There is no NCAA rule that requires a coach to make a public announcement when he or she is sick.
That’s one reason why I admired Old Dominion basketball coach Jeff Jones so much in 2015 when he announced he’d had surgery and radiation for prostate cancer.
Not unlike breast cancer for women, prostate cancer attacks the very organs that, rightly or wrongly, many think define your manhood. I can relate to that, since I’m also a prostate cancer survivor.
It’s such a personal, intimate disease that few men speak about it. Jones spoke out to encourage men to get tested, and from the feedback he’s gotten, hundreds of men have listened to his advice.