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Delaware situation continues to deteriorate

5928_delaware_blue_hens-alternate-2009

May should be a time of relative relaxation for most college programs. Other than trying to add a piece or two here and there via transfer or late signee and waiting for your players to make their final NBA Draft decisions, there’s not a whole lot of immediate, pressing issues for most programs. It’s about patching holes and looking forward, mostly.

Unless of course, you don’t really have a program, which is the case currently at Delaware.

With the decision of Maurice Jeffers to graduate and transfer, the Blue Hens are down to four scholarship players for the 2016-17 season. They also don’t have a coach.

Yes, it’s May 10th and the University of Delaware hasn’t found a suitable or willing candidate to take the reins of their men’s basketball program.

Monte Ross’ 10-year tenure with Delaware ended nearly two months ago, but there’s still no one in place as head coach. The school hasn’t even gotten around to removing Ross from the coaches page on its website.

Point guard Kory Holden bolted for South Carolina, taking his 17.7 points per game with him, Chivarsky Corbett jumped to UT-San Antonio and Skye Johnson, Eric Carter and Cazmon Hayes also asked for releases.

The Hens have already punted on one of the most important offseason months on the calendar, April (home of two live recruiting periods), and it’s hard to see a coach getting hired now and being able to take anything other than castoffs or players better suited for a lower level just to field a roster for next season. That’s assuming, of course, Delaware does eventually hire a coach.

Likely complicating matters is that Delaware does not have a full-time athletic director, with Matthew Robinson currently serving in an interim capacity after Eric Ziady stepped down in December. Coaches can always replenish a depleted roster, even one as barren as Delaware’s, but nothing makes prospective candidates more leery of a situation than an unsure future of the person who hires them.

In the big picture, it’s more important for Delaware to hire the right person, even if it means sacrificing the short-term, but it’s not a stretch to imagine the handling of the present is doing real damage to the future, whoever the Hens hire.