experience and toughness," all season. The three seniors on that team -- which won 28 games -- were sitting next to him as he spoke.

The last two seasons after his team lost in the NCAA Tournament, a different Pitino has emerged. He has talked about how proud he is of the way his team worked and improved during the season, saying they gave him everything they possibly could all winter long. He even did this after losing a heartbreaking overtime game to Texas A&M in the second round two years ago. We lost, he said.

Wrapping up his post Syracuse press conference on Saturday, Weis talked about Notre Dame going to Los Angeles next week to play USC, which is 9-1 and ranked fifth in the polls right now.

"I told them if they don't come in here Monday with the mindset that they can win the game then they'll get humiliated," he said. "It will be a massacre."

They will be humiliated and massacred. But if the Irish somehow pull off a miracle, you can bet Coach Weis will be there to tell everyone how we -- and he -- did it.

The man is no Red Auerbach. And, sadly, he's not alone these days.