UCF fires Donnie Jones as men’s basketball coach

UCF has fired Donnie Jones as its men’s basketball coach, the school announced and Orlando Sports Daily has confirmed.

“After a great deal of thought and deliberation, we have determined that a change in leadership for our men’s basketball program is necessary,” UCF athletic director Danny White said in a press release. “Donnie and his staff have been dedicated to ensuring our student-athletes become successful young men, and we are grateful for their hard work and dedication to UCF, our students and the entire Knights community over the past six years. However, our athletics department, university and community expect our men’s basketball program to compete for American Athletic Conference titles and make regular postseason appearances, and unfortunately, we have not reached these expectations.”

The Knights compiled a 100-88 record in six years under Donnie Jones. But his program struggled to break through in the postseason or in the American Athletic Conference.

The Knights won 20 games for Jones’ first three seasons in Conference USA. They reached the CBI semifinals in 2011 and the NIT in 2012.

Sanctions though hit UCF and it affected Jones and his team.

Upon moving to the American Athletic Conference, UCF’s fortunes changed. The Knights never finished above .500 overall or in the conference. That culminated with 12-18, 6-12 season this year. UCF only beat the three teams beneath them in the conference.

Even with a young squad, the Knights never showed much improvement. And that culminated in Thursday’s American Conference Tournament loss to Tulane.

“I did not feel like that,” Jones said of possibly coaching for his job after Thursday’s game. “There’s always pressures, and in every job I think always there’s pressures when anyone’s coaching and — but I didn’t — I never coach under pressure like that. I think it was about these guys tonight, it was about these seniors, it was about this team and obviously having a chance to hopefully keep this thing rolling. We were so close tonight.”

Jones continued to talk about the future and the optimism he had for this program even in the face of what seemed certain even before he hit the podium following Thursday’s loss.

UCF will begin a national search for his replacement with the expectation that the basketball team take that step forward and compete in the American Conference at a higher level. Danny White is a basketball guy and will certainly be seeking for a coach to match the momentum that seems to have been built with his football hire.

It is a time for change at UCF.