Bill wouldn't still be here in 2017, even if Coble had played in 2010-11 and we had made the NCAA Tournament back then. Coach Carmody could have had recruiting momentum coming off a tourney bid, but Bill was disinterested in recruiting.
As I shared before, Carmody recruited guys in his own image. When the coach doesn't like to recruit and when he signs players with the same personality, well it's a really messed up situation when HS kids arrive for their unofficial visits and they find out nobody cares.
If we had made the tourney in 2010-11, based on Bill's philosophy, we would have the same core of guys four years later. Imagine an alternate universe with this 2014-15 roster: starters Olah, Lumpkin, Cobb, Demps, Sobo, with a bench of Kale, Sina, Ajou, and Turner. Does anybody think that's even an NIT team? Noooo.
If I have any distaste about Coach Carmody's departure, it was the way that Jim forced the issue by making Bill into a lame-duck coach with a disadvantaged team. The two men did not get along. The situation sucked, but it was the only way that Jim could justify firing a guy who took our program from point A to point B.
Jim would probably argue that even with arena upgrades and a bigger budget and kinder admissions standards, Coach Carmody was just never going to win big here. Jim forced the issue, though. He knows it.
And I bet he sleeps well at night. Did the ends justify the means? Dang, it's really hard to argue against Jim on that score.
