Kevin Tresolini

The News Journal

NEWARK - Monte Ross had one chance to turn the Blue Hens from periodic 20-game losers into NCAA Tournament qualifiers and succeeded.

He won’t get another.

The University of Delaware announced Friday that Ross had been dismissed as its men’s basketball coach.

Ross guided Delaware to a 132-184 record over 10 seasons, highlighted by the 2013-14 team winning the Colonial Athletic Association title and earning UD’s fifth NCAA Tournament bid but first since 1999.

After that 2013-14 season, Ross was named CAA Coach of the Year and the Clarence “Big House” Gaines Division I College Basketball Coach of the Year, annually awarded to the top minority coach.

But subsequent 10-20 and 7-23 seasons cost Ross his job, even though he was in the first year of a three-year contract signed after last season.

Delaware’s 48-22 record in CAA regular-season games over the four years before this season had been the league’s best. But Delaware struggled to a 2-16 CAA finish this year, undermined by injuries and the lack of a freshman class resulting from last season’s protracted contract stalemate.

"I'm really, really appreciative of the opportunity that I had at Delaware," Ross told The News Journal. "I really thank them for giving me that opportunity. I think they've been great to me and my family. I don't hold any ill will whatsoever. To be a head coach for 10 years in this day and age is a very long time, and they allowed me to do that, so I am very, very grateful."

The firing came despite UD having an interim athletic director, Matt Robinson, and president, Nancy Targett, in place. Dennis Assanis, who’ll officially become UD president in July, has been visiting campus and taking part in decisions.

Ross said he was called into Robinson's Carpenter Center office Friday morning and given the news.

"At this time I believe it is best that the university start a new chapter with the men’s basketball program," Robinson said in a UD press release. "I have notified coach Ross of the decision and have thanked him for his service to the university. I admire the commitment he had to the young men in his program and the impact he and the program have had on the local community through community outreach."

Neither Robinson nor Assanis, whom The News Journal attempted to contact, would comment beyond what was in UD’s press release, spokesperson Andrea Boyle Tippett said.

According to the same press release, UD has enlisted Parker Executive Search to hire its new athletic director. Once the next AD is named, UD will begin a national search for Ross' replacement.

However, that will put Delaware beyond the traditional postseason hiring period for college basketball coaches, which extends through the Final Four. Such a delay would, for the second straight year, prevent Delaware from building much of a recruiting class.

This week’s departure of Delaware’s top player, sophomore guard Kory Holden, who announced he would transfer, fed public outcry for Ross’ dismissal.

“That’s the nature of sports,” Ross said. “It’s ‘What have you done for me last week?,’ not even lately anymore. I understand the business. I understand fans. I understand instant gratification. I knew what I was getting into when I signed up at Delaware. They’re passionate fans and I get that.”

New UD leaders can't repeat mistakes with Ross

Ross also expressed no bitterness over last year's contract dispute that wasn't resolved until several weeks after the season ended. Former athletic director Eric Ziady, who aimed to dismiss him, was overruled by former UD president Patrick Harker and other higher-ups who decided to retain Ross.

It cost Delaware a recruiting class that would have paid dividends during the 2015-16 season, when Delaware sometimes had just six recruited scholarship players available.

“That’s for other people to make issues out of,” Ross said. “I love the team. I love my guys. I want to continue to help them in any way I can, even though I’m not their coach.”

Blue Hen players, who were summoned to a morning meeting at the Carpenter Center with Robinson, were taken aback by the move, said team member Eric Carter, because Robinson had given Ross a vote of confidence in the postgame locker room after Delaware's 67-63 loss to Charleston in the CAA Tournament in Baltimore.

"None of us had any idea this was going to happen," said Carter, a sophomore who missed the season with a knee injury. ". . . They turned their backs on us in a sense just randomly doing this.''

With Holden’s departure, Delaware has nine recruited scholarship players returning next year, as well as several walk-ons, including Curtis McRoy, who played in 27 games with three starts in 2015-16.

“I definitely think we have a lot of upside,” said sophomore forward Skye Johnson, “depending on the new coach coming in. With coach Ross leaving, I’m sure some guys will look into transferring because it seems kind of unfair. I believe the coaching staff really did the best they could with what we had, given the situation. Coach Ross said over and over again, we can’t use injuries as an excuse. But the reality of the situation is we were down a lot of players and it was a rough year.”

Ross was the third CAA coach fired this month, joining Drexel’s Bruiser Flint, his close friend, and James Madison’s Matt Brady, his former associate at Saint Joseph’s.

"If you look at the record and [declining] attendance at games, the poor record speaks for itself," said Andrew Rusk, a UD senior who felt UD made the right move. "I just feel the school needs to take a chance and put more into basketball to make it more successful and more exciting."

Ross' UD staff included associate head coach Jeff Rafferty (nine UD seasons) and assistants Phil Martelli Jr. (five) and Chris Cheeks (four), as well as director of operations Saul Rafel-Frankel, a Delaware graduate with nine years on the staff. They are under contract through June 30.

Hens guard Holden, seeking higher level, to transfer

Ross’ UD tenure can certainly be drawn into three distinct phases.

After succeeding David Henderson in 2006-07, Ross’ Hens went 62-115 his first 5½ seasons. A 5-0 start in CAA games during an encouraging second year inspired Harker and executive vice president Scott Douglass to award him a lengthy – and unusual -- extension through the 2014-15 season. UD leaders stuck with Ross during his first five years, which included two 20-loss seasons and a 23-game CAA road losing streak.

Delaware then went 53-26 over the next 2½ seasons, culminating in Delaware’s first CAA title since joining the league in 2001-02 and first NCAA berth since going as America East champion in 1999.

In 2014-15, with just one senior and one junior, Delaware started 0-10 before stunning the Atlantic 10’s St. Bonaventure and going an encouraging 9-9 in CAA play, including 4-4 against the four teams that tied for first place, with a sweep of conference tournament top seed William & Mary.

Ross and Ziady had failed to agree on a contract extension during often-heated talks following Delaware’s 2014 CAA title. The News Journal learned Ross rejected an offer he felt was financially insufficient for both him and his coaching staff. Ross later reconsidered and tried to accept that deal, only to be told it was off the table. He then coached through the 2014-15 season as an apparent lame duck, creating a firestorm of public opinion, both pro and con, before being re-signed March 27.

Connie Cecil, president of the Blue Hen Basketball fan club, said she wasn’t completely surprised by UD’s decision but was saddened to hear of Ross’ departure.

“He was a good coach with some breaks along the way,” she said. “He had a bad year mainly because of what happened last year. He should have been given another year to prove that he and his staff could bring us another winning year.”

Ross was an assistant coach at Saint Joseph’s for 10 years under Phil Martelli Sr. when he was hired April 4, 2006, several weeks after Henderson was fired with two years left on his contract. Henderson, who’d been a Duke assistant, was 85-93 in six seasons (2000-06) after stepping in when Mike Brey was hired by Notre Dame.

A Philadelphia native and former Winston-Salem State guard, Ross led the Hens to their first winning record in eight years in 2011-12, going 18-14, boosted by a late nine-game win streak. Though they were still ousted in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals, they did earn the school’s first postseason bid in 12 years, losing at Butler in the College Basketball Invitational.

Anticipating a strong team, Ross put together the most competitive nonleague schedule in UD history in 2012-13. A victory at Virginia in the NIT Season Tipoff was UD’s first over an ACC foe in 50 years. The league schedule featured a sweep of traditional powers George Mason and Old Dominion in their last year in the CAA. A first-round CAA tourney win over Hofstra was Delaware’s 19th, most in a season since the 2000-01 team went 20-10 in the first year under Henderson and last in America East.

Boosted by the addition of transfer Davon Usher, Delaware then put together its breakthrough 2013-14 season, in which it went 25-10. Senior guard Devon Saddler became Delaware’s all-time leading scorer with 2,222 career points and Usher set a single-season UD record with 679 points.

In a dramatic CAA Tournament title game that came down to the final possession at the Baltimore Arena, Delaware nipped William & Mary 75-74 after erasing a six-point deficit in the final 1:15. The 13th-seeded Blue Hens then fell to No. 4-seed Michigan State, the nation’s 11th-ranked team, 93-78 in the NCAA Tournament in Spokane, Washington.

Kevin Tresolini can contacted atktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.

The Monte Ross years

2006-07: 5-26 (3-15 CAA)

2007-08: 14-17 (9-9 CAA)

2008-09: 13-19 (6-12 CAA)

2009-10: 7-24 (3-15 CAA)

2010-11: 14-17 (8-10 CAA)

2011-12: 18-14 (12-6 CAA)

2012-13: 19-14 (13-5 CAA)

2013-14: 25-10 (14-2 CAA)

2014-15: 10-20 (9-9 CAA)

2015-16: 7-23 (2-16 CAA)

Total: 132-184 (79-99)