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Fans tell Tulane's Ed Conroy he's being fired during upset win

Kyle Ringo
Fans tell Tulane's Ed Conroy he's being fired during upset win

During his team’s quarterfinal game in the American Conference tournament Friday, Tulane coach Ed Conroy learned from three fans behind his bench that he was reportedly being fired.

It was an interesting time for news of that decision to come to Conroy’s attention considering Tulane went on to beat Houston 72-69 to advance to the AAC semifinals on Saturday.

Aaaawkward.

It got even stranger for Conroy after the game when he was asked about the report during his postgame television interview, which he handled about as well as any coach could hope to when put in such a bad position by his employer.

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The Tulane student newspaper The Hullabaloo was first to report the news which probably led to a busy night answering phone calls for Tulane athletic director Troy Dannen.

Man, wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now.

It’s not as if Conroy being fired would be a surprise. His team went 3-15 in the conference during the regular season finishing in last place. The Green Wave won just 10 games in the regular season and has since improved to 12-21 in Conroy’s sixth season.

It’s not a track record that generally leads to being retained after six seasons on the job, but no coach should have to endure the indignity of having fans behind the bench tell him or her that they have been fired and then to be asked about it on television before even talking about it with the team, assistant coaches and family members.

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The way this has been handled at Tulane might give candidates for the job pause, assuming the reports are accurate and the school follows through with firing Conroy.

If nothing else, this bungled situation adds intrigue to the Green Wave’s next game as if March Madness needed more drama.

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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!