I think there is a 50% chance it is Lindsay and a 50% chance it is someone else. Here is an article I found on Lindsay
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www.recordpub.com/news/sports_article/5169045?page=0When Kent State athletic director Joel Nielsen announced on Wednesday he had decided not to renew Bob Lindsay’s contract after 23 seasons as the Golden Flashes’ women’s basketball coach, it sent shock waves through the Mid-American Conference.
No men’s or women’s MAC coach has won more games than Lindsay.
So, when the dean of the league’s coaches lost his job, it was only natural for phones to start ringing off the hook with coaches calling their colleagues to discuss their surprise, their sadness and even their own fears.
“My initial reaction was shock and disappointment,” said Bowling Green women’s basketball coach Curt Miller, a former member of Lindsay’s staff who has always credited the now-former KSU coach for helping him get his start. “The thing that is so impressive during coach Lindsay’s tenure is his sustained excellence. It’s very hard to sustain the amount of success he’s had year after year over two decades. And to sustain it without any real drop-off is even more incredible at the mid-major level.”
Like Miller, University of Akron coach Jodi Kest’s relationship with Lindsay dates back almost two decades. As an assistant at Cleveland State and then as a head coach at Gannon University in the 1990s, she was invited to Kent to watch Lindsay’s practices and then “talk X’s and O’s.”
“There is a great bond at all levels in this profession we are blessed to be in,” said Kest. “It’s a fraternity, and any time another coach is not renewed we are all disappointed and sad. I’m obviously very disappointed and sad, because coach Lindsay has been very good to me.”
According to Miller, all of the league’s coaches owe Lindsay a debt of gratitude when they consider what the former KSU coach accomplished by championing their causes at the annual MAC meetings.
“He was a visionary when it came to getting good contracts and good salaries for MAC coaches,” said Miller. “He fought for them because he knew that as salaries increased we’d get better and better coaches because we’d be more attractive to quality coaches. He was also a big proponent of fighting for television rights for women’s basketball before it was popular, and he was one of the first coaches in the room to talk about RPI and strength of schedule before those became buzz words. He challenged programs to improve. He was a champion and a pioneer.
“He has done so much for the growth of MAC women’s basketball. We still have growth to go, but we certainly wouldn’t be in the position we are in right now without him.”
When Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop learned Lindsay’s days at KSU were over, she found a difficult time imagining a trip to play Kent without the sight of Lindsay stalking the M.A.C. Center sideline.
“It’s going to be sad not seeing him at Kent State,” said Cullop. “When I think of Kent State, I think of Bob Lindsay. I had heard rumors (during the season) that this might be his last year, that they might do something. But until now, it wasn’t something I thought for sure would happen. I feel for Bob and for (KSU associate head coach) Lori Bodnar because they have done such a great job. They know the game backwards and forwards. There are not a lot of coaches who can show the body of work Bob and his staff have.”
Lindsay’s record is well known. It includes 418 wins, a winning percentage of nearly 70-percent against MAC opponents, 13 seasons of 20-plus wins, four NCAA Tournament berths and three WNIT appearances.
“Just two years ago, with a senior team, he won 20-plus games with a WNIT bid,” said Miller. “In a one-bid league (to the NCAA Tournament) that’s a huge indicator of how good a season you’ve had. I’m disappointed for our league, and I’m disappointed for Bob personally. MAC basketball is where it is because he raised the bar. We had to find ways to make our own programs better because his program was always so good.”
Unfortunately, after going 6-21 overall and 5-11 in MAC play with a young and injury-riddled team this past season, KSU wasn’t willing to see if Lindsay could rebound in 2012-13 the way he did just five years ago after his only other single-digit-win finish in the last 21 years. When those Flashes finished 9-21 with similar roster issues in 2007-08, they responded with a 19-10 record the next year. From there they continued the improvement with back-to-back 20-win campaigns and WNIT berths.
“Some years, Bob has had so many injured players and you think he’s not going to win as many games,” said Kest. “But he always gets his kids to play hard, I watch a lot of basketball and see a lot of tapes, and he is one of the best coaches and best teachers of the game out there. He would make some great in-game adjustments.”
Lindsay was also known for his in-season adjustments. When injuries savaged his roster in 2002-03, he rode his best five healthy players and relied on playing a variety of zones despite his preference over the years for man-to-man defense. That team finished just 16-13 overall, but managed to win the MAC’s East Division with a 10-6 mark because Lindsay and his players simply found a way.
The Flashes didn’t enjoy the same success this season when a combination of injuries and offseason player defections led to a young, thin and vertically-challenged roster with no realistic chance of competing in the East.
But that didn’t keep Lindsay from trying. In an attempt to make the most of what little he had, he turned to a Princeton-style offense for the first time. Lindsay also hit the recruiting trail. He liked the talent he was prepared to add with his 2012 recruiting class and believed those newcomers combined with some of this year’s six freshmen would create the nucleus of the next Kent State contender.
Now Lindsay will never know if this year’s step backwards would have led to two steps forward next season, and that frustrates his colleagues who believe one losing campaign shouldn’t have robbed him of the chance to try to rebuild.
“Coach Lindsay is a person who earned the right to go out on his own terms,” said Miller.
That thought is what sends chills down the spines of Miller and others in the profession.
“I think the initial reaction amongst coaches to (KSU’s decision) is once again it reconfirms we are all going to get fired some day,” said Miller. “Most of us won’t leave on our own terms.”
