“I’m trying to say goodbye, but I don’t know how.”
For decades, Coles has been the face, the heart and the beloved champion of Miami basketball. He was a star player here in the 1960s, scoring 1,096 points in just three seasons, and now, in his 16th season at the helm, he’s the winningest head coach in the program’s history.
He’s also 70, has had a series of health scares and this season — in the last year of a two-year contract — he’s endured a nightmare campaign, mostly because he lost three of his top players for the season, two to injury, one to dismissal.
And then Saturday afternoon, Julian Mavunga, the RedHawks star and the top scorer and rebounder in the Mid-American Conference, ended up hobbled early in the second half and spent part of the stanza on the bench and the rest of it limping up and down the court.
The 20 losses in 29 games this season — the second-most defeats in the program’s 106-year history — left Coles shaking his head:
“I’m winding things down. I don’t know what’s gonna happen here, but it ain’t going the way I wanted it to fellas.”
Although he didn’t say it, I am sure this was the last game he’ll coach at Millett Hall.
The RedHawks still have the MAC tournament, but they’ll be on the road for their first-round game.
Although Coles said he has had some heartfelt talks with Brad Bates recently, the Miami athletics director would only say, “We’ll make an appropriate announcement after the season, when it’s in the best interests of the program. That’s all I can say now.”
It’s what he didn’t say that resonated. He didn’t say Coles, who had hinted earlier this season this was it, had changed his mind and wanted to return next season.
Delores Coles, Charlie’s wife, said she would like to see him end on a better note — “This is what he knows and has always loved doing” — but she said the decision rests with him and he might not want to go through another year.
In private, Coles admitted he had wrestled with the decision: “This is 47 years coming to an end and the thing is I know is that I’m not taking anybody with me. I’m jumping out of the car solo.”
Earlier, as he’d opened his postgame press conference, he hinted that jump is a bit traumatic: “Good Ol’ Charlie is almost crazy now ... I don’t think I’m gonna run my car over a cliff. I don’t think I’m gonna shoot somebody, but am I gonna raise my voice? Oh yeah. I’ve probably had about 25 arguments with 20 different people in the last two weeks.”
And as he explained later: “The way the season is going, there’s a sense of urgency I’m feeling, but I think no one else is. And that’s probably just selfishness on my part, but that’s what’s got me in the rage.
“My wife and I get along so well, but in the last three weeks she’d probably tell you I’ve raised my voice three more times than I have in 20 years. And the other night coming home from Bowling Green (and another loss) I about had a revolt on the bus. I didn’t want the guys to eat their sandwiches for 20 miles. I wanted to exercise some discipline. But when I got on the bus, three-quarters of them had already eaten. So I clashed with players — that’s never happened on the bus.”
On the court Saturday that feistiness surfaced twice in the second half when he got into minor tiffs — “a real set-to” he called them — with associate head coach and longtime pal Jermaine Henderson.
With just under 12 minutes left, Coles had gravitated to midcourt in front of the scorer’s table to glare at an official and Henderson tried to coax him back to the bench.
“I said, ‘You’re at the scorer’s table, coach. You look like you’re about ready to check in,’ ” Henderson said.
Coles swatted his hand away and offered a reprimand.
Late in the game, as Coles was standing in front of the bench, Henderson tried to get him to sit down. He was afraid he might get bowled over by a player.
Henderson has coached with Coles for 14 years and played for him before that. He knows of all the health issues — the two heart attacks, two bypass surgeries and the recent medication scare that hospitalized the head coach and caused him to miss the Buffalo game — and was just looking out for his boss.
But don’t anybody try to paint Coles as some kindly grandfather — although he is that — ready to be guided to the sidelines.
He has the fire and the competitiveness that fueled him through a career that included 662 games as a college head coach at Central Michigan and Miami (355-307), seven postseason bids with the RedHawks, including a Sweet 16 run in the NCAA tournament, enshrinements in numerous halls of fame and the prestigious National Association of Basketball Coaches’ “Guardian of the Game” award last year.
Even the OU players recognized that basketball savvy and spunk — but for a couple of key plays down the stretch, Miami may have stolen the victory — and afterward several Bobcats sought Coles out and hugged him.
Afterward, though, the Miami coach cut some of the sentiment with a bit of salt as he veered from his tiff with Henderson to the reason he was on the court and a critique of referees.
“Ooh, ooh, I’m gonna get in trouble,” he grinned. “Tell you what they can do. They can suspend me for a year — that’d be a good one, wouldn’t it? Suspend me for the year ... starting next year.”
Once again, he said it every way he could ... except straight out.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2156 or tarchdeacon@ DaytonDailyNews.com.
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