From bad to worse. And, for once, it’s not the NCAA’s fault.

This is 100 percent Wofford’s mess. And it’s got some explaining to do.

There’s a report that Wofford is about to hire Virginia Tech assistant coach Kevin Giltner to take over its men’s basketball team. It comes about a week after the university abruptly fired Dwight Perry and associate head coach Tysor Anderson.

Good for Giltner if it’s true. He played at Wofford for longtime coach Mike Young and has been one of his assistants (both with the Terriers and Hokies) since 2013. He’s seemingly the perfect candidate to take over the job.

Maybe too perfect. Man, the optics are awful.

In the meantime, here’s positive news: Contrary to a report on Thursday, six basketball players weren’t suspended because of NCAA rules infractions. They’d been considered ineligible over some Level 3 violations involving on-campus dining cards, but they were fully reinstated Friday afternoon. For the moment, all’s well that ends well as far as they’re concerned.

And good on the NCAA for getting it done less than an hour after the paperwork was submitted. That’s a far cry from the eight months it needed to decide if Rahsul Faison could carry the football for South Carolina. What a sign of growth for a 119-year-old organization!

Nevertheless, this is the really sketchy part: We still don’t know exactly why Wofford fired Perry and Anderson on Sept. 13. Assistant coach Drew Gibson is running things on an interim basis. 

No reasons have been given for the changes; plans for the program going forward have yet to be revealed. All we’ve got to go on is merely a statement that Wofford issued when the change was announced.

“At this point, the release we put out is all we’re allowed to say,” is how a university spokesperson responded to multiple questions.

Fair. Delicately handling a personnel matter ripe for litigation is prudent.

Yet, it still doesn’t make sense. And the further this goes without an explanation or clarity, the murkier it gets. Filthy, actually.

You don’t need a special counsel to connect the dots. Especially since Wofford happens to play at Virginia Tech in football this weekend. Surely, no contingent from Spartanburg happened to huddle with some former Wofford peeps for dinner and drinks.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Extra-value meals

Step back if anyone claims to have seen this coming — their pants are about to burst into flames.

Perry went 48-43 in 2½ seasons with the Terriers. Wofford was 19-16 last season and won its first Southern Conference Tournament championship since 2019, advancing to the NCAA Tournament (they lost to Tennessee 77-62 in the first round). The 2018-19 season was also the last time the Terriers qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

That’s a breakthrough season by Wofford’s standards, with the table appearing set for more progress. Perry was justly rewarded, too. A source close to the program confirmed that the private school gave the coach a five-year contract extension back in the spring. That’s a nice marriage.

Considering all that, you don’t divorce the guy unless something drastic happens.

Drugs? No.

Domestic violence? Nope.

Academic issues, legal woes, an out-of-control program? No, negative, not at all.

But it happened. And it just doesn’t make sense.

“The million-dollar question is what motivated Wofford to fire coach Perry and coach Anderson,” Scott Tompsett, Anderson’s Kansas City, Mo.-based attorney, said. “Having represented NCAA institutions, coaches and student-athletes in hundreds of infractions cases over 35 years, I’ve never seen an institution mismanage and aggravate a situation like Wofford has in this case.”

Preach.

By all accounts, here’s what seems to be the excuse for why Perry and Anderson were fired:

The crux of it is the six athletes in question were promised upperclassmen dorms that weren’t provided, so they lived in off-campus apartments. But they used the meal plan designed for on-campus residents. That, in the eyes of the NCAA, is an impermissible benefit.

It’s worth noting that the value of such fine dining was estimated to be between $84 to $108 per player. Their Yelp! reviews, though, are surely priceless.

‘Dumbfounded’

In the NCAA’s parlance, it’s a Level 3 violation — which is comparable to a parking ticket. And most aren’t even detected unless self-reported, which brings up a whole other set of issues. Did the school file a report and let the NCAA determine things? Or did it decide for itself there were Level 3 violations and turned itself in?

Regardless, Tompsett said his client ran the plan to live off-campus by three Wofford administrators. All signed off on it without questioning the meal plan.

Then the university apparently pivoted.

“The NCAA looked at Wofford’s self-report and effectively rolled its eyes,” Tompsett said. “But Wofford looked at the same set of facts and fired their two senior coaches who just coached the team to the SoCon championship and took them to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. I’m dumbfounded.”

He’s not alone. The move — if indeed this is all rooted in the dining plan faux pas — is baffling.

Lots of explaining is necessary if the coaches were fired for serious reasons; indeed if it was over those ticky-tack Level 3 violations.

And plenty of explaining is necessary if that latest report, the one regarding Giltner as a pseudo coach-in-waiting, proves true.

He might’ve been created in a lab established for producing the perfect Wofford coach. But the timing and circumstances are suspicious, if not damning.

Not smart, either.

The saying about billable hours being undefeated is the truest of truisms, and some attorneys are going to make bank over this. God bless the juris doctors on both sides about to expand their bank accounts.

A quick, though important, heads up: SoCon men’s basketball media day is scheduled for Oct. 1, while Wofford’s season starts Nov. 3 at George Mason. Circle your calendars.

Meanwhile, the school keeps circling its wagons when it comes to providing information or clarity regarding all of this Upstate calamity.

At this point, given how things have developed and the reams of circumstantial evidence, it’s debatable if that’s prudent or damaging.