There is no context in this column.
Let's go back to 2014 when we fired Tom Herrion:
Mike Hamrick did NOT conduct a search for a coach. Instead, he flew out to Los Angeles and spent time with Mike D'Antoni and tried to convince him to become the head coach of Marshall basketball.
But the context is this: the Lakers that season were in a complete mess. Yes there were some injuries. But it was well known that the Laker roster did not get along with each other either. The Lakers were near the end of a 27-55 season where the Lakers would also not make the playoffs. Mike resigned at the end of the season when the Lakers decided they were not picking up the option for his final season. I am not blaming Mike for all of the Lakers failures. But there is some context here.
Dan was a part of that staff at the time. He would have been gone at the end of that season and not have had a job. It is obvious that Dan would have joined Mike in Houston in 2016, which was two years later (where Mike did a heck of a job). But there was no one in America knocking down the doors to hire Dan D'Antoni in 2014. Dan has been a part of a NBA coaching staff that had losing season in 4 of the last 6 seasons with their time with the Knicks and the Lakers. Dan had no real college coaching experience. He had been a lifetime high school teacher and high school basketball coach up until 2003 when he was fortunate enough to join his brother with the Phoenix Suns. There is nothing wrong with that. But reality is that no one at a water cooler located in a university athletic office any where in America was mentioning the name Dan D'Antoni......much less actually considering him for a head coaching job at the Division 1 level.
In my opinion but it is an opinion based on facts is that Dan D'Antoni got the opportunity of a lifetime here at Marshall. When Mike D'Antoni turned the head coaching job here down, Hamrick went to a questionable, at the time, Option B in Dan D'Antoni. There were good portions of Dan's tenure that went extremely well. He had successes and he brought in some good players during those tenures. But the facts remain that the guy had a career 53% winning percentage here against D1 competition. His conference winning percentage was no better. That is NOT "iconic". He is a guy that had some good runs here. But the fact of the matter is that lately the guy was producing some underachieving seasons. He had two 20-loss seasons in the past three years. He never made it past the quarterfinals of the conference tournament the past four seasons. His rosters lately were littered with players that never produced and in fact, never developed any better as basketball players. As one piece written stated, "the program hadn't gotten stagnant, but rather was declining". That is when an AD has to make a change.
I like Dan. But this school did just as much for Dan compared to what Dan did for Marshall. He was one of the highest paid coaches in the conference. He was given the keys to his dream job without having any college coaching experience. He received support from boosters of the basketball support club. No one, and I mean, no one at the Division 1 level was reaching out to Dan D'Antoni in the year 2014. But instead of being thankful of this opportunity here, he wants to end this in a crass and surly mindset. While I appreciate Dan for his contributions here as a player and coach, Marshall owes him nothing at this point. And I really have no use for these type of hit pieces on Marshall that are used to defend a coach who is acting spoiled and entitled at the end of his tenure.
And one more thing (and it was stated earlier in a post), Hal Greer is the iconic figure of Marshall basketball. Hal Greer was a 10 time NBA All Star. He was the best player ever to play at Marshall. It doesn't say much for Chuck Landon that he can't recognize that.
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