ESPN and other sources are reporting that Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady is on his way to San Francisco.
I’m torn on this. I have the utmost respect for Gene Keady and everything he has done for Purdue. Winning basketball games isn’t everything (although Gene has won over 500) and many of his former players credit him not only for their success on the court, but off the court too. Gene represents everything that is good and right about college athletics.
That said, Gene is 67 and my read on Gene is that he may never go quietly into the sunset on his own. He’ll always want to try one more time, one more season. High school kids sign up to play for a coach for 4 years. Uncetainty in the coaching position will kill recruiting.
It may be a win-win scenario for him to leave now and coach out his last few years somewhere with less pressure. It sort of reminds me of the Lefty Driesell situation. Older, legendary coach wanted to coach a few more years but wasn’t a good fit for any major program. He ended up at Georgia State due to a family connection, and rebuilt the program from the worst in Div 1A, and took them to the tourney for the first time ever.
