Wagner College fired head coach Mike Deane on Monday following a 5-26 season and will replace him with former Wagner coach Dereck Whittenburg, a source with knowledge said.
In seven seasons as head coach of the Seahawks, Deane compiled an overall record of 94-114. This past season, the Green & White finished 3-15 in the Northeast Conference. In 26 years as a head coach, Deane has amassed a record of 437-332.
“We thank Mike for his contributions as head basketball coach at Wagner,” Wagner AD Walt Hameline said. “I admire him greatly as a human being and for the knowledge, competitiveness and passion he brought to the program. At the end of the day, I decided it was time make a change and go in a different direction.”
Deane’s assistants will receive a month of guaranteed pay and have the opportunity to interview for jobs on the new staff, a second source said.
In 2003, Deane replaced Whittenburg after he had guided the program to its only Northeast Conference regular-season title and tournament championship as well as a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Whittenburg was fired at Fordham Dec. 3.
His career record is 135-162, including a 66-50 mark during four seasons at Wagner.
CALLOWAY TO REMAIN AT MONMOUTH
The Coaching Carousel may swing through the New York/New Jersey corridor after this basketball season but it apparently won’t hit Monmouth coach Dave Calloway.
Dr. Marilyn McNeil, the school’s athletic director, has given Calloway a vote of confidence for next season.
“No doubt Dave will be back. Absolutely. And you can make that on the record,” McNeil told Steve Edelson of the Asbury Park Press.
Despite losing three straight and six of eight, the Hawks have qualifed for the NEC tournament as the No. 8 seed and will play No. 1 Quinnipiac Thursday. Monmouth is 12-18 but owns its highest win total in four years despite losing 6-7 sophomore Travis Taylor a to a seven-game suspension “for breaking team rules,” Calloway told reporters earlier this year.
Taylor has been the team’s leading scorer for the last five games, scoring 30 twice and 20 two other times.
The team has been averaging 1,506 fans despite playing in the brand new $57 million, 4,100 capacity Multipurpose Athletic Center.
Calloway is 161-182 in his career.
“When you think about his career, he’s had eight pretty fabulous years, and now he’s hit this bump in the road, like every program does,” McNeil told Edelson. “The bump is a little longer than we all hoped, but I think we’ve got to remember that.
“We’ve got a new group of students. I think they’re more engaged. I think they want it. I think they can feel it … we had to capture the imagination of the students, and we did but we couldn’t sustain it.”
One source close to the program said Calloway had lost his players during the season but that after Monday’s practice the team had decided that “they were going to go for it.”
“They have already beaten Quinnipiac once and they decided to put their best effort forward,” they source said.
(Photos courtesy AP and Monmouth Athletics)
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter.
