I’ll admit, I was caught a little by surprise when Seth Curry made his announcement that he would be transferring after one year at Liberty. Don’t get me wrong. I had the impression that Curry was unhappy with a number of things here, especially during the final month of the season. The increasingly physical play, the grabbing and clutching every time he came off a screen, the pressure of being THE man, all the time. It all wore on him. But honestly didn’t expect the story to end with Curry transferring the day after the season ended. But I had a quite awkward conversation with Seth’s father, Dell, Monday night after Liberty lost to James Madison in the quarterfinals of the CIT. I was trying to gather information for a season wrap-up story, so I asked Dell what kind of advice he had given brother Stephen between his freshman and sophomore years. After one year, it was clear Davidson would build its offense around Stephen, and that opposing defenses in the Southern Conference would do everything possible to gear their defenses toward stopping Stephen.

So how did Stephen adapt and evolve? Seemed like a natural question, seeing as Seth and Stephen were in similar situations. Dell’s response was vague and distant, pretty much like he knew a bombshell was about to drop the next day. He just didn’t want to say anything then.

The whole thing moved along quickly. If Liberty’s players knew Seth was on his way out Monday, they didn’t let on to the fact, at least not publicly. By Tuesday morning, Seth made his decision, informed Ritchie McKay, and McKay informed the team. Then it was over. And McKay was ready to move on, mostly because he had to. The end of March and the beginning of April are big recruiting times, and McKay and his staff had no time to mope or cry about Curry’s departure.

The Curry transfer has led to a lot of questions about Liberty basketball, and the fact that three starters have now left the program in two years has opened a ton of questions about McKay. Some of the more common questions and conceptions:

Curry’s departure is a crushing blow to Flames basketball

Not necessarily. On a national stage, yes, it’s very true. The only time Liberty basketball will be mentioned in national media outlets will be as a postscript to whereever Curry ends up, as in “Curry, the former Liberty guard.“ So in that way, Curry transferring is a tough blow, perception wise. But basketball wise? Not true at all. I spoke with LU assistant coach Jason Eaker Tuesday, and his point was simple: “Can we still win the Big South?“ And let’s be honest, that has to be the No. 1 goal for any team in the league, because it’s likely the only access point to the NCAA tournament. In 25 years of basketball, only one team—the Winthrop team two years ago that beat Notre Dame in the tournament—could lay a legitimate claim to an at-large berth. Without Curry, can Liberty win the Big South? The Flames will be in the mix, for sure. There’s enough coming back to compete with the talent in the league. Radford will be the unquestioned pick to win the conference next year, and several coaches have told me Winthrop has the most talent of anyone in the league. So you can bet the Eagles will be better, especially if they can start shooting the ball consistently. Now will LU have a 20-point-a-game scorer next year? Probably not. But as Winthrop has proved in the past, you don’t need a 20-point scorer to win the league.

McKay is to blame for the rash of departures from the program

Simply not true. The three players who voluntarily left all had their reasons for leaving. B.J. Jenkins left because he wasn’t happy with Liberty, the school, not McKay and the coaching staff. As McKay has often said, Liberty isn’t for everybody. And the academic/social life side of things is more than 50 percent of the college experience. Jenkins wanted something different out of his college experience, so he sought it at Murray State. Brolin Floyd left for personal reasons that I won’t get into. Curry left because he wanted a bigger challenge in a more powerful conference. Three individual cases. There is no team-wide mutiny here, as far as I can tell.

McKay is a job hopper

I keep hearing that one bandied about as well. Let’s take a quick blow-by-blow look at McKay’s career. He was just 29 years old in 1995 when he was tabbed to resurrect a dormant Portland State program. He spent two years there before earning a job at a bigger school in a more prestigious conference, Colorado State in the Mountain West. Natural progression for a young coach. He was 14 games above .500 in two years in Fort Collins at a program that rarely competes for NCAA tournament berths. When offered the chance to coach at Oregon State two years into the CSU gig, he jumped at it. What young coach wouldn’t? On the West Coast, the Pac-10 is the pinnacle, even if Oregon State has consistently been one of the worst power-conference schools in the country in men’s basketball. After two years, he moved on when he had a chance to take over at New Mexico, which used to be one of the best jobs on the West Coast. Dwindling attendance and interest in the program proved to be his downfall there, and he was dismissed midway through his fifth season.

I’ll admit. My initial thought when I heard he was interested in the Liberty job was that, yes, McKay was a job hopper who would use Liberty to get back on his feet and find a better job. I had just seen it happen with Matt Doherty, the desposed North Carolina coach who spent one year at Florida Atlantic before bolting to SMU. And my only dealings with McKay were limited to some post-game questions after a Northern Arizona-New Mexico game in Albuquerque. But once I began to read more abut McKay’s faith and actually met the man, I realized that Liberty simply made too much sense. The more I talk to him, I get the feeling he is absolutely committed to growing this program. Am I saying he’ll never leave? No. College hoops is a business. Sometimes you make business decisions. But I get the feeling he’s not just using this job as a resume builder. Just my impressions. Take them for what they’re worth.

Liberty’s fan base should consider Curry a traitor.

It’s natural to feel that way, but like I said earlier, this is a business. And if you want to play big-time, Division I athletics, sometimes ugly things happen to your school. In one way, yes, Curry used Liberty to improve his profile and look more attractive to power conference schools. The kid wants to play in the NBA. His dad played in the NBA. His dad knows the best way to get there, and Curry took a chance and moved on. He felt that’s what was in his best interests. But let’s be real here. It’s not like Liberty got nothing out of Curry being here. The Flames got more national exposure in basketball this season than at any time since I’ve been on the beat (almost four years). People outside of the Big South bubble were talking about Curry and Liberty basketball. The Flames were on national television twice this season and were one win away from being on ESPN a third time for the Big South championship game. It was an equal opportunity partnership. Both got something out of it.

It’s been interesting to see how Liberty has evolved since I got here. There’s no doubt the people in the athletics department want Liberty to be a nationally recognized athletics program, and not just a regionally known school. With the money the school throws at athletics and the way the school recruits from a national base of Evangelical Christian athletes, there is a commitment to improving the national scope of the program. But with that desire comes conflict. How do you keep a small, family flavor to a school that is getting larger and larger all the time in national scope? Big time college athletics is a cutthroat business, and as the school moves forward, things like Curry’s transfer will happen. And you have to get off the carpet and move on. It’s the price of doing business at this level.

The Big South is holding Liberty back.

Folks at Marshall felt the same way in the 90s, when the Thundering Herd moved up to Division I-A in football and went from the Southern Conference to the MAC to eventually Conference USA in all sports. Marshall was a year-in, year-out national title contender in football as a I-AA school. Once Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich and Randy Moss left Marshall in the early 90s, Marshall sunk to a middle-of-the-pack CUSA team with no identity and no regional rivals. What’s Marshall’s closest rival? East Carolina? Memphis? Does that school have any hope of being competitive in basketball or baseball in that league? Probably not. Football? Maybe. I’m just saying this: Be careful what you wish for. I’m sure Liberty isn’t the only Big South program that feels like the conference is stunting its growth. It’s an odd league of haves and have nots in terms of facilities and funding. That’s not smack talk, just facts.

Liberty’s athletics budget for the last fiscal year, according to U.S. Department of Education numbers, was $20.7 million. Coastal Carolina spent $16.9 million and Gardner-Webb spent $11.5 million. Everyone else in the league spent less than $10 million, and UNC Asheville’s athletics budget was just $3.7 million.

But there is no place for LU to go in terms of moving to another FCS level conference, and the school is not nearly ready to realize Jerry Falwell’s dream to play FBS football. So it’s holding pattern time for now, and it’s in Liberty’s best interest to do everything possible to make the Big South better.

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