How do you mentally stay just driven to ride out those choppy waters?

I mean, that's life.

It's not just college sports.

I mean, we've had amazing success at Iowa State in women's basketball.

We were an NCAA tournament team last year.

We won all of our in-state games.

Yeah, we had some roster changes.

But talk to me about the role players and just how good they were too because it wasn't just all Audie.

But, uh, what went into, into the decision? What finally got you to the point where, like, okay, this is, this is, this is it?

You know, uh, Sean, it was ...

It, it, you know, it was one of those things.

You don't wake up in the middle of the ...

Like, you don't wake up and say, "I'm gonna do this." It took some time.

It, it's a professional thing.

It was a family thing.

[laughs]

We've said, hey, the end of the road's coming here, right? And when was those decisions really made and how'd you come to that?

Yeah, it's a great question.

It's one of those things, Ross, that, you know, it doesn't happen in a vacuum.

It doesn't happen overnight.

You know, you kind of... think about it.

You're so consumed by your job.

And then all of a sudden you start to think about, all right, you know, when, when is it time? Is it better for the program? And, you know, recruiting got a little harder and people are telling everybody, oh, he's going to retire.

Where would you put this job, Coach? I mean, being very frank, is it a top 25 job in women's college

And,

you know, I think this is one decision, Heather, that really unless you work or play or support Texas Tech, everyone's mad, outraged, stunned.

So I think it speaks to, you know, the lack of maybe, like you said, support or enforcement ability NCAA has when you can just go to a local court and get what you want.

And I feel bad because obviously it impacted our university, the University of Iowa, and I believe you feel bad for those young people.

But at the same time, you're sitting there going, we felt, I'm sure Iowa State and Iowa feel the same, like we did the right thing.

We followed the rules, and unfortunately people lost careers, lost jobs, and now you see this happening.

You're like, how does this stuff happen? And I don't know.

You just go to court and see if you can make it not over.