Method Man said:
He wasn't in a corner, though. A lot of head coaches are primadonnas. He was the talent. Not Byrne. Yes. Nothing is ever 100% someone's fault when egos are involved. If the guy who gets you in the top 10 calls, you take it. Look at Donovan. He was rumored to take UK job and then got cold feet and went back to Florida. Imagine being so proud you put that over the success of your program.
BCG wasn't honest with him about the Arkansas job, and he wasn't honest with him about the Kentucky job. Then the guy calls from the campus of UK wanting to come back. WAs it another play for more money or another basketball facility? Don;t act like what Byrne did was out of left field. Yeah, I think he should have taken the call, but if you are Byrne and you already have Turgeon's agent on the line, do you jeopardize that deal for a guy that has been very volatile and not honest with you....and he had been volatile long before the Arkansas/UK opportunities came around. BCG was a bit nuts. That's what made him so great as a coach, but it also made him a nightmare of an employee. Yeah, Byrne should have dealt with it because BCG was getting results...but there were issues.
I'm not saying what BCG did was wrong. He did what many of these coaches do. They play both sides for more money and more facilities. But at some point an AD has to take that into consideration. Does BCG come back home and then starts into the same schtick? I'm not defending Byrne because he owed it to all of us to take BCG's call at the very least. But I'm not going to say Byrne was without ANY merit to tell BCG to stay at UK.
As we've seen since he took the UK job, BCG was out of control and not stable. We all assume that BCG would have continued to create 2007-caliber teams had he stayed at A&M, but there was a good chance he was going to lose it whether he was at A&M, UK, Tech, or Ranger.