theprofessor1099 wrote:

Westender,

As for Ron being an assistant coach, I was just stating a fact.  At some point, we all have to move on I guess.  There really isn't any choice.  I hope that Ron has another opportunity to be a head coach if that is what he wants.  As I said in my first post, I was a fan of Ron's and appreciate what he had done for DU basketball while he was there.  It wasn't perfect but it was fun for the first time in a long time.

Having said that, I think an objective observer would conclude that TJ would not have had the college career or experience at DU that he had at AZ.  Granted that he would have had a successful career at DU but not two Elite 8 appearances, regular national TV exposure and Bill Walton calling him the most valuable player in the Pac 12.  RE mentioned TJ and John Stockton in the same sentence--who knows?  As far as TJ throwing some people "under the bus", I find it hard to believe that one's position would be so tenuous that it would hang on the decision of one 19 year old,  Rightly or wrongly there would have to be other issues--real or imagined.

I hope that someone fixes basketball at DU.  None of us is getting any younger!

Professor, thanks for your response regarding RE. I wasn't sure if you were trying to make some point about what he is doing now. As to TJ, you don't have to be an objective observer to realize or even entertain the thought that his college career at AZ was magical compared to what it would have been at DU. I don't question that at all. But I know that for personal reasons and egos RE's position was as you say "tenuous" for the last 2 years or so that he was there. This was known by many insiders. The decision to fire him might have preceded TJ's decision to leave, but if there was any doubt, that decision clinched it. That gave GA the ammo to pull the trigger. I know for a fact that after the last game that year at UMass he asked and was told he was not going to be fired. Then 2 or 3 weeks later he was blind -sided while out in California recruiting and told to return to Pittsburgh for a meeting with GA and Charlie where he was fired. He had to take the Red Eye home to get the ax in the morning.
 

theprofessor1099 wrote:

Westender,

Other than what you have said above about RE's dismissal, I was not and am not aware of the particulars.  If that is the way it happened, that is a shame in any case but especially with a guy like RE.  I would guess there are issues all the time with coaches and ADs since politics are involved in almost every business, university--hell even at McDonalds.  There are ways to handle things and RE would not have deserved that treatment in my opinion--but as I have now said several times, I liked the guy and appreciate what he did.  No one could resurrect a program from the ashes like he could.  I would have bet that even after TJ transferred and with some not so great players still on the roster, he would have found a way to cobble together a team that would win half its games.

All of that being said, I have to hold out hope that Ferry can do something here.  I am not optimistic but hopeful.  

I'm sure you have already realized from the tone of my posts that I agree with everything you say about Ron. He was not perfect, but he was very well liked by most of the fans, alumni, students and faculty who followed the team, former players and all of the media. This is why because of the timing and circumstances of his firing it continues to come up three years later. Of course, if the team under Ferry were doing better, I'm sure it would finally go away. Ron might not have been worthy of a long contract extension, but he did enough here to earn a chance to save his job .He loved it here and wanted to stay.His thing with Penn State was an attempted threat to try to get an extension that didn't work. I believe, given the situation with GA, GA would have been happy to see him go.