It was to little surprise that the UCF Knights fired coach Donnie Jones shortly after the team’s early exit from the American Athletic Conference Tournament. He was cognizant of his team’s results (or lack thereof) and the reality of his industry. The team was not giving fans much hope for the future and the program seemed to have stagnated since moving to the American Conference.
There is also a new athletic director with a basketball eye — Danny White played basketball at Notre Dame, more on that in a bit — and a desire to transform the way UCF does its athletics. He has already made a splash in hiring Scott Frost to coach the football team.
Already, very early in his tenure, he will shape the program by naming a new coach in the two revenue sports.
He also has promised to make significant investments in the basketball program and make the basketball program a successful one. It would take more than just bringing in a new coach. And a firm statement — like the one White made to Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel — certainly will help a potential coaching candidate buy into UCF and its potential as a basketball program.
“You can’t just hire a coach to turn around a program and then see what happens,” White said. “It has to be all hands on deck. There are things we have to do administratively to support the coaching staff. We have to have a larger operating budget. We have to travel better. (White says UCF will start chartering flights for road games instead of flying commercial). We have to fix some of the smaller capital projects associated with basketball like the weight room and the locker rooms.”
Who will that coach be? It is still a little early to make any definite determination of who the Knights are looking at. But a few names have emerged already from this report from Community Sports Report:
In regards to the vacant @UCF_MBB job, word is that Steve Pikiell from Stony Brook & Martin Ingelsby from Notre Dame are top candidates.
— CommunitySportReport (@CSROrlando) March 12, 2016
Orlando Sports Daily can confirm Martin Ingelsby is on UCF’s early short list of candidates.
Ingelsby is currently an assistant with Notre Dame and played with White while the two were at Notre Dame. Ingelsby is going to be a hot candidate for several mid-major jobs — Drexel fans are already eyeing him. It seems like he will be one of the bigger names out there. White’s personal relationship and vision for the program could play a role.
It also would not be surprising to see UCF try to get into the running for several hot mid-major coaches like Stony Brook’s Steve Pikiell or Monmouth’s King Rice. Those will be the biggest names on the market right now. UCF wants to be in the conversation with these kinds of coaches.
White is already promising to make some new investments in the basketball program just as he seems to have made some attention to the football program. He knows that basketball and football drive the engine for the athletic program. Both need to be strong.
He will get his chance to reform and reshape these programs. These are big decisions that will shape his time as athletic director.
