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Report: Tennessee, NCAA talk about Tyndall
Thursday night was apparently the witching hour for Donnie Tyndall.
The embattled University of Tennessee men's basketball coach and athletic director Dave Hart reportedly were scheduled to meet to discuss the looming NCAA announcement of Tyndall's punishment for misdeeds done at Southern Mississippi.
The storyline of Tyndall's previous NCAA indiscretions has been the elephant in Knoxville since two of Tyndall's assistants stepped down before this season started.
He proved through the season that his merits on the floor -- both in practice and in the games -- proved that he was capable of handling the job in the Southeastern Conference. He took a Tennessee team that was picked next to last in the league and competed and finished seventh in the standings. He exceeded expectations with one fringe NBA player in Josh Richardson and an overachieving, undersized power forward in Armani Moore.
But his future with the Volunteers hinges on the NCAA sanctions.
And while we can all wonder how Tyndall's antics in Hattiesburg could potentially cost him his job while Jim Boeheim gets to schedule his Syracuse swan song after ignoring or breaking almost every meaningful NCAA rule for more than a decade, Tyndall's position is particularly dicey.
Tyndall had a previous NCAA run-in at Morehead State, and his actions at Southern Miss came after the 2012 NCAA rule change that made head coaches ultimately responsible for violations whether the coach knew about them or not.
So the clock is ticking, and unless Tyndall's penalties lead to a "show cause" penalty or possibly a public relations embarrassment that would be impossible for the administration or the fan base to support, here's believing he will remain Tennessee's coach.
To be honest, Hart needs this to go away, because if he's forced to fire Tyndall, it will be remembered that Hart hired him after maligned but successful and dignified Cuonzo Martin left because of a lack of support from the fans and from the administration.
So Hart knows what's at stake here. Tyndall is his guy, and while there is a clause in Tyndall's contract that he can be fired for NCAA infractions without getting the $3 million buyout, this is not only about the money.
This would seriously question Hart's ability to locate and hire future coaches. This would make any Tennessee fan wonder about Hart's ability to lead the athletic department.
It's not like these actions happened in 1996. Tyndall's alleged NCAA violations were in the last three years and with at least two coaches who followed him to Knoxville, and Hart signed off on all of it.
If he knew of this and thought it would blow over, well, that's bad and makes the pendulum of job security swing toward Hart.
Of course, maybe he didn't know about Tyndall and Co. leaving Southern Miss before the NCAA posse arrived in Hattiesburg.
But if that's the case, which is worse, ignoring Tyndall's misdeeds or Hart not doing his due diligence about Tyndall's misdeeds?
Here's guessing that there was more than a little tension in Hart's reported meeting with Tyndall on Thursday.
And considering his checkered NCAA past, this could the final meaningful stop for the man known -- at least for now -- as Donnie Knoxville.
The one good thing Tyndall has going for him, though, is that his boss needs Donnie Knoxville to stick around and succeed almost as such as Tyndall does.
Jay Greeson's column will appear on Page A2 on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. His sports columns are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. You can read his online column the "5-at-10" Monday through Friday at timesfreepress.com after 10 a.m. Contact him at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @jgreesontfp.