On opposite coasts, the stop-start basketball coaching searches at UCLA and St. John's showed themselves as awkward, bumbling and, most important, revealing two once-proud programs as residing in the past.
The Westwood home of John Wooden, having ousted Steve Alford in December, ran afoul of the massive contracts of John Calipari, Jamie Dixon and Rick Barnes.
The latter offered a shocking display of honesty by acknowledging that, yes, he would have abandoned Tennessee but for his buyout.
UCLA settled on Cincinnati's non-sexy Mick Cronin.
Meanwhile Chris Mullin, having relied on his "heart and guts" to step down at St.