so close to, decided to retire for medical reasons and he didn t talk to you about it directly. he just made the announcement. i remember i was walking to my dorm, and i got a text saying man, i heard your coach is retiring. i m like, what? i was like, no, you re lying, rumors. it was a tough time too, because the program was going through a lot. the ncaa didn t let you guys play in last year s tournament because the academic threshold that the program had reached wasn t up to the right standards. so a lot of players said you know what? coach is leaving, can t play in the ncaa tournament. you had players transfer and leave early for the nba. what conversations did you have about all that? in the beginning, i didn t know what was going on. i was definite lly flustered. what role did your promise to your mom play in that decision? it played a lot. the least i could do is keep my promise to my mom, make my mom