After six seasons, Eastern Michigan has decided to go in a different direction with its men's basketball program. The school fired head coach Charles Ramsey on Wednesday after a 9-22 season (5-11 in the MAC).
↵Ramsey, who was an assistant coach at Michigan before taking the head job at EMU, compiled an overall record of 68-118, including a 37-62 record in conference play. His only winning mark with the Eagles came in the 2009-10 season, during which the team finished 17-15 overall (8-8 in the MAC).
↵The coach told AnnArbor.com that what bothered him most about the dismissal was its timing. The Final Four is essentially a coaches' convention, and had Ramsey been fired before last weekend, he would've had an opportunity to look for new work, as well as pitch his assistants for staff openings around the country. Ramsey will receive the $176,416 that remained on the final year of his contract.
↵Athletic director Derrick Gragg said the search for a new coach will begin immediately, though if he'd let Ramsey go before the Final Four, he also would've had an opportunity to interview multiple coaches in one setting.
↵The Detroit Free Press listed the following coaches as prospective candidates to replace Ramsey in Ypsilanti:
↵↵• Dane Fife, head coach of the Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne.
↵• Dwayne Stephens, Michigan State assistant coach.
↵• Bacari Alexander, Michigan assistant coach.
↵• Jeff Tungate, Oakland University associate head coach.
↵• Jay Smith, Detroit Mercy assistant coach.
↵• Todd Lickliter, former EMU assistant coach and later head coach at Butler and Iowa.
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