Ron Hunter. The Pink Panther of Georgia State

By all appearances Ron Hunter is a fine, (and was an ) upstanding man. But the soon to be 54 year old head coach of the Georgia State men's basketball team, and the university itself, have become somewhat yuk-worthy lately.

It all started last Sunday during the Sun Belt Conference championship game. A trip to the Big Dance was on the line when Georgia State squared off against Georgia Southern. Hunter's Panthers would win that game by the narrowest of margins in the final seconds.

While jumping up and down in celebration, Hunter managed to blow out his left achilles tendon. Ouch. Down he went -- as in face down. Eventually, Hunter was helped into the locker room.

The next time we saw him was in an NCAA tournament game against Baylor, two days ago. He had on a foot cast and was sitting courtside on what looked a lot like your typical bar stool on rollers. Yep, he could do 360s and slowly propel himself (with his good leg) a couple feet left or right, but he wasn't exactly mobile.

Improbably, his #14 Panthers upset the #3 Baylor Bears, again on a last-second shot, this time by his own son. Evidently forgetting his physical predicament, in his perhaps hapless exuberance, Hunter attempted to leap to his feet in celebration once more. Out slid the stool and down he went again, hard on his right shoulder. Thud, and ouch #2. Carry him off one more time.

But on to the next round where the #6 seed Xavier Musketeers awaited. The cast was now up to his knee.

It should be noted that, somewhere along the line, Hunter was provided with a scooter of sorts to get around. No, not a Moped, Vespa, or anything like that. More like a Flintstone MOOL (Manually Operated One Legger -- pronounced the same as "mule"). Or put another way, one of those gadgets we've long seen pre-schoolers merrily step, push and coast on for generations. To their credit, this particular device had a custom built knee support for Hunter's gimpy left leg.

Yet one would think that a university such as Georgia State could have done a lot better for the ailing Hunter. They can afford to charter planes to send their basketball team all over the country on various road trips, but can't scrape enough dough together to get their head coach a motorized wheel chair? Something is very wrong with this picture.

But there was Hunter on his stool again, having MOOLed his way in. Had a loose ball come in his direction with players scrambling after it, he was helpless to get out of the way. That could easily have resulted in another smackdown, thud and ouch. Perhaps it's just as well Xavier nipped the tournament run of Georgia State in the bud. If the Panthers had played and won a couple more games, and Hunter kept attempting to celebrate, he might have been in a full body cast by the time he arrived at the Final Four showdown.

On a related note, Panthers would seem to be an appropriate name for this team. But considering the foibles of their head coach, maybe Pink Panthers would be even better -- as in the Peter Sellers' variety in the movies. Throw in a team mascot named Cato that ambushes the coach every time he manages to make it out on the court, and there you go.

Just a thought.......