Soap opera at Ball State

Day-um straight. See ya Ronny. You'll never be 1/3 of the coach and individual your big brother is. Charlie Coles is somewhere having a nice glass of wine celebrating the return of sanity to MAC Basketball.

 

I always liked Ray McCallum. Maybe they can get him back.

 

They never should have let him go in the first place. That would be an excellent hire.

 

Wilbon weighs in on the situation at Ball State in today's WaPo.

It is interesting that Thompson kept a diary of all meetings and interactions with school administrators - - including tape recordings of some meetings.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/13/AR2007081301102.html

 

As an IUPUI grad, it was heartening to hear Ron Hunter wasn't going to Muncie. Then again, he wasn't going to Muncie because he knew Ball State would be in the NCAA jailhouse soon. So again Hunter sweats through expensive suits, waiting to see if IUPUI will ever build a gym that isn't dwarfed by the Natatorium across the hall.

No offense to our many BSU grads on the board, but the school's hoops problems didn't start yesterday. There's a long history of sketchy conduct, which Rick Majerus I'm sure would be more than happy to talk about. It sounds to me that the collision of Ronny Thompson and Ball State is going to make everyone involved look like an idiot.

 

Surprised you guys didn't notice our item last week on this subject. For a few weeks now, David Falk and John Thompson have been badgering some prominent journalists to write about this subject. As far as we could tell, Andy Katz, Bill Rhoden and Jason Whitlock all passed.

Interesting that Wilbon would take a chance on this.

 

Yeah, why would a Chicago guy writing for a paper in the same town as one of the most famous basketball coaches ever want to do that story....

 

Except that the out-of-season practice violation was caught by an assistant women's volleyball coach, not a player (which, ironically, led to the non-renewal of the women's volleyball staff, of which the head coach and the top assistant were there for almost two decades). Wilbon didn't do his homework on this one.

BTW, not once did Thompson talk to the local media once things broke into the open. Not to Doug Zaleski. Not to anyone at the Indy Star.

 

Whitlock just weighed in (sorry for the pun) on the BSU/Thompson mess while subbing for Rome today.

His notes: It was a dysfunctional situation that Ronny walked into. Rather than trusting the prez and the AD who has his back, Ronny bolts, and cries racism. JW then questioned on why Thompson's wife would drive to Chicago, when Indy was only a 45-minute trip if she wanted to be in a "safer" spot.

Whitlock then discussed the six hour sitdown with the Thompsons (Big John, John Jr., and Ronny) and laid out that Ronny needs to accept some of the blame. Ronny didn't like and Big John was adamant that it was BSU's fault.

The rest of it, we'll let Jason write it up when he's available.

 

Wilbon has been in the Thompson circle for years. It's not surprising at all. What's surprising is that anyone in the DC area would care about Ball State Basketball.

Also, Wilbon and Falk go back to the early days of Jordan and Falk. So doing a favor for him is right in Michael's wheel house.

Doubtful that Ronny finds a Div 1 team to coach on the foreseeable future

 

No wonder why Mike Wise did that piece on Freddy Brown(?) and his disdain towards Big John. Wilbon wasn't going to lay a finger on it.

 

The whole thing was a harmonic convergence of idiocy on both parties' parts, Thompson -- who is an asshole, and the BSU administration -- which is apparently clueless.

Everyone is getting what they deserve.