It seems with every week that goes by, the sporting world is rocked by another scandal. Whether it’s the Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen supporting Fidel Castro or Bobby Petrino lying to the University of Arkansas about his improper relationship with an employee, successful coaches seem to make an awful lot of mistakes. But the one thing they have in common is that it often does not matter what they do, as long as they can still win games.

Often when teams are looking for coaches, the question of “can they win?” is more important than “how they win.” Thus, when Miami University was searching for its 23rd men’s basketball coach — a process they have not gone through for 16 years since the hiring of Charlie Coles — they had to decide between the price of winning and doing things the right way.

Miami could have picked former Indiana University (IU) basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, who was able to win, but in a way that came back to bite him. Sampson was forced to resign at Indiana because of recruiting violations stemming from the fact that he could not put his phone away and was illegally calling and texting recruits.

Nevertheless, the Hoosiers knew what they were getting into when they hired Sampson, who was under investigation by the NCAA for recruiting violations from his time at Oklahoma University while Indiana was hiring him. But IU could not resist hiring a “winning” coach to a program that, according to Forbes.com, brought in $16.1 million in 2008, the year Sampson resigned.

There are other successful basketball coaches still searching the classifieds, looking for the chance to get back to the top of the NCAA after leaving a trail of violations at other programs.

Former University of Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl who was fired for lying about NCAA violations is available. As is former Ohio State University coach Jim O’Brien, who was let go amid allegations of providing financial support to international recruits and even banned by the NCAA in 2006, but has resurfaced at Emerson College.

So when Miami had the opportunity to make a splash with their hiring they could have gone after a big fish like Sampson, Pearl or O’Brien. After all, each showed he could win at his respective institution with 20 NCAA Tournament appearances between them.

Instead, the RedHawks went with a relatively unknown name, John Cooper, who had only one winning season in his three as a head coach at Tennessee State University.

Why? Because he took a nine-win mid-major team and had them one game shy of the NCAA Tournament. Also, his success was built on a solid foundation consistent with Miami’s, a school that has never had a major NCAA violation.

Duke University went through a situation similar to Miami’s in 1980 when it hired an unproven coach who had just gone 9-17 in his final season at Army. That coach, Mike Krzyzewski, has gone on to win four National Championships as well as lead the United States Olympic basketball team to a gold medal.

While those expectations are a bit lofty for Cooper, his hiring shows Miami is committed to winning in the future but also winning the right way. Success will probably take time but it will be more welcome than NCAA violations.

None of the programs Cooper previously worked with received penalties from the NCAA while he was coaching there, and he will be expected to continue that trend.

So the only thing left to do now is follow Cooper’s advice and “get on now” because it’s going to be a fun ride.