Another week...another drama. This program bites hard. It'll bite harder if they promote St Jean to a higher level. Bring in a real X and O guy. The kid has done nothing to get rewarded with a promotion.
This is the most stable the program has been in years. Assistant coaches come and go . Slice is a notable assistant, and a big loss given local relationships, but it still falls into routine goings-on for a D1 basketball program. Have a little perspective
You misuse the word "stable". Hercules couldn't clean this stable of a program in 50 lifetimes. My perspective comes from rooting for this program as long as many posters' parents have been alive. Slice is an elite recruiter...a guy we need for a program where the very best recruits have traditionally held their noses when our pitchmen came around. He's a big loss. Kentucky could afford to lose Slice. We couldn't.
Sure, we'll go after second tier transfers and make do while the big boys clean up. We'll play with ourselves when the Haggerty people announce first, second and third teamers from the Monmouth and Manhattan's of the world...and we don't have a single player making the list.
We have no X and O coach and "rooters" are hoping the very inexperienced St Jean is rewarded with a promotion after a season of abject failure.
That's my perspective. And yours??
Of course his loss is optically challenging and definitely hurts long term recruiting efforts in places where his relationships are very strong. But relative to the program's recent issues with player eligibility, recruiting disasters, drug test failures, on court underperformance versus preseason expectations, fist fights amongst players/coaches, conference realignment, etc. - Mullin has laid a strong foundation that is positioned for limited downside volatility (a relentless feature that plagued the program in the Lavin era). Losing an assistant coach and replacing that coach with a HoFer who is being elevated from a smaller role on the staff, on paper, is not that a big deal given where we've been.
While I'd prefer Slice be here for the long haul, and I question if the school can afford to buy him out, his primary value is in recruiting and we are in good shape there.