RE: Calm Down
If you will tolerate a brief visit from an ex-Tribe fan, I offer you the following pure, unadulterated speculation, in the finest spirit of this Board.
Regarding the treatment of Tony I wonder if, coming off the relatively successful Jimmye-to-London transition, Ms. Huge initially tried to do a similar nudge-out-the-door with Tony, once she had decided she wanted him gone.
"Gosh Tony, you know we love you and you've done great things here, but hey, you've just turned 65. Wouldn't you rather spend more time with family and on the golf course, instead of stressing about whether some 18-year-old is going to miss a free throw?"
Conceivably, she might even have offered him 2019-20 as a "farewell tour" similar to what Jimmye had -- if that had occurred, it would have taken the wind out of the sails of virtually all of her critics on this Board, me included. Thinking creatively, she might even have used that year as an opportunity for a fundraising campaign for the "Tony Shaver Basketball Center," to seal Tony's legacy at W&M.
There also would need to have been a financial incentive, given what Tony stood to receive under the contract if she just flat-out fired him.
But whereas Jimmye was pretty much ready to retire anyway (or at least close to it), maybe Tony either (a) wasn't ready to go, or (b) wanted to attach strings to his departure, like "Jon Holmes will be my successor," that Ms. Huge wasn't willing to accept. ("I run this department, not you -- we'll do a national search like we did for Jimmye's replacement, and maybe find a biggish name like we did with London, and make a splash for me, oops I mean the College.") Things might even have gotten a bit heated.
Or maybe they just couldn't agree on the dollars.
Under this (admittedly fanciful and entirely speculative) scenario, when Tony didn't take the carrot, she applied the stick, without an adequate backup plan in place as to what would happen next. And created the smoldering almost-but-not-quite-a-dumpster-fire that we have today.
(Because here at W&M, "we will not shy away from setting the bar high" as to what constitutes a dumpster fire -- we need to wait until it has been extinguished and forensically investigated, and a formal declaration issued by the fire marshal).
Frankly, the more I think about it, if she didn't at least TRY to offer a scenario like this (with farewell tour, fundraising, etc.) to Tony, she should have.
But that's just me.
Now, back to my newly-rediscovered fandom for my other alma mater. Nice seeing everybody.
(Edit: Let me add, in parting, that none of this is in any way negative toward Coach Fischer, who seems like a nice young man and who I wish well. He's fighting the fire ... uh, smolder ... he inherited).
(This post was last modified: 05-02-2019 11:27 AM by Blow Gym rat.)
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