Bottom line, Linda Wunder didn’t get the job done when it comes to wins. Nobody can really argue with that and nobody probably will.

Fact – Linda Wunder lost 101 games in five years at Eastern and significant improvement wasn’t being made in the program. Nothing wrong with that logic. Wunder’s high for wins in a season at Eastern was eight and it’s not exactly too much for expectations to include a double-digit win total.

The team failed to qualify for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the first time in school history which has to be perceived as unacceptable. No problem there.

Maybe it was time for a change in the program and maybe a gem will be found during the search process. The concerns don’t involve the final decision but the timetable of events that occurred before Monday’s announcement is what it troublesome.

The problem is how the situation was dealt with by director of athletics Rich McDuffie.

McDuffie confirmed Monday that he knew he was not going to renew Wunder’s contract two weeks ago. Therefore, the coaches knew of the impending consequence and more importantly, the players knew they were playing for a lame duck coach.

One problem with that – the team was still in contention for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Chances are, it probably wasn’t the best time to make such decision in the program during one of the most crucial periods of the season for the Panthers.

The motivation of making postseason play suddenly goes away when the players understand that they are essentially playing for a coach that won’t be returning next year.

What’s the point in going to a practice and listening to a coach that won’t be in Charleston next year? These had to been thoughts going through the heads of Eastern players at least part of the time.

One would like to think this group would give a better effort during a two-game road stretch where they controlled their own destiny on whether or not they’d still be playing now. However, one can understand the perception that a player could’ve come to that is similar to “well, no matter what we do, coach Wunder won’t be around next season so who cares?”

I would like to think that McDuffie was trying to do the fair and honest thing with Wunder by informing her as soon as possible of his decision but for argument sake, the decision didn’t have to be made that early.

What if Eastern made it in the OVC Tournament? How far did Wunder need to go to save her job? Apparently, McDuffie had his mind made up before we even crossed that bridge.

I can understand the position McDuffie was put into a lose-lose situation when he finalized his decision but for the 2003-2004 season wasn’t sealed until the final game of the season. It’s not out of consideration to expect McDuffie to handle a delicate situation a little better especially when it could’ve affected the end of this season in a big way.