Unfortunately, besides regular viewers of this board a lot of people didn't recognize some pretty obvious red flags with regard to Buning's performance, such as Bollinger's quick departure from his associate a.d. position, the rather tacky (in terms of timing) handling of the Rivard situation, the insult of UND basketball fans who wanted consideration given to some local candidates ("they don't have UND's best interests at heart"), the offer of the men's basketball job to Herbst (followed by a quick retraction), the near-loss of Lennon, the long delay in the previously promised field turf at Memorial (not coincidentally done right after Lennon decided to stay), the jerking around of Steve Johnson (why was he encouraged to apply if he supposedly wasn't qualified?) and the Hakstol contract saga, among others. The writing was on the wall for some time. Maybe the handling of Buning's departure was less than perfect, but the departure in and of itself should not have come as a big surprise and was justified, IMO.