The “Jeff Price Era” is over. Now what? There is something undoubtedly strange going on over at the College Boro with the Georgia Southern basketball program: three players suspended in the middle of the season, a coach no longer on the staff, an 8-22 record, one of the original ‘suspendees’ reinstated after the fact and now the resignation of the head coach after 10 seasons.

Fans of the television show “Lost” are even scratching their heads.

The timing of Price’s “resignation” is even stranger. There was no mob of angry fans or boosters picketing outside Hanner Fieldhouse. There was no uproar or demand to know why the three players were suddenly dismissed from the team for reasons unknown to this day. There was no hint from Price or Athletics Director Sam Baker that a change was forthcoming.

There is, however, an NCAA investigation. What the NCAA is looking for is not known. What they will find could range from a little to atomic.

The question now becomes of how will Price’s reign be viewed in the years to come.

Price’s worst season at GSU was his last. At 8-22, it was the school’s worst mark since 95-96 when the Eagles went 3-23. Price arrived three years later and resurrected the program with seven straight campaigns without a losing record.

But the knock was Price’s inability to take GSU to what every Division I team strives for — the NCAA tournament. In fact, Price’s teams never even sniffed the Big Dance. The Eagles were a combined 6-10 in the Southern Conference Tournament, one-and-done five times and MIA in SoCon title games.

Perhaps Price plateau-ed, leveling off after years of coming oh-so-close yet oh-so-far-away. Those in his defense argue it’s amazing he’s been able to do what his done at a school obsessed with football and ignorant of its basketball. His recruiting budget minimal, his facilities dwarfed by the new, state-of-art venues at other conference schools, his resources limited to their max.

Those with pitchforks and fire argue his halfcourt defense is lackluster, his halfcourt offense nothing more than stagnant, his record in “big games” nowhere near noteworthy — the streak without an NCAA Tourney appearance now at 17 years.

Those arguments are now moot.

Now Georgia Southern must find a man walking the tightrope of loony and genius. A man willing to take over a program possibly on the verge of NCAA sanctions, a dwindling fan base, a miniscule budget and outdated facilities at a school with an enrollment approaching 20,000 yet a student section of, maybe, 12.

One thing’s certain, whichever sap stands in front of the podium and introduces himself as the new basketball coach of Georgia Southern University will need a dust pan and a broom to clean up the mess. Whoever created it will be, by then, long gone.