TicketsApril 10, 2009
CINCINNATI - J. Kelley Hall, who recently completed his second season as Cincinnati's head women's basketball coach, will not return to the Bearcats bench, UC Director of Athletics Mike Thomas announced Friday (April 10).
UC ended the 2008-09 campaign by dropping a 68-58 decision to USF in the second round of the BIG EAST Championship in Hartford, Conn., and finished with a 14-17 overall record, including 3-13 in BIG EAST play. The Bearcats are a combined 7-26 over the last two years in league play and are 20-45 since joining the league four seasons ago.
"This was a difficult decision as Coach Hall has had a track record of coaching winning basketball," Thomas said. "After reviewing the last two seasons we are not moving forward as a program and we have not been competitive within the BIG EAST. I felt that a change was necessary to move the program to a more representative level."
Hall's record as the two-year UC head coach was 26-33 and his career coaching mark stands at 316-151 in 15 seasons. He became just the seventh head coach of the University of Cincinnati women's basketball program when he was introduced as the Bearcats' new mentor on April 4, 2007. Hall's previous coaching stops were at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, as head coach (2002-07), at Louisville, as associate head coach/recruiting coordinator (2000-02), and assistant coach/recruiting coordinator positions at Auburn (1996-2000), Cal State Fullerton (1994-96), Mississippi State (1992-94), the University of Alabama (1983-84) and Troy (1982-83).
Thomas will begin a search for Hall's successor immediately.
"This is a competitive time of year to conduct a search for a head coach so we will move swiftly and surely to find the very best coach who will meet the high expectations of our program," Thomas said. "UC is a great institution. We have a strong athletics tradition and play in the finest women's basketball league in the country. Cincinnati is a great basketball job and we will find the right match to move us forward."