Why is Melissa McFerrin still the University of Memphis women’s basketball coach?

It’s a question that first entered my mind in April, when McFerrin was given a two-year contract extension after finishing the season 11-20.

It’s a question I began to consider more seriously in July when the university announced it would be conducting an external investigation following allegations of mistreatment and abuse within the women’s program.

It’s a question that nagged at me last Thursday at Memphis Madness, watching McFerrin dance and laugh with her players as if everything in the program was sunshine and rainbows again.

And it’s a question with a clear answer after the university released the findings of that investigation Thursday, revealing the extent of the black cloud hovering over Memphis women’s basketball.

McFerrin shouldn’t be the coach anymore and, more significantly, she shouldn’t have been given a contract extension.

The stewardship of this program, both by McFerrin and the administrators tasked with overseeing her, is a black mark on the entire university and all of the decision-makers involved in this fiasco.

Just read the gory details in the report. Would a Memphis men’s basketball coach or football coach with a similar record as McFerrin keep their job? I doubt it.

Not if they were the perpetrator of comments the report deemed insensitive, demeaning, and racist. Not if they exhibited behavior viewed by those within their own program as controlling and manipulative. Not if their communication style and approach were rendered to have hurt team-building and performance and created a negative culture and atmosphere. Not if there’s perceived favoritism towards certain players.

Not if — and here’s the most important part — that coach also only won 38 percent of the games they coached the past three years.

That’s all out there now in the open. If that doesn’t scream for a fresh start and for a new coach leading this program, what else does?

What’s remarkable, though, is that the university had the chance to rid itself of McFerrin at no cost after last season. Her contract was set to expire in April. Her career record is 175-172 with four WNIT appearances in 11 years. She’s finished with an above .500 record in American Athletic Conference play just once.

We’re not talking about Geno Auriemma or Pat Summitt here. And even those two would have to make some changes if they were alleged to have said and done some of the things McFerrin has apparently done, according to the report.

For goodness sake, the report concludes by recommending Memphis hire an “executive coach” to serve as a confidential mentor and advisor to McFerrin. Here’s a better idea: Hire a better coach.

Keeping her as coach can’t simply be because McFerrin welcomed in a strong recruiting class. Her recent track record shows there’s a good chance those players won’t be around very long.

Now, perhaps, the university determined it would be at risk of facing a Title IX lawsuit if it did not give McFerrin a contract extension. Maybe giving McFerrin two more years and more than $660,000 would be less costly than getting sued.

But the reality, which was laid bare in the report, is that any one of McFerrin’s former players could file a Title IX lawsuit tomorrow and have legs to stand on. Two years from now, when McFerrin’s contract extension expires, she too could still sue the university and have grounds to do so.

Because the Title IX concerns raised by the investigation are very real and very troubling.

It never made any sense that the Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center should only be used by the men’s basketball program. Particularly when promised improvements to Elma Roane Fieldhouse have been delayed. Particularly when the results of this investigation state that it’s unclear if the university adequately addressed the recommendations made in the school’s most recent Title IX/gender equity report in 2017.

For all the good Tom Bowen did helping restore the Memphis football program during his seven years as athletic director, his inaction with women’s basketball is almost as bad.

This debacle really began with allegations that led to a 2015 internal investigation into women’s basketball, which yielded inconclusive results. Then there was the letter last April, the one that alleged Bowen engaged in “flirty” behavior with another athletic department employee on a women’s basketball road trip and spurred Bowen’s resignation.

And now there’s this investigation, the results of which tarred McFerrin, Bowen and his entire department.

Bowen and university president M. David Rudd should have never signed that contract extension in April. Bowen is gone now. McFerrin should be, too. She shouldn’t be coaching at Memphis anymore.

It’s amazing to think that a university willing to pay $10 million to make former men's basketball coach Tubby Smith go away less than two years ago didn't pull the trigger on getting rid of a failing coach surrounded in controversy.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto