If we just review the facts we know folks, it is easy to understand that something is quite "up" but that the end game is up in the air.
To review:
What we know:
* Late in the season, someone told a regional reporter that buyout negotations were happening
* Manning denied this
* Currie hasn't said a THING about basketball other than generic, "we all know we need to do better and where we want to be"
* Manning has continued after a brief disappearance as if he is the coach - the disappearance can be explained away by the pandemic - I sometimes disappear for hours and the end result is I have milk and meat in the refrigerator
* The folks we thought would transfer, transferred.
* We gained a competent transfer in - similar to previous fill in the gaps in the Manning era
* Currie has not completed his end review for Manning - this lack of comment and completion and commitment to next year one way or the other is a fact - what it implies is a jumble. The only thing to gin out of it is that next season is not set in stone FOR CURRIE - he's not sure how this plays out ... yet
*Chaundee Brown performs a troubling 180 and jumps ship about 48 hrs after being the most respected Manning defender on the team and even beyond that small circle
* Many posters have commented that Sarr will not play another year for Manning (despite getting much much better under his watch/tutelage), but to date has not done so
* In light of all of the above, it doesn't seem as if Manning is willing to take a pay cut - that doesn't seem to be total fact, but close to it - that would make sense in light of a previous buyout negotiation or firing - not at all if he were "safe"
That is what we know. I find it all very fascinating. I am not financier, but there are a number of financial factors folks have noted that are sort of facts but that may or may not be related. For example, if you fire Manning with NO buyout - just pay him his contract for the next 5 years, are you financially better off? In other words, do professionals who work the market believe that $2,500,000 in stocks today will be worth much more than that 1 year from now and you just re-initiate the buyout talks when more money is there?
What type of brand hit does Wake Forest take by firing Manning and hiring Beilen/Matta/somebody in this market? Outside our needs as hoops obsessives? And how much does Hatch care about that? Do Wake students and parents and some alumni get pissed off that school is still this amount of money but yet Wake is throwing X amount of money about a basketball program that may not even play meaningful games for 18 months? Is Clawson pissed that he essentially threw $250,000 of his own money at it?
There are bunch of questions that Currie would seem to need to answer and appease beyond our Manning sucks Basketball sucks mantra.
But to me the tea leaves only tell me that the whole program is a still in wild state of flux and anyone who posts decided outcomes (e.g., Manning is here for two more years!) is wildly speculating.
Based on what happened to Currie at Tennessee, I would assume he prefers next year being an absolute shitshow in an upside down year anyway than risk doing something big that is then overturned by some combination of Hatch and ? In other words, Currie may be the driver in this car, and he may know the road he's chosen to drive down, but there are a team of mechanics that include high level boosters working on the car and Hatch himself puts gas in the tank. To make matters worse, the fuel gauge doesn't work so Currie is still trying to feel out how far down the road he can get before the whole thing runs out of gas and he's stranded.
Good morning, Vietnam!