From Memphis Roar: Resist the Urge (On Will Coleman and Darnell Dodson)

Resist the Urge
Posted by Memphis Roar On April - 14 - 2009
http://memphisroar.com/2009/04/resist-the-urge/

Picture - Will Coleman #14

Anyone who tries to tell you that being a Memphis basketball fan right now is easy as pie is flat out lying to you. Well, after an interesting conversation last night, it is becoming increasingly harder to find a glimmer of hope in all of this Post-Calipari Era rubble. Prior to the ring of my telephone at 11pm last night, I felt comfortable saying that there was a good chance that Memphis had a chance in retaining signed 2009 players Darnell Dodson and Will Coleman from Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC).

Part of what has made this an up in the air topic has been the lack of public response to the Pastner hiring by the two players from MDCC. Roar has attempted on several occasions to contact Darnell Dodson, only to not receive a returned phone call or text message. In addition, Will Coleman is currently playing in Europe for the USA Elite team in FIBA pool play competition.

According to sources that Roar spoke with last week, it was merely a matter of time before Matt Eisele, head coach at MDCC, would be hired onto Josh Pastner’s staff. Sources said that it was a matter of figuring out “at what spot” and not a matter of yes or no. With the potential of Eisele’s hire, it was speculated that this move was done in an attempt to salvage the duo of Dodson and Coleman.

After last night’s conversation, it has become glaringly obvious that the new slogan for next year needs to be “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best”. The confidence from our sources regarding the retention of Dodson and Coleman has gone down significantly. In addition, one of Roar’s sources has said that close family members of each of the two players have expressed concerns and potentially would like out of their National Letters of Intent. No formal process to request the releases has been initiated as of today, but that’s not to say that it won’t.

According to Dan Wolken on The Memphis Edge, he believes that there is a good possibility that John Calipari may be or will be involved with these two if this does indeed happen.

“The question now is whether John Calipari would try to get involved (or if he already is). The answer is most likely yes. What Calipari has been telling people close to him is that he is worried he might win 15 or 16 games at Kentucky next year after seeing the lack of talent in that program. Whether he really believes that or not, he’s clearly laying the groundwork for a player-grab, even if it comes at the expense of his former assistant.”

So here’s the deal. As a Memphis fan, you MUST resist the urge to let this eat you up. Remain positive. We debated putting up an article on this mainly because there is such a need for positive press for Memphis basketball right now, and this is only the opposite. This is far from over. You can bet that Pastner will be fighting like heck to try to keep these two guys. If they leave, it had nothing to do with Pastner. If they stay, it had EVERYTHING to do with him.

* To add an interesting side-note to this story, Gary Parrish of CBS Sports reported this morning on his weekly radio spot that he has been told from industry sources that Calipari is actively recruiting Darnell Dodson and Will Coleman to the University of Kentucky. Remember, both of these guys are still signed with the University of Memphis. No release has been granted on these guys.