Investigators say progress is good

Round two of the investigation into Quin Snyder’s resignation began Monday.

Jean Paul Bradshaw confirmed that he and Dalton Wright, the pair chosen to conduct the investigation, worked “most the day” interviewing people involved with, or with knowledge of what occurred preceding the former basketball coach’s decision to resign.

Bradshaw declined to name who they met with.

“We’ve made some progress and we’re going to get back to it here before long,” Bradshaw said Monday night.

Bradshaw, a Kansas City attorney, and Wright, publisher of the Lebanon Daily Record, worked in Columbia Monday. Wright is a member of the board of directors of the Missourian Publishing Association, which publishes the Columbia Missourian.

The pair was appointed by UM System President Elson Floyd a week ago, shortly after an initial investigation by MU chancellor Brady Deaton. A release that followed did not outline who he had spoken to, nor did it offer any specifics of the still-mysterious conversations between Athletic Director Mike Alden, his assistant Gary Link and Snyder. At the urging of the UM System Board of Curators, Floyd called for an independent investigation on Feb. 21.

Link was Alden and Snyder’s go-between in the sequence of conversations, which culminated in Snyder’s departure, first announced Feb. 10 and made official Feb. 14. Deaton cited poor communication in that process. Snyder said on Feb. 14 he was told he would be fired at season’s end, and that he could resign earlier if he wished.

Yet Alden has denied any decision had been made on Snyder’s future, though Snyder said Link directly told him it was a final decision. Alden first said he sent Link only to see how Snyder and the team were holding up after a tough loss that week. Alden later said he did tell Link he could ask if Snyder wanted to step away, or if coaching MU was something he still wanted to do, but denied any stronger directive. Link, also a radio analyst for the Tigers, has refused comment.

Wright said last week that those conversations seemed to him to be the main point of his investigation with Bradshaw. He also confirmed that the principal people involved– Alden, Link and Snyder– would be a part, or at least they would attempt to make them a part, of the investigation. Snyder is not obligated to assist because he is no longer a university employee.

Monday, Bradshaw was tight-lipped on any possible surprises during the first day of investigating.

“I don’t think I want to comment on anything having to do with the content or anything,” he said.

Saturday, Wright said he and Bradshaw would be talking with three to four people Monday, and though Bradshaw wouldn’t say how many they did meet with, he said “everybody’s been cooperative”.

Bradshaw said he and Wright would return to Columbia later this week, though a day has not been determined yet, and continue on from there. He seemed optimistic they would be done, at least with preliminary findings, in the next couple weeks.

“Now that we’ve started, I think we can get most of the information that we need within the next 10 days,” Bradshaw said. “Then we still have to sit down and do something with that information, but I don’t think we’re talking about too long a process at this point.”

— Dugan Arnett contributed to this report