More than three weeks after College of Charleston fired men’s basketball coach Doug Wojcik “for just cause” two years into a five-year deal, the Cougars may be going back to the head-coach drawing board after news broke this afternoon that its top two finalists would be withdrawing their names from consideration.

Capping off three weeks of mostly silence from the CofC front office, Spartanburg Herald-Journal’s Todd Shansey tweeted around 2:30 p.m. that Wofford coach Mike Young would be pulling out of the process. About 90 minutes later, former Cougar Anthony Johnson, the only other finalist in the field and the fan-favorite for the job, told the P&C’s Andrew Miller that he was withdrawing for personal reasons.

Today’s news offered a surprising plot twist in an already shocking story that began in early July when allegations that Wojcik had verbally abused players first surfaced. Those allegations started the clock on a saga that would eventually see him dismissed by the College of Charleston on August 5.

For Cougar fans, Wojcik’s slow-burn firing, combined with CofC’s move to a new conference last season, the controversial hiring of President Glenn McConnell, and, ultimately, the implosion of the coach search could be enough to dampen the enthusiasm of even the most die-hard Cougar fans going into the 2014-2015 season. (Season ticket holders reportedly found invoices to renew their season tickets in mailboxes this week.)

Let’s take a look at how we got (back) here:

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