I was looking for a bright spot. But looking at everything (Thursday), I kind of came to a conclusion. |
I'm really not going to give it a whole lot more thought than what I've already said. |
If I'm any good at Ole Miss, I might not be worth a flip at Michigan because I might not fit the environment. |
If there is a significant pattern that develops, the NCAA has the right to look at it as a major issue. But that's not what they've done here. It's just one of those things you just always have to have your antennas up. |
If you're going to be successful in any venture, no matter what it is, you better hire the best people possible. Whatever it takes to hire them, you're either going to be a player or not. And we intend to be players in it. |
It's really hard to articulate the measure of success Mike's had, because you really have to consider where (the program was) when he started. We had had several years of poor performance and it's hard to get that turned around. But he's done it pretty quickly by being consistent and getting progressively better each year. |
Not only did these remarkable student-athletes excel on the playing field, all of the former athletes also graduated from Ole Miss. That's a true testament to their character. |
Once Ed decides who he wants, then he and I will sit down and I'll ask him why. He and I have already talked about (several issues). Getting the right person that fits what he needs. Chemistry and personality matches up and stuff like that. |
Rod Barnes has been a very positive and important part of Ole Miss basketball history throughout his playing and coaching career. He has always represented the University with the utmost class and integrity. Because Rod means so much to the Ole Miss family, this was a difficult decision. However, due to our lack of success in the Southeastern Conference, I felt a change needed to be made. |
That's 10-12 that we were really interested in. Of course, then we had to find who was interested in us. |
The list is still fluid in the sense that we may pick up another candidate, and we may not. It's much more narrow. |
The only thing I really want to say about it is that certainly this has been a disappointing year. |
The scholarship penalty is not going to be near as harmful to us as the bad publicity for not achieving what we're supposed to achieve. Even though your major sports and all your others are good, we still didn't do what we should have in one. |
Those folks we've been able to make contact with, we'll start scheduling a time to meet with them and we will probably go to where they are. There's not a need (to bring them to Oxford) from my part. But they may in fact want to and they may want to bring their family. I'm not exactly sure what they'll want to do. |
We did not do one thing that was unethical. Not one. This is one of those things that you have to work through. As long as you know that every card you're playing is on top of the table, then you smile and go on about your business and let the chips fall, because you know they're going to fall right at the end of the day. |