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UMass Fires HC Matt McCall After Five Seasons

MBergman
Posted onMar 2, 2022 at 2:19 PM
Updated onUpdated on Mar 2, 2022 at 9:59 AM

UMass Fires HC Matt McCall After Five Seasons

In a somewhat surprising move given its timing, UMass has announced they are parting ways with head coach Matt McCall after five seasons in Amherst. He will remain coaching the team through the end of the season, per release. Rather than name an interim coach, McCall will coach two remaining regular season games (vs Fordham, at George Mason) and continue as the HC through UMass’ run in the Atlantic 10 tournament next week in Washington DC.

 

Latest Updates:

March 1st

4:16 PM

Jeff Borzello of ESPN reports UMass “has made the decision to part ways with head coach Matt McCall after five seasons. The report also notes McCall will continue to coach until the end of the season, through the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Possible replacement candidates mentioned in the report include John Becker (Vermont), Dana Ford (Missouri State), Bashir Mason (Wagner), James Jones (Yale), Jared Grasso (Bryant) and former Indiana coach Archie Miller.

5:42 PM

UMass Basketball officially confirms ESPN’s report, releasing a statement from AD Ryan Bamford.

“I want to thank Matt for his five years of service to UMass and our basketball program,” said Bamford. “Matt poured himself into this role and has been a great teammate and partner as we worked to build a championship program. Unfortunately, we have not met the results we desire on the court and I believe a change at the end of the season is in the best interest of the program. I am grateful that Matt and I shared a mutual desire to have him finish the 2021-2022 campaign with the men in our program over the coming weeks.”

March 2nd

12:00 PM

AD Ryan Bamford holds a press conference addressing the future of the men’s basketball program.

Here are some of the more important quotes from the press conference:

“Ultimately we’re in the business of winning. It’s important that our community feels great pride in this basketball program, as they have in our history.”

“The results have been mixed. People have felt that. I just thought it was the right time to say to everyone we need to hit a release pressure valve on this program. Everyone needs to understand we’re making a change, we need to go forward.”

“I needed to start having conversations outside of this building about what’s next. I have a great relationship with Matt and I needed to be honest with him.”

“I think you can anticipate we have the ability to go beyond where we’ve been in head coaching and coaching pool salaries. We’re not going to spend foolishly. We’re going to be good stewards of the resources we have.”

“We have the ability to go beyond where we’ve been in the past [financially]. It could be significantly above where we have been. We’re going to be in the top 4 in this league…in terms of our commitment to resources in this program.”

“Having connections with AAU grassroots programs, prep schools, high schools, people in this area is very important to this role.”

“That’s the goal to be in that top 5 conversation. When Loyola joins, now we got to figure out how to complete with them. We’re a multi-bid league. We need to be in the top 5, I think that is a realistic goal.”

 

For live updates follow Michael Bergman and A10 Talk on Twitter. This story will continue to be updated as we learn more information. Stay tuned.