MBB: Northwest Conference

[Ron Boerger]

Bizarre situation at Linfield, where Shanan Rosenberg may be out as head coach:

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2023/03/linfield-universitys-abrupt-suspension-of-mens-basketball-teams-coach-rose-draws-rebukes-from-players-parents-and-alumni.html

Paywall! Sorry, I could not read it.

Odd, I didn't have any issue (and there's not much there tbh).  Try an incognito window?

[Bearcat Press]

Bizarre situation at Linfield, where Shanan Rosenberg may be out as head coach:

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2023/03/linfield-universitys-abrupt-suspension-of-mens-basketball-teams-coach-rose-draws-rebukes-from-players-parents-and-alumni.html

Paywall! Sorry, I could not read it.

Here's the part of the article with the facts of what happened, such as they are. Again, the whole thing is just very weird:

During a Feb. 18 game against Whitman College, Rosenberg responded to a parent in the stands who was shouting, “Put the seniors in! Put the seniors in!” in the final minute of the team’s final game of the season.

According to other parents sitting behind the team’s bench, the coach turned back and said something like, “Look, if you want to talk to me, talk to me after the game.”

Some people apparently interpreted Rosenberg’s retort as a threat, while others attending the game said he appeared to make clear that he wasn’t going to deal with the criticism during the game. The team’s senior night had been held during a prior Linfield game.

According to Linfield University’s Scott Nelson, an associate vice president for communications, a fan’s video of the Feb. 18 game showed an “angry confrontation” that lasted more than a minute where Rosenberg, at one point, is “gesturing angrily into the crowd” and yelled, “come outside after the game, sir. Let’s have some words then.” Nelson said one of the team’s players put a hand on the coach’s arm, “apparently attempting to defuse the situation.”

Two days later, on Feb. 20, Rosenberg sent a text message to some parents, alerting he’d been suspended and couldn’t talk further about it.

Players and some parents said they tried to talk directly to the university’s athletic director that week, but the director told them it was a personnel matter he couldn’t discuss.

Several parents and some of the players, trailed by two campus security officers, then went to campus on Feb. 24 to try to speak with university President Miles K. Davis, who was in a board meeting. Davis ultimately emerged from the board session and met with the group in a room for about 45 minutes, and they pleaded with him to read a stack of letters of support for the coach and explanations from witnesses of what happened.

Earlier that same day, Rosenberg was brought into a meeting with the university’s human resources interim manager and the athletic director and told he’d be fired on the spot or could take 21 days to consider a proposed severance agreement, according to his lawyer, Crispin.

At 12:25 p.m. that day, the athletic director emailed the basketball team, telling members that the coach’s suspension was “still in place until we have a resolution,” and said he couldn’t share any more information.

“It’s a sad situation that seems to have been taken abruptly with very little warning,” Crispin said. “Certainly, from our perspective, it was not well thought-out. He’s at a loss at what happened and why. We’re seeing what action may be available.”

[swoosh]

The notion that a highly successful coach would be let go on the basis of a 10-20 second (non-profane) back and forth with a parent is ludicrous. The fact that Linfield's leadership can't point to a documented "pattern of behavior" here is the smoking gun = this is about the AD's pettiness and ego, and nothing else.

Gathering from multiple stories, the Linfield leadership are telling on themselves in how they're treating coach Rosenberg. First, an update indicated the coach is prepared to file a damages suit in excess of $2 million against the school if they don't reinstate him:
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2023/03/linfields-suspended-basketball-coach-tells-university-hell-sue-if-he-cant-get-his-job-back.html

There are some remarkable allegations here, including that the school's president made efforts to "fabricate" racial bias allegations against the coach as a pretense for justifying his firing, since the school can't appear to cite any previous conduct issues.

This is not the first time the Linfield's leadership has fired staff/faculty on legally dubious grounds, as they're currently on the hook for over $1 million to a former professor who was fired without cause: https://www.thefire.org/news/update-linfield-university-will-pay-professor-more-1-million-after-firing-him-criticizing

The article above points out that the president and other University staff were foolish enough to give interviews that clearly demonstrated they didn't understand tenure or "cause" at all, and effectively fired the professor for speaking out against a former trustee who faces 8 criminal counts of sexual abuse against a student.

It seems clear the same is happening to coach Rose. The school's own newspaper probably has the most compelling detail on the whole affair:
https://thelinfieldreview.com/32432/sports/coach-rosenberg-suspended-after-altercation-during-season-finale/

The squirrelly behavior of the AD as described in the school newspaper article appears to validate the theory that this is personal grudge vs. a personnel decision. The exodus of so many staff from Linfield athletics (particularly women) is also worth noting, and is certainly a vote for the AD's toxicity.

All in all, I think it's clear a change in leadership is needed at Linfield... but not in the basketball program.

[Jack Parkman]

Saying that players do not choose a school because of the coach is wildly irresponsible. I would think a very large percentage of the reason a player chooses a school is due to the coach.

[criswyly]

Something is not right here.  Jack is right.

[Bearcat Press]

Change (finally) in Salem, with Kip Ioane out after 14 years and a record of 85-243 overall, 49-163 in the NWC. Willamette hasn't issued a statement, but it looks like Kip tweeted about it last week:

https://twitter.com/KipIoane/status/1646308852164620288

Longtime local sportscaster Mark Gilman also has a brief writeup about it on his Substack:

https://markgilman.substack.com/p/bits-and-pieces-mid-april-edition

I have never bought the excuse that Willamette's academic standards mean we can't field a competitive men's basketball team--especially when Whitman, UPS, and Lewis & Clark manage to do just that every year. I don't think anybody expects the Bearcats to compete for national titles the way we did in the 90s, but there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to have a team that consistently finishes in the top half of the NWC.

[catmac567]

Linfield has named Levi Sieg as the next men's basketball coach.  He has been a member of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps coaching staff for the past 15 years.  He is a native of Monmouth, Oregon and graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2000.

He is coming into a difficult situation at Linfield, trying to heal a program after a very nasty termination of Coach Rosenberg. I wish him well, but I hope he knows what he is getting into.  I would not work for either President Miles Davis or Athletic Director Garry Killgore.  I think both of them should be fired.

[Bearcat Press]

Change (finally) in Salem, with Kip Ioane out after 14 years and a record of 85-243 overall, 49-163 in the NWC. Willamette hasn't issued a statement, but it looks like Kip tweeted about it last week:

https://twitter.com/KipIoane/status/1646308852164620288

Longtime local sportscaster Mark Gilman also has a brief writeup about it on his Substack:

https://markgilman.substack.com/p/bits-and-pieces-mid-april-edition

I have never bought the excuse that Willamette's academic standards mean we can't field a competitive men's basketball team--especially when Whitman, UPS, and Lewis & Clark manage to do just that every year. I don't think anybody expects the Bearcats to compete for national titles the way we did in the 90s, but there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to have a team that consistently finishes in the top half of the NWC.

And 30 days later, Willamette announces Bard head coach Michael Lenahan as the new hire:

https://wubearcats.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/releases/20230519mo8jvs

Before spending the last two years at Bard, Coach Lenahan was a Bridgeland assistant at both Whitman and Redlands, sandwiched around a stint at UC-Irvine.  Here's hoping he can get Bearcat Hoop back on track!

[Greek Tragedy]

https://twitter.com/VerbalCommits/status/1669542612280414208?t=1a4xmltL2TnqdAPVtQof5g&s=19

Xzavier Lino from Whitman transferring to UMass Lowell.