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Here is the latest buzz on Twitter: coach Blaine Taylor is no longer in charge at Old Dominion.
#odu has scheduled press conference for today to announce departure of coach Blaine Taylor, per source.
— Ed Miller (@edmillervp) February 5, 2013
The news came as a shock to almost everyone that has followed the Monarchs, especially since they were on the verge of moving up to Conference USA next season. Taylor contract with the team runs through the end of 2015, so this wasn't even a "you will be gone in a couple of months, we want to start looking now" kind of thing.
David Teel at the Daily Press was similarly shocked by the rumor as he had been told specifically that Taylor was safe.
Two weeks ago, #ODU AD Wood Selig told me hoops coach Blaine Taylor was "totally safe." Question is, what happened?
— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) February 5, 2013
He added that players he spoke to were unaware of the situation and had not yet been informed of anything related to Taylor's departure.
Entering this season, Taylor was 237-124 as the coach of the Monarchs. Obviously things haven't gone as planned this year, and Old Dominion is just 2-20 and winless in the Colonial in their final season.
But the biggest thing to keep in mind is that this is the anomaly. As Yahoo!'s Jeff Eisenberg pointed out:
If ODU news is true, I'm a bit surprised. Taylor made eight straight postseason appearances before this meltdown and earned four NCAA bids.
— Jeff Eisenberg (@JeffEisenberg) February 5, 2013
That string also includes and NIT Final Four and a CIT Championship. As Teel speculated, this can't be related to performance this season. Something else must have happened.