Marshall basketball coach Dan D’Antoni — the oldest coach in Division I at 76 — is out after 10 seasons. He will be replaced by assistant coach Cornelius Jackson, the school said Monday night.
Marshall did not release the terms of Jackson’s agreement and did not specify in a statement whether D’Antoni retired, resigned or was fired. The school said only that there would be “a leadership change.”
Marshall’s sports information director did not immediately respond to a text message from The Associated Press seeking additional information.
“This has been an inspiring decade of Marshall Basketball under the leadership of Coach D’Antoni,” Marshall athletic director Christian Spears said. “His commitment to Marshall is unrivaled and his legacy will be honored for years to come. He built a program that plays for a community who deeply cares about him and our student-athletes. We wish him the very best and look forward to seeing him as he continues to support the program he built.”
Marshall finished 13-20 this season, its second in the Sun Belt Conference. D’Antoni’s exit comes a year after leading Marshall to a school-record 24 regular-season wins. D’Antoni had signed a three-year contract extension at the end of the 2022-23 season.
D’Antoni went 177-148, the second-most wins in school history. Marshall reached the NCAA Tournament once under D’Antoni, in 2018, after winning the Conference USA Tournament. Before that, the Thundering Herd hadn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 1987.
Jackson has been an assistant under D’Antoni since the 2017-18 season. Before that, he spent four seasons each as an assistant at Cleveland State and UT Martin. The West Virginia high school player of the year at Oak Hill High, Jackson played at Tennessee as a freshman and at Marshall from 1998 to 2001.
“We are confident that Coach Jackson will continue using the vast knowledge gained under Coach D’Antoni while maintaining the sincere connection to the student-athletes who played for D’Antoni and Corny over the last decade,” Spears said.
D’Antoni spent nine years as an assistant coach in the NBA under his older brother, Mike D’Antoni. Dan D’Antoni was a Los Angeles Lakers assistant when he was hired at his alma mater in 2014 with no previous college coaching experience. He spent 30 years as a high school coach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Dan D’Antoni played four seasons at Marshall, leading the Thundering Herd in scoring in 1968-69 at 17.5 points per game. In November 1970, the 23-year-old D’Antoni was babysitting some of the children of Marshall’s team physician, Dr. Ray Hagley, when television and radio broadcasts were interrupted for a report that the plane carrying the Marshall football team had crashed near campus, killing all 75 aboard. Among them were Hagley and his wife.
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