Bernard Lagat OUT at Arizona

It’s a shame. Lagat is a Good man, but coaching demands results. Arizona is a tough place to train and recruit. Basically have to do all your runs in the AM.

I don't think that's the case.

From May to September, maybe.

Reported on the same day that four Kenyan recruits are anounced.

Lagat was an embarrassment and failed experiment as a coach. He is a fantastic example of “not all great athletes make great coaches”.

Lagat was brought in hastily to plug the gap when James Li “retired” abruptly amidst multiple massive athlete maltreatment scandals and assistant coach Hannah Peterson disappeared the same week with no formal announcement. Lagat was brought on as a big name to maybe steer the ship back to normalcy and gain US recruiting power. It didn’t work out and the team tanked to horrendously poor showings at Pac12s and more recently Big12s. None of the recruits turned into anything notable and the program shed a significant amount of athletes on a year-over-year basis. Leaving mid-July at least gives time for a new coach to be hired and acquainted before the season starts.

Maybe importing Kenyans will do the trick. But first order of business is finding a new coach. On the positive side, they can’t do much worse. There’s a lot of work to be done in the desert for this program.

This post couldn't be more inaccurate in terms of the actual school year. Training in perfect 70 degree winter weather with a mountain backdrop is pretty sweet.

Tried looking up good riddance's coaching results turns out they didn't exist.

When people say "basically" as a place holder they literally mean "i don't know" basically ;)

You forget about rattlesnakes. More runners die in Tucson due to snake bites than in any other U.S. city.* I do not want to be writhing in pain, foaming at the mouth, dying alone out in the desert.

*I made this up but, due to my fear of snakes, it's a real statistic.

Time for him to fulfill his destiny and annihilate the 50-54 masters records!

There are more rattlesnakes in NYS than AZ

Great

Real statistics show many if not most snakebite deaths go to idiots or rogue adventurers who don't care. Also a few kids.

In 2015, Gilbert De Leon "was bitten on each leg while wading in the James River near Nixa. After the bite, he did not seek medical attention and died the next day. The county coroner stated the cause of death listed on the death certificate states "Undetermined" because De Leon also had a lethal level of the narcotic oxycodone in his system, along with alcohol and a non-lethal level of hydrocodone."

Lagat should quit dodging rattlesnakes and start running again. He could easily demolish every 50-54 age group world record.

LOL. There ARE a lot of rattlesnakes in the suburban part of Tucson, in the country and in the mountains. You have to be watchful in the summer months. But only the Mojave rattler is really aggressive towards people. They are found in the western side of town (Tucson mountains)... the other kinds of rattlers usually stay still and hope you don't step on them. And I suggest you don't.

However, the place with the highest incidence of snakebite in the country is Raleigh, NC.

I had a kid that had broken 9:00 as a junior a few years back when it was slightly less common. He had a brief conversation with Arizona and was told that he was a walk on and that 8:50 was their scholarship standard. He was also told they couldn’t guarantee a spot for him.

Arizona had no concept of who they were as a program. They weren’t bringing in any recruits of that caliber. Of course, they didn’t sign anybody as good as my athlete. Absolute clown show.

They should fly in the magic wizard coach to fast help them out.

Really? The temps are 80 or higher from Mar to Nov. Sorry but did you say "school year?" Don't know about your school but most college runners train in the summer too. There's such a thing called cross country starting in Sept.

weatherspark.com

Arizona Climate, Weather By Month, Average Temperature (United States) - Weather Spark

Open link

Strange that nobody is mentioning Lagat's engagement with Zanzibar and the Element Portal on the rim. I think it suggests his priorities are on the rim of the Indian Ocean, far more than in AZ.

I'll just assume that you don't live here. Desert temps are not like the rest of the country. You can't go based solely on numbers. 80s here is not like 80s elsewhere.

Arizona was always on my list of “sleeping giant” programs as a track team.

Great weather, close to SoCal’s population, attractive to internationals, good in state talent and quality funded JC programs. Travel would be a breeze! Few AZ meets, head to San Diego and LA.

But when you read about the university and athletic department it sounds like a mess. They are out of money, broke, trying to slap an athletic department together. And man have they had some whopper controversies in track

I don’t see any of their sports thriving in the new ncaa.