Alright already!
People have been contacting me all day yesterday and today asking why I haven’t posted a blog entry on Coach Ritchie McKay leaving Liberty (http://tinyurl.com/cnk98p). The simple answer is that posting too quickly on this topic would not have been a good thing for you or me. I was way too upset to be rational in any way. I am still not happy about the whole situation, but I have come down off the ceiling of anger I was stuck on yesterday.
I will start with my initial thoughts. Early on yesterday morning, the whole thing caught me completely off guard. I was hoping it was a sick April fool joke. Then as I started to get messages from good sources and found that it looked to be true I became a bit on the mad side. I saw the idea of going from a Head Coach (yes in the Big South) to an Assistant coach (yes, in the ACC) as a bit of a lateral move. I mean the money has to be somewhat similar. Then what really burned my cookies was the fact that this man has only been here for two years. Not only that, but he has said time and again that he truly felt God called him to Liberty, and he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. He even went as far at last Thursday’s Flames Club luncheon to say he thought he’d stay at LU for the rest of his career. Look, I’m well aware that coaches say things like this all the time and don’t mean it. But I thought that a great Christian man at a Christian School wouldn’t make such claims unless they truly meant them. So, at this point I felt that Coach had lied to us and was rather angry for that.
Now that I have heard more details, read Coach McKay’s statement, and cooled down; I feel somewhat differently. As the details of the friendship between Tony Bennett and Coach McKay came out, things started to make a little more sense. Bennett’s father Dick was actually Ritchie’s mentor and Tony and Ritchie have worked together before. He sees this as his opportunity to help a friend build a new program at a much higher level than LU. So this part of the story makes sense. We all do stuff for our friends and to be around our friends.
Now to the part of his story that I’m struggling with: He says he is looking forward to being an assistant so the amount of pressure on him will decrease. There are 2 reasons this doesn’t work for me. First, he has been a head coach for over 14 years. After the messy divorce with New Mexico, he didn’t waste any time looking for another Head Coach gig. So to believe he just doesn’t want to do it anymore is just hard for me. Second, going from the Head job at LU in the Big South to any job with the UVA program in the ACC seems like a step up in the pressure level to me. I don’t think LU Administration, fans, or what small donor base we have is anywhere close to the level of pressure their UVA counterparts will dish out. UVA is a lower level ACC basketball program whose fans think they should be winning championships every year. Good luck with finding a decrease in stress coach.
So, I have decided to move on and accept Coach McKay’s decision. UVA has picked up a great man and coach to help lead their program up from the bottom. I wish him and them the best. The future for LU basketball will be just fine without him as Jeff Barber and Jerry Jr. will surely find someone very good. I do think despite the recent transfers and now Coach’s departure, the program will still be in decent shape. We have several key players returning, and hopefully some good ones still coming in. The key now is to bring in a coach as soon as possible. This is big for saving as many of the recruits as we can and filling the spots of any who leave before signing day on April 15th. It is comforting knowing the AD Barber is on his way to Michigan for the Final Four Coaches Job Fair as we speak. I think the program will be fine. Is it set back a year or two, yes. But, the future of Flames basketball is just fine. You'll see, SOON!
That’s what’s rolling around in the DOME for now.
Well thought out!
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