A year ago at this time, Matt Painter agreed to become the head coach at the University of Missouri.
Wait, no, he didn't. Wait, yes, he did.
Wait, but ESPN Radio out of Dubuque is reporting on Twitter ...
No, wait, he's still at Purdue.
Whatever it was that happened, the Boilermaker coach opted to remain at Purdue, turning down a job that may never have even been officially offered, not that it had to be.
It was a stressful week for Purdue, a sort of college basketball Cuban Missile Crisis, minus the Communists.
But what about for Mizzou?
"I don't know if Missouri ever offered Matt Painter the job. I have no clue," senior Kim English said, probably a bit irked to be asked about Painter as the Tigers prepare to play the Fighting Norfolks of Norfolk State here in Omaha tomorrow. ".We weren't focused on that. We knew that was up to our administration. We were just focused on keeping our team together and going to class. You can't worry about things you can't control, so we didn't.
"Coach Painter stayed at Purdue and is in the NCAA Tournament and I'm happy for him."
Tiger point guard Michael Dixon admits he did get excited about Painter.
Dixon, a Missouri native, was recruited heavily by Purdue in the 2008 class, but chose to remain close to home.
"Personally, it was kind of exciting and different," Dixon said. "Matt Painter recruited me and offered me. So did Coach Haith. But I didn't know much of anything about Coach Haith until a little after he got it.
"Neither I or none of my teammates could control who we were going to get. We were going to be happy about and ready to listen to whoever was going to be the coach."
Make no mistake: All parties involved ended up just fine.
After it looked right away like Frank Haith was Choice D for the job, and a trainwreck at that after he was implicated in the Miami scandal, the Tigers were one of the nation's best teams this season. The Tigers are 30-4.
Purdue has the coach it couldn't afford to lose and Painter has a new contract and the much-discussed increased "commitment" from the school to men's basketball, in whatever forms it may take.
Both the present and future at both schools is bright.
But though Painter never even set foot in Columbia during his wooing - they went to him - and was never technically offered the job that we know of, we can still look back at this as a what-nearly-was situation.
So can Missouri.
"It was a crazy week," sophomore Phil Pressey said. "We didn't know what was going on. But once Coach Haith got here, everything calmed down and he got everybody where they need to be. Now, here we are."
"He's a great coach and he's done a great job for however long he's been here. I'm glad we ended up getting Coach Haith. He's doing us right so far."
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