South Carolina Coach Gone

[Bigbluefan]

South Carolina Coach Eddie Fogler is leaving the program when his team is through playing in the NIT Tournament. I hate to see him go. He was a good coach, I thought! I liked to watch him coach while he was at SOuth Carolina. He says that he will never coach again. I hate to hear that. Maybe one day he will come back and coach somewhere else in the college basketball world.

[Marc]

Wow, I am surprised to hear this. He is a good coach, I guess he just didn't like what was going on down in South Carolina. I thought he had plenty of years left before it was really time to retire, so I don't know if he's fed up with things or not.

[Bigbluefan]

Apparently he was just fed up..They are buying the rest of his contract out from him. He says he is not going to coach ever again!

[Tom Baker]

Interesting because Fogler took his name out of contention for the UNC job after Bill Guthridge stepped down last year. He was higher on Carolina's list than Matt Doherty.

Surely Fogler knew he was on shaky ground at SC. Yet he turned down any shot at UNC. There have been some rumors about his desire to be a head coach.

Expect former Georgia Tech Bobby Cremins' name to get attached to the SC job. It's probably his if he wants it. He's an SC alum who nearly went there a few years back--in fact he'd accepted the job but reversed himself to stay at Tech. While not the best game coach ever, Cremins is certainly a great recruiter and had some good teams at Tech, including a Final Four team in '90, and he picked up a few ACC titles. He apparently has some strong ties to the New York area, and should be able to recuit the talent SC needs to get competitive in the SEC, something they're no doubt hungry to do now that the football team seems to be on the rise under Holtz.

[Marc]

It should be interesting to hear the Pitino rumors fly around South Carolina now that Fogler is gone. Although, I think Pitino going there is not going to happen. I thought Fogler was a decent coach and it's peculiar that he is retiring at only 52.