"A change in leadership in our men's basketball program is in order."
And with that ended the nine year tenure of Mocs Head Basketball Coach John Shulman, parting ways after failing to come to an agreement on a contract extension.
"We were really excited about the signing class that we had, we've got some momentum. With no extension, it'd be very difficult for me to keep that going. It's not fair to me, it's not fair to our players, not fair to our coaches its not fair to our fans and its not fair to our program."
The John Shulman era was full of up and downs. He leaves Chattanooga as the second winningest coach in school history, but a losing record overall. His post season resume is better than any coach in almost 20 years, but his last four seasons saw the Mocs go just 55-74.
"You can remember the NCAA Tournaments in 05 and 09 or the four regular season titles or beating Tennessee, but please remember me as coach who cared, who loves people, I want to make an impact on young people," Shulman said.
A new basketball hire won't be coming any time soon. Chattanooga must still hire a new athletic director, and that won't come until next month at the earliest.
"We think we'll be interviewing candidates in April, we'll go ahead and get the ball rolling on the search announcement. We'll have to leave it up to the new AD to decide on his committee and going through those resumes," said Interim AD Laura Herron.
For now former player Casey Long will serve as interim head coach, but will not be a candidate for the vacancy.
"We lost a good guy that was good to the kids, There's not many coaches in this business that do it the way coach Shulman does it."
As for Shulman, he leaves still with a place in his heart for the Mocs.
"I will be cheering for them, and really look forward to watching them grow because they've got a chance to be really good."
