Coaching change reshapes a title contender mid-season
Continuity was the plan. Results were not.
Still, the conversation has changed. The questions in the room are different from the questions in the room six months ago.
Observers describe a mood of cautious optimism, the kind that travels in private conversations long before it appears in any press release.
The numbers tell part of the story. The rest lives in the texture of how people are actually behaving when no one is watching.
The institutional response has been measured, which in this context is a polite way of saying slow.
A small group of practitioners has been arguing for this approach for years. They are doing their best not to look smug.
The decision-makers involved insist nothing is settled, which is exactly what decision-makers say when something is starting to settle.
