Whipped Cream Difficulties

Gersson Rosas out as “President of Basketball Operations” for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Throughout the past few months there has been growing discord and strained relationships among Rosas, the front office and the rest of the organization, sources said. Sources also said Rosas’ recent actions involving a female employee of the team played a role in the decision and the timing of it. The woman is no longer with the team as of Wednesday.

(Hattip: Lawrence.)

Well, how about that?

We have our first college football firing, two games into the season.

Clay Helton out at the University of Southern California.

The precipitating incident seems to have been losing to Stanford on Saturday. Helton was 46-24 overall. But his record since 2018 was 19-15, and apparently the usual suspects (boosters) felt like they were consistently underperforming.

Interesting note: Ivan Jasper is going to coach quarterbacks for Navy. Why is this interesting? Jasper was fired as offensive coordinator on Saturday, but Navy’s head coach (Ken Niumatalolo) persuaded the athletic director (Chet Gladchuk) to re-instate him.

Also fired: assistant Billy Ray Stutzmann, who is being let go after his request for a religious exemption to getting the COVID vaccine was rejected.

Scott Brooks out as head coach of the Washington Wizards, though this is being presented as an inability to negotiate a new contract instead of a firing.

He was 183-207 over five years. The Wizards actually made the playoffs this year:

The short postseason run, which marked a return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season, was viewed within the organization as a triumph. Nearly everyone around the NBA had counted out Washington after injuries and a coronavirus outbreak within the roster forced the team to pause its season for nearly two weeks in January. But behind Russell Westbrook’s late-season explosion, Bradley Beal’s consistently impressive scoring and improved team defense, the Wizards closed the regular season with a 17-6 record and came out of the league’s inaugural play-in tournament to clinch the eighth seed in the playoffs.

They lost in the first round to Philadelphia.

Stan Van Gundy out as coach of the New Orleans Pelicans after a single season.

The decision came on the heels of a disappointing 31-41 season in which Van Gundy failed to turn around New Orleans’ defense and struggled to connect with a roster full of players who are in their early 20s.

…

New Orleans’ inability to close games was another of its other defining features. It lost an NBA-most 14 games when it had a double-digit lead.
Perhaps the most frustrating late-game meltdown came in April against the New York Knicks. The Pelicans led by three points with 7.8 seconds remaining. Van Gundy instructed his team in a timeout to intentionally foul, but veteran guard Eric Bledsoe failed to. Knicks forward Reggie Bullock tied the game with a corner 3, and the Knicks won in overtime.

…you shouldn’t send “explicit texts” to a reporter. Actually, you probably shouldn’t send explicit texts to anybody, no matter who you are, and even if they are consensual (as they will come back to haunt you) but especially if you’re in a high ranking organizational position.

Jared Porter out as general manager of the Mets.

Porter, who was hired by Mets team president Sandy Alderson this offseason, sent the texts to a foreign female reporter in 2016 when he was running the Cubs scouting department.
The texts included a photo of a bulge in Porter’s pants while he was laying in bed and an erect penis. At one point Porter sent 62 consecutive texts to the reporter without a response.
“The more explicit ones are not of me. Those are like, kinda like joke-stock images,” Porter told ESPN after acknowledging sending the texts.

Jeremy Pruitt out as head coach in Tennessee.

Additionally, Phil Fulmer is “retiring” as athletic director. The Tennessean claims his retirement is unrelated to Pruitt’s firing, but I’m skeptical.

Pruitt’s record was 16-19 in three seasons, and 3-7 this year. The team lost seven of their last eight games by double-digit margins.

But the major issue is that Pruitt is entangled in a messy recruiting scandal.

Pruitt’s exit comes on the heels of Tennessee launching an in-house investigation dating back to November into alleged recruiting improprieties that sources told ESPN centered in part on extra benefits provided to football recruits on unofficial visits. Pruitt, with his attorneys present, met with investigators for several hours Thursday. That meeting was monitored by NCAA officials via Zoom. At least one other assistant, inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, had a lengthy meeting with investigators Wednesday, also with his attorneys present and NCAA officials monitoring virtually.

Edited to add: Mike the Musicologist sent over a report that outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton and inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer have also been fired. An updated report from ESPN also indicates that unnamed others have been let go as well. And all of these firings (including Pruitt’s) are being reported as “for cause”, which means no contract buyout.

…has rolled.

Tom Herman out as UT head coach.

Herman was 32-18 in four seasons at Texas and has not won any Big 12 championships. The Longhorns have made only one appearance in the title game. That came in 2018 during UT’s 10-4 season that ended with a win over No. 6 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
But that season has become the exception rather than the norm under Herman. He was 9-10 against top-25 opponents and 1-4 against rival Oklahoma. That’s not anywhere close to the success UT officials expected when the school hired Herman away from Houston in November 2016.

Gus Malzahn out at Auburn after a 6-4 season.

Malzahn finishes his Auburn tenure with a 67-33 overall record, a national coach of the year award, two SEC West titles, one SEC championship, a national runner-up finish and two New Year’s Six bowl berths. He had only a 2-5 record in bowl games, with wins against Memphis in the 2015 Birmingham Bowl and Purdue in the 2018 Music City Bowl.

But they got stomped this season by Alabama, Texas A&M, and Georgia, and also lost to South Carolina.

Malzahn’s seven-year contract, which he agreed to and signed in December 2017 after leading Auburn to an SEC West title, included 75 percent of the deal’s value fully guaranteed. His buyout, as of this month, is $21,450,000, with 50 percent of that owed within 30 days of his termination and the remainder paid in four equal annual installments.

Lovie Smith gone at Illinois. 17-39 over five years, and 2-5 this season.

Kevin Sumlin out at Arizona. The precipitating event seems to have been a 70-7 loss to Arizona State Friday night, but he was 9-20 overall (in a little more than two seasons) and Arizona has lost 12 straight games.

Derek Mason out as head coach at Vanderbilt.

The team is 0-8 this season, and Mason was 27-55 in approximately six seasons.