Steele Is Out!!!!

[UCGRAD4X]

I’m convinced the final straw was Sean pushing the issue. Reports of Steele and Greg on same page as of Sunday and he was blindsided yesterday.

I missed it if he got the dreaded "Vote of Confidence" which is often a precursor to the door that swings one way.

[ArizonaXUGrad]

That story came from Steele who lives in fantasyland. The guy thinks he can turn this thing around. It feels very Dumb and Dumber, so you saying there is a chance!

[CP05XU08CU13]

The fact that Steele inherited a team that was a previous #1 seed in the NCAA tournament and could never win 20 or more games in a season is very telling. The program had all the momentum at that time to continue on an upward trajectory. Going from a #1 seed to not making the NCAA tournament was the beginning of the end. Steele went 70-50 overall and 31-37 against Big East play from 2018-22. There is no reason Xavier should ever finish league play below .500 and should never finish lower than 4th or 5th in the league in my opinion. The expectations are not unrealistic. A change had to be made, and I certainly wish Steele all the best wherever he lands next. The right hire needs to be in order to get the program back to where it belongs.

[boozehound]

That story came from Steele who lives in fantasyland. The guy thinks he can turn this thing around. It feels very Dumb and Dumber, so you saying there is a chance!

Yeah, that is 100% the most likely source. The meeting was likely between Steele and Christopher without a whole bunch of other people present, so the accounts of what transpired almost certainly come from one of those two sources.

In reality based on past performance and looking ahead at the roster for next year it seems really hard to believe that next season would have been much better. Maybe they would have started out rough and come together later in the season instead of the opposite, but it's hard to rationally believe that Steele would have been able to make a good case for that.

[xuphan]

I have a feeling that Christopher was set to let Steele finish out the NIT before removing him and going after his top targets (Miller, etc). However, something must have happened Monday night with his top candidate in order to remove Steele after coaching/winning the NIT game the night before. Maybe it was Miller who nudged Christopher that he was being pursued by other university or Christopher was told he needed to act fast to get in the Miller race. It’s the only way to justify the odd timing of Steele being removed.

[Caveat]

I really wonder if that was the final straw. I suspect Steele would still be head coach if not for the appallingly spectacular collapse against Butler. It took the maelstrom so far that it could no longer be ignored.

The final straw was a very influential donor coming forward and saying "This is unacceptable and needs to change, now."

Xavier isn't in a financial position, currently, to lose any of their whales.

[xavbball]

Yesterday, we saw a bold move by the administration that showed that we take our basketball program very seriously. I didn't think they would do it. I'm looking at crow recipes because I'm about to eat many of them.

We learned Steele wasn't getting another year regardless. The plan was to let him finish the NIT, but schools looking for new coaches also realized that Sean (our top target) is low-risk and one of the best candidates available without a buyout. This moved up the hiring process, and we had to let go of Steele.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I’m convinced the final straw was Sean pushing the issue. Reports of Steele and Greg on same page as of Sunday and he was blindsided yesterday.

Which would make Miller the ultimate villain if just using X for leverage. I just can't see this not happening.