Wow.
Turns out the Tony Bennett in my head wasn't the Tony Bennett in real life.
Humility. Thankfulness. Passion. Unity. Servanthood.
It's laughable to think Tony Bennett will try to sell those five tenets to recruits in the future.
If it had been last year, we all would've seen it coming, and that would've been the end of it. We could've moved on and rebuilt much like the team itself did.
Now, Tony has left us in the worst possible position. Sure, our 2009 recruiting class is signed to their LOIs. But I believe in taking the high road here: we shouldn't force them to honor those. They shouldn't be held to playing for a coach they didn't commit too.
Now, we pray Klay Thompson and our freshmen don't transfer. We hope we retain at least some of our recruiting class for next year. We hope that either a) Ben Johnson/Matt Woodley takes the reigns or b) that Ken Bone or whomever else takes charge can keep this ship together.
Two things really make me angry about this:
1. It is completely out of the blue. No rumors, no mentions, no nothing. Just poof and he's gone. And if you think its just us fans, you're wrong. I know, for example, that I found out about Tony's departure before Assistant Coach Mike Heideman's own wife found out.
2. He didn't bother to leave this program in the best position to better itself in the future. If anything, I always thought Tony would've given us that. Instead, he's become every other scumbag coach from every other small money school. If he had left last year, at least we'd have some momentum to pass on to the next coach.
This is ridiculous.
I don't care that we were a stepping stone. I care that we were stepped on when we least expected it.