TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On the first business day after the University of Alabama and men’s basketball coach Avery Johnson announced that they had parted ways and agreed to a buyout, Director of Athletics Greg Byrne called a press conference to say goodbye to reporters for a while.

Like an artist trying to create something or students desperately trying to get through finals he was going into silent mode. Byrne won’t be talking to anyone again until he’s done, and had a message regarding all the rumors that have already started to fly: “Lest you hear it from me, don’t believe it.”

Actually his task might be tougher than a work of art being made, or a submarine trying to avoid detection.

Although it’s become clear that a change had to be made, as Johnson had obviously lost the team and the Crimson Tide actually regressed after midseason, the timing of the split couldn’t have been worse.

Alabama was positioning itself to overhaul the facilities and had been making real strides in recruiting — which might now evaporate. Moreover, at some point in the future it won’t have the luxury of Nick Saban being around.

Consequently, Byrne needs a big-time hire for Alabama to escape its continuing status, which can only be described by a word that’s considered an ugly one for fans: Mediocrity.

Alabama might have paid Johnson like he was running a Top 25 program, but it hasn’t been for a long time.

The Crimson Tide has never been to an NCAA Tournament Final Four. Since the 2006-07 season Alabama has been ranked in the preseason Associated Press poll just once, No. 19 in 2011-12. It hasn’t been in the final poll since finishing No. 21 in 2004-05.

It also plays in a very average facility that provides little home-court advantage.

Coleman Coliseum opened in 1968 and 50-odd years later still has the personality of an airplane hanger. It is not intimate. It does not attract recruits. In comparison to the rest of the SEC it is an average facility at best.

For example, in 2016, ESPN.com ranked the basketball arenas in the SEC and Alabama was No. 11 out of 14. Just ahead of it was Auburn, with a new facility and a courtside student section that’s beyond intimidating, and Ole Miss, which opened the Pavilion in 2016.

Byrne recognizes that.

Alabama is aiming to gut and rebuild Coleman, but the money is still being raised and the project is still years away from becoming reality.

When Alabama lured Nick Saban away from the Miami Dolphins, the school and athletic program had already made a massive upgrade and proved that it was serious about making football a priority again.

Coleman already went through an expensive renovation in 2005, $24 million-plus, but you know the old saying about putting lipstick on a pig. It’s easy for someone in the media to spend someone else’s money and suggest a more modern building would have been a better option, but it was an out-of-date arena beforehand and remained so afterward.

The lipstick only helped prolong this ongoing run of ordinary.

That’s the real challenge for Byrne, getting Alabama out of the rut that has resulted in a pattern of hiring a new coach every four years.

Meanwhile, the rest of the SEC has stepped forward. There are four teams heading to the Sweet 16 next weekend. Five league coaches have led a team to the Final Four, and eight have coached in an Elite Eight.

The league has arguably become the second best in the nation behind only the ACC.

Yet the coaching landscape has become more than treacherous. The corruption scandal involving the FBI, which touched both Alabama and Byrne’s previous school Arizona, is ongoing. The NCAA is investigating numerous schools and just slammed Missouri in an academic fraud case. There’s even an admissions scandal that has everyone looking over their shoulders.

“We want to make sure that we want to keep the University of Alabama’s reputation at the forefront of what we do,” Byrne made a point of saying, but added. “I think our sports should be at the highest levels and compete for championships.”

The two shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, but are becoming more so, and if that wasn’t challenging enough the new transfer portal will only make things more difficult. Players will soon be on the move, and with only 16 teams still playing (plus those in the NIT) other coaching openings will start being filled.

Doing due-diligence in an expedient fashion is a tricky thing, but Byrne’s done it before.

Last year Alabama fans learned how Byrne goes about hiring a coach when he tabbed Brad Bohannon, an assistant coach at Auburn, to rebuild the baseball program – which already had a new state-of-the-art facility in place.

So Monday’s press conference included some familiar things like: "You're looking at the search firm.”

Without going into any specifics about any possible candidates, here’s what he’s looking for:

• Player development

• College background

• Strong academics and NCAA compliance

• Relentless recruiter

Byrne didn’t mention any names, but there’s already speculation on the likes of Thad Matta, Rick Pitino, Steve Prohm, Greg Marshall, Kelvin Sampson, Chris Beard, Steve Forbes, Fred Hoiberg and Mick Cronin among others.

Considering the AD’s promise that integrity will be a driving part of the process, one can assume that some of them aren’t viable candidates. For example, Louisville has vacated NCAA appearances from the Pitino years.

Byrne also said that that he doesn’t want a temporary fix if possible.

“You never know who may show up on your radar screen as you go through these processes,” he said. “I think that will be the case in this one as well. Obviously we’ve had a couple of days now so we’ve heard from people out there. Part of what you have to decipher is if there’s legitimate interest or are they interested in trying to create leverage.

“What I do believe is we need to have someone on here who’s going to cover all those areas that I talked about and I certainly do believe that’s possible.”

Possible yes.

Easy? No.