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Tulsa’s timing for firing Doug Wojcik perfectly planned

dougwojik

Mike Miller

When’s the best time for a school to fire a coach with the most wins in school history? An hour before the NCAA tournament field is announced.

Tulsa axed Doug Wojcik on Sunday, expressing the move as a business decision as much as anything else.

“Since 2005, we have seen a 35 percent decrease in season-ticket sales, a 43 percent decrease in revenue and rapidly growing apathy among our fan base,” interim athletic director Ross Parmley said. “Basketball is expected to be a revenue-producing sport and a marquee sport at The University of Tulsa.

“A change in leadership was necessary.”

Wojcik was 140-92 in seven seasons at Tulsa and only had one losing season. But the Golden Hurricanes never made the NCAA tournament during his tenure and were just 36-27 in the last two years. His teams came close, twice reaching the Conference USA title game, but losing both times to Memphis.

(Not that losing to the Tigers in ’08 and ’09 was surprising. Everyone in C-USA lost to the Tigers in those days.)

Wojcik probably was set up to fail. When a school has recent memories of Tubby Smith and Bill Self winning NCAA tournament games, that’s what expectations will be.

You also can follow me on Twitter @MikeMillerNBC.