Wes Moore said all the right things when he was introduced as East Carolina University’s women’s basketball coach Tuesday. But it was a job and situation that he wanted to want, more than he actually wanted it.
He rectified that Thursday afternoon when he informed University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director Rick Hart that he wanted his old job back.
“I feel bad that I went as deep into it as I did, and I know I disappointed some people and caused a lot of trouble for people,” Moore told the Times Free Press after talking with Hart. “I just think it kind of hit me (Tuesday) that I was leaving the people and the players and, I guess, my baby, so to speak.”
Moore’s “baby” is a Lady Mocs program that has won 11 consecutive Southern Conference championships. The five-time SoCon coach of the year, with a record of 290-85 in his 12 seasons at UTC, said he was “embarrassed” by the situation.
His flip-flop does put him in some elite company. Among other basketball coaches to have similar changes of heart over the years were Bobby Cremins and Billy Donovan.
Moore’s return was made official at a news conference Thursday night, about four hours after he called Hart to say he was coming back to the city, community and program he’s called home for 12 years.
He said that this all but guarantees that he will coach the Lady Mocs until he retires. He’s 53.
“I think there’s a very good chance of that,” he said.
Moore’s current contract — which pays him a base salary of $112,931, with bonuses that can push that number close to $150,000 — runs through the 2013 season. Hart said a long-term extension has been discussed, “one that makes us both comfortable and gives us both some security.”
After being conflicted for several days about whether to take the job, Moore accepted ECU’s offer Sunday, breaking the news to his team that night. Monday, during an interview with the Times Free Press, he still appeared conflicted, his eyes welling with tears several times in a 23-minute conversation.
Moore said he knew Tuesday, even as he spoke at his introductory news conference, that something was off.
“I think you’ve got to be totally committed, ready to give everything you’ve got, and when it came down to the point of getting started, I was just having trouble finding that,” he said.
The bottom line, Moore said, is “I just felt like my heart was still in Chattanooga.”
The Lady Mocs, once again Moore’s players, were informed of his return Thursday night, just before the 8 o’clock news conference.
“I’m feeling a lot better now,” junior wing Bailey Dewart said, laughing for perhaps the first time all week. “I’ve been freaking out the last three days.”
After much soul searching and conversation with his wife, Linda, whose family lives in Jamesville, N.C., about 45 miles from ECU’s campus in Greenville, Moore decided Wednesday night that he belonged at UTC. That meant not moving Linda, who didn’t attend Thursday’s news conference, close to her hometown.
“Linda has been very supportive and understanding, as she has for 30 years,” Moore said. “But it’s tough on her with her family being in that area and all, too. … Linda loves Chattanooga, as do I. Again, she loves her family also, and that’s the hardest part.”
Moore said he spoke with ECU athletic director Terry Holland early Thursday morning before returning to Chattanooga. In a statement released by ECU, Holland said he was “disappointed” in Moore’s decision.
“He put 12 years into making a championship program, and leaving that proved more difficult than he possibly could have imagined,” Holland said.
Moore referred to Holland as being “unbelievable” about the situation several times.
“(Holland is) just an unbelievable person — I keep using that word — and that made it a little bit easier to talk with him,” Moore said, the shame in the mess he’d created resonating in his voice. “But it was still not easy. I just hate it, I feel terrible, and I’m going to feel terrible for quite some time.”
He feels bad about going back on his word, but not about where he’ll be coaching next season.
“I put my heart and soul in (the program) for 12 years,” he said, “and it was hard to walk away from it.”
Too hard, as it turned out.
Times Free Press assistant sports editor Jim Tanner contributed to this report.