A ‘toxic’ environment: East Lansing’s Doug Fleming fired

One of the best coaches in Mid-Michigan is now without a team. East Lansing’s Doug Fleming was fired this week for reasons that the school’s athletic director would not elaborate on.

Fleming’s comments in a story published in the Lansing State Journal lead me to believe that the decisionmaking process was hasty to say the very least:

He told the LSJ: “I think the environment is toxic at a lot of levels, and I don’t like the direction it’s going in a lot of areas,” Fleming said.

How, I wonder, could a team with so much promise (in the form of young talent) cut loose a coach who took a squad with less talent to the final four just two years ago? Is this another case of parents behaving badly? T-O-X-I-C. People like me, who follow basketball at the high school level very closely, know exactly what he’s talking about.

More to come..