And he's gone!

(To keep things from getting out of hand, I compiled all the small comments about Snyder's firing into one post so it is easier to follow... that is, news at the top, commentary at the bottom)

Snyder Steps Down At Missouri

"Quin Snyder's up-and-down tenure at Missouri is over. ESPN has learned that Snyder has resigned as men's basketball coach after six-plus seasons. Assistant coach Melvin Watkins will take over the 10-11 squad. "

-This according to ESPN.com. Time of death for Quin's career: 4:21 p.m. CST

According to Mike DeArmond of the KC Star, Quin resigned after the athletic department told him that he would be fired at the end of the season. I'm sure you can picture this: Mike Alden calls Quin into his office, sits him down for a talk, tells him they've had to make a difficult decisions, etc. But that's apparently not how it went down. Alden apparently sent Gary Link to tell Quin the bad news. Yes, "Special Assistant to the Athletic Director" Gary Link had to do it. I'd make a joke here, but I think sending your radio color commentator to fire your head coach speaks for itself.

Not surprisingly, the AD is denying that it happened this way. They say Q's resignation came as a complete surprise to them. This is classic Athletic Department insanity... they find a way to screw up even when they finally do something right for a change.

Born-a-Tiger's take:

So finally, at long last, Quin Snyder realizes:
1) He sucks at basketball coaching
2) He needs to do the honorable thing and resign... keep your eyes peeled, ladies and gentlemen, for a lowlight reel of Quin's tenure as the Mizzou head coach. We'll pop it on sometime in the coming days.

Tiger Fan's take:

So much for finishing the year. Apparently he didn't want to sit through the All-Century celebration either. Whatever the reason, the wicked witch is finally dead!

In all seriousness, I wish Snyder all the best, but it's time for him to go. He seems like a nice guy and a good recruiter, but he is a terrible basketball coach and he ran our program into the ground. Hopefully Watkins can start turning things around as the team finishes out the year and whoever comes in next year can pick up where he left off. The team certainly can't play any worse than it has in the last six games.

The thing to watch over the next few days is how this affects the team's personnel. Will Gardner and Horton really leave? Will any of our recruits bail? These questions are left to be answered... but whatever the immediate impact, it's a better situation in the long run. It's about time. Now let's start rebuilding this program!

(In fairness, Rocky Mountain Tiger won the "Quin Snyder is gone" race by 2 minutes, but I folded his information into this post. In fact, all major contributors managed to weigh in within 10 minutes of the announcment... which is somewhat crazy.)

And just to clarify...
While TigerFan and Rocky Mountain Tiger are good people and wish Quin Snyder well, Born-a-Tiger would like it to be known that he doesn't wish Quin well. In fact, Born-a-Tiger would like it to be known that he hopes Quin is sucked into a black hole, much like he has sucked the MU basketball program into a black hole.

Yes, he realizes he's a bitter, evil person, but he's OK with that. I hope you are too...