Billy Taylor fired as Ball State men's basketball coach

UPDATE: 8:32 p.m.

As Billy Taylor reflected on the season after Ball State’s 76-61 loss to Buffalo on Wednesday, he talked about the team’s ability to overcome injuries and playing out of position to finish with a .500 record.

All that wasn’t enough to save his job, however, after athletic director Bill Scholl announced Thursday that Taylor wouldn’t return for his seventh season as men’s basketball coach.

In a phone interview, Scholl said there wasn’t one measurement making or breaking the season, but things weren’t progressing fast enough to let Taylor finish out his contract.

“What we were looking for was had the program developed to the point where we could legitimately say we were consistently competing for MAC Championships,” Scholl said. “I think we were looking for an indication as the season played out whether we were gaining on that goal, and in the end the sense was we hadn’t.”

Scholl said the rest of the staff was informed their contracts wouldn’t be renewed on Thursday as well. Director of basketball operations Mickey Hosier will stay on, however, until a new coach is hired to stay in touch with players.

The search for a new coach is already ongoing, but Scholl wouldn’t specify how narrow the list of candidates was, saying only that it’s short.

“In a perfect world, I would hope we would get this done in the next few weeks,” Scholl said. “I also know it’s an imperfect world so we’ll take as long as we need to. But this will be my full attention until we get it done.”

After taking over a program stuck under a cloud of NCAA violations from former coach Ronny Thompson, Taylor restored the university’s reputation academically and kept the team clean of further sanctions.

It was Taylor’s lack off success on the court that eventually doomed him.

The Cardinals went 84-99 in six seasons under Taylor, including a 44-52 record in Mid-American Conference play. In three of the past four seasons, Ball State finished 15-15 and lost in the first round of the MAC Tournament.

Despite the news of his termination coming just a day after losing the season’s final game, Scholl said Taylor handled the news with the same respect he’s gained as one of the nicest men ever associated with the MAC.

“Billy Taylor is one of the absolute classist, most professional human beings I have ever been around in this business,” Scholl said. “He’s such an incredible individual. He took last night’s loss very hard and he was still very down when we spoke. I have no doubt that he’s hurting.”

EARLIER

As Billy Taylor reflected on the season after Ball State lost 76-61 to Buffalo on Wednesday, he talked the team’s ability to overcome injuries and playing out of position to finish with a 15-15 record.

It wasn’t enough to save his job, however, after athletic director Bill Scholl announced Thursday that Taylor wouldn’t return as men’s basketball coach for his seventh season.

“This was a difficult decision, primarily because Billy was a tremendous representative of our athletics department and university,” Scholl said in a press release. “Billy is a great man. Under his guidance our student-athletes conducted themselves properly and our most recent APR score was our highest rating since 2004-05. We thank him for leaving the program better than when he inherited it and we wish him well in the future.”

After taking over a program stuck under a cloud of NCAA violations in 2007, Taylor restored the university’s reputation academically and kept the team clean of further sanctions.

It was Taylor’s lack off success on the court that eventually doomed him.

The Cardinals went 84-99 in six seasons under Taylor, including a 44-52 record in Mid-American Conference play. In three of the past four seasons, Ball State finished 15-15 and lost in the first round of the MAC Tournament.

“We will begin a search immediately for our next head coach,” Scholl said in the same press release. “The expectations of our men’s basketball program include being competitive in the MAC and challenging for conference championships. Our primary concerns are the well-being of our student-athletes and what is best for the future of Ball State basketball.”