The Jim Christian hire was a head scratcher to me from the start.  The only way it made any sense was if Schaus believed one of two things: (1) Christian's head coaching experience would allow us to pick up where we left off after the Sweet 16 run without missing a beat, or (2) Christian would settle in as a Solich-type hire and build a program of sustained excellence over the next 8-10 years.  Option #1 was always a long-shot given the differences in style and system between Groce and Christian.  Therefore, I can only conclude that Schaus must have been thinking along the lines of Option #2.

Given that, the Christian hire has to be viewed as a failure in my mind.  Not only did we undermine the potential of arguably the best returning nucleus of talent in program history in 2012-13, but we then get left high-and-dry two years later (to the day) with half of our roster in flux.  This is, simply, the worst possible outcome (although perhaps it's one we should have seen coming considering that Christian never bothered to update his Twitter account to reflect his new job after leaving TCU).

All that having been said, I've had mixed feelings about Christian over the last couple days.  On the one hand, I do think he's a good coach.  And more importantly, the timing of this is horrible.  Not only are we likely to lose our most heralded recruit in the last twenty years (maybe more, depending on how highly rated Diante Flenorl was), but I fear that this entire recruiting class could disintegrate before our eyes.  If the two Juco wings are as talented as hoped, then Christian may very well bring one or both along with him to Chestnut Hill.  Meanwhile, I have to assume that Crute will reconsider his options as well.  Even if several of the recruits decide to stick things out, with six scholarships to fill for next year the timing couldn't be worse.  This could very well set the program back one to two years and derail much of the momentum we had from the Sweet 16 run.

On the other hand, count me firmly in the camp that, at some level, wanted Christian to leave after the events of the last few days.  This move reeks of dishonesty and a lack of integrity.  Christian was one to two years away from getting fired at TCU.  We were his lifeline.  To turn around and screw us over like this after all the talk about program fit and wanting to build something special here is, in my mind, unconscionable.  He owed us either (1) a deep NCAA tournament run, or (2) four to five years of winning basketball, minimum, before jumping to his next job.    

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think the potential pay raise justifies this on an ethical level under the circumstances.  If I sign a five-year contract (a fact that distinguishes Christian from most employees who jump to a new job), I do not move after year two, especially if it is going to put my former employer in a huge bind.  That is doubly true if my employer in many ways helped salvage my career by saving me from a sinking ship.  If he had done the job he was hired to do here, he would have had plenty of future opportunities as good as or better than BC.  I realize that sleezeballs are the norm in the college coaching profession, but given the context this move is particularly difficult to defend.  I couldn't fault Groce for moving on, as he'd given us a Sweet 16 which is all we could have ever asked for.  Aside from lucking his way into a split of a conference title (thanks to Alex Abreu's untimely arrest), Jim Christian achieved very little here.  I'll continue to wish John Groce nothing but the best, but won't shed a tear if BC cans Jim Christian's ass after two losing seasons.

Moving forward, of the names tossed out so far Pat Kelsey and Chris Holtmann are probably the most likely contenders given Schaus' apparent preference for head coaching experience.  But both come with some question marks in my mind.  Holtmann's decision to leave the HC position at Gardner-Webb to become an assistant at Butler was quite odd.  Meanwhile, Kelsey abruptly quit coaching in 2011 and took a year off after his stint as an assistant at Xavier.  Neither decision is necessarily a disqualifier, but both are strange career moves that I'd want to investigate a little further if I were Schaus (especially in Holtmann's case). 

Overall, a very disappointing turn of events.  Hopefully it ends up working out for the best.

Last Edited: 4/3/2014 4:53:22 PM by Monroe Slavin