RADFORD -- The strangest men's basketball season ever played at Radford University is about to commence.

Wait a minute, the veteran college basketball observer might say. The season hasn't even started yet, so how do you know it's going to be so weird?

Believe it, brother.

Joe Davis, the esteemed former Highlanders hoops boss, used to helpfully offer his eyeglasses to those officials with whom he differed substantially in evaluating events of a ballgame.

Nobody needs spectacles to see the nuttiness is only just getting started at the Dedmon Center.

Where to begin? How about at the end.

That's where Byron Samuels has said his term as coach is at its end. But first, he pointed out, there's the upcoming season to play. Samuels said he intends to honor terms of his contract until it expires June 30, 2007. The self-proclaimed fifth-year lame-duck coach detailed his plans in a letter to his boss, athletic director Greig Denny, dated Nov. 2.

Samuels added that should a new contract be offered he did not intend to accept it, personal and professional reasons being his motivation.

That apparently he has not been offered a new pact is instructive. Traditionally at Radford, contracts are negotiated and new ones tendered the year before the current one expires.

No Radford basketball coach has ever resigned with no apparent job prospects a full year before a contract is up.

Radford is coming off a 16-13 season and fourth place finish in the Big South Conference, the first winning campaign in four years of the Samuels regime.

The current squad has been picked to finish seventh of eight teams despite the return of three starters, including last year's conference rebounding leader Chris Oliver.

Samuels told his players of his plans the same day he corresponded with Denny. Players said they never saw it coming.

"I was a little shocked," Radford senior Reggie McIntyre said.

The players apparently absorbed the news then calmly went on with the rest of their college basketball careers.

"Nobody seemed like they were real upset," Oliver said.

Oliver and McIntyre agreed that the surprise announcement about the coach's status would have little impact on the rest of the season.

The 42-year-old Samuels said the decision was an easy one to make in the end and he was glad to have it off his mind. He also said he was done talking about his job status or future professional opportunities that he described in vague terms as being both in and out of basketball. His focus is this season and this team, he said.

He thanked all the appropriate parties for the chance to coach and the good times he and his family have had locally.

Penelope Kyle, the new university president, said in a statement that the search for Samuels' replacement would begin at once.

Things will be even more fun if the Highlanders somehow defy the odds not to mention the soothsayers and have a memorable season.

Oliver, a senior forward, said that's all the players would be thinking about.

"To go out and try to win a championship," he said.

The second different cast of assistant coaches in as many years may take some getting used to. The new guys are Bruce Martin (Clemson, 1994), Charles Thomas (Eastern Michigan, 2000), and Michael Blaine (Johns Hopkins, 2003), succeeding Frankie Allen, Nathan Stewart, and Jeff Maher. Allen, Stewart and Maher only served one season themselves.

Oliver's 17.4 scoring average was the league's sixth highest last year. His 10 rebounds per game led the Big South.

"Great kid who has a chance to have a very special season," Samuels said.

McIntyre, the other senior, was good for just over nine points and five rebounds an outing a season ago. Listed at 6-foot-3, 207 pounds, McIntyre has for three years been known for playing bigger than he his.

He figures that Radford is poised for a bigger season than has been predicted for it.

"It's not where you were picked before the season that counts but rather where you finish at the end," he said.