A little late reflection for Gene Keady
A nice, out-of-the way editorial from the Herald & Review Newspaper points out the a truism in coaching college sports: it's very, very difficult to go out on top. I'm disappointed that Gene Keady's final season is going as badly as it is, because I remember the back-to-back Big Ten Championships in the early nineties. I guess I can now relate to the many laments of Penn State fans regarding Joe Paterno. Sometimes you have to admit that time and trends have passed you by and that it's time to move on. For Purdue, that peak might've been in 2000, after just missing a Final Four appearance with a loss to Wisconsin.
Purdue could have managed a tremendous succession in the men's basketball program had they held onto longtime assistant Bruce Weber; instead, as this past Saturday reinforced, Boiler fans will only be able to appreciate his efforts on the receiving end. We can only hope Matt Painter has a plan and the will to make the program his own once this swansong season is mercifully concluded. I really like Keady, and I'm pretty sure I would've enjoyed watching him (as the opposition has) even if I had not become a Purdue fan. There's certainly a consensus that he does deserve better on his way out. But Keady himself remarked, "I probably should have left a long time ago...loyalty can be stupid. That's pretty much tongue-in-cheek, but you can stay in one place too long and maybe I did that."