HandDownManDown wrote:1. Bruce was already in a tough spot for the Murphy report. He didn’t have the capital he once had in this matter.
2. In what world does the school President get overruled by the AD? None. As DC Jay said, this is a university with athletics programs and not the other way around.
It’s known that Bruce actively stumped for Mac with Father. How that metastasized into he got to intervene is something else entirely. It was in no way Bruce’s call, and even the most cursory logic would tell you that, regardless of rumor. You can be absolutely certain that if Father wanted him gone we would have had a new coach. Period.
1. That's fair, but considering the circumstances of that situation being as absurd as it was vs. something like Pitino @ Louisville, I don't know much of a hit Ras took on that with big-time donors. I don't think trust in him or his popularity wavered much.
2. Yes, CU is an academic institution first vs. being some quasi-professional athletics organization. But basketball is your flagship program, your biggest money-maker, and success here drives things like attendance, and donations, and immeasurably improves your brand. Yes, if Hendrickson wanted to pull the trigger on Mac he would have, but he would've had to do it himself. The AD doesn't overrule the President, but Ras stuck up for Mac and forced Henny into a no-win situation - either fire Mac himself, or fire Ras for refusing to fire Mac. If Ras was on board, Mac would've been gone from what I've heard.
Let's not act like the President has absolute power - the board and donors still hold a lot of influence. If Mac and/or Ras were terminated then Henny has egg all over his face for making moves against two of the most popular and well-liked employees of the university. Henny is very media-savvy and despises negative PR. He's all about image and his would've taken an enormous hit in the community had he made some of those moves. I don't think he had the cajones to pull the trigger.
Mac stayed, but do you truly think Ras retired to "step aside" for a younger generation to usher CU into a new era that deals with transfer portal, NIL, etc. as was his line? I'm sure that was some of it, but other things were going on. You can still see Ras walking around at games and glad-handing with hoopty-doo seat. I don't think he was quite ready to be done, despite the high road he takes publicly.
HDMD, I know you are on the other board so you've seen all angles of this discussion. While this may very well come down to your sources vs. mine or others, you can't tell me something doesn't (or used to) stink on the Hilltop. You don't see the type of turnover that the athletic department had, you don't see the hand-picked successor for AD get passed over without an interview if something fishy wasn't going on.
Where I will agree is that Blossom's piece gets exaggerated lately. He's not Ras, that's true. And he's forced to make some unpopular decisions to drive revenue and decrease expenses. But he also needs to fulfill his job duties and do everything within his power, along with Hendrickson, to make sure Mac stays here for the rest of his career.
