Matt McCall becomes UMass men’s basketball coach at end of season, school announces

UMass has fired men’s basketball coach Matt McCall, the school announced Tuesday.

McCall will continue to coach the Minutemen through the end of the Atlantic 10 tournament, according to a school statement.

“Matt has invested himself in this role and has been a great teammate and partner as we work to develop a championship program. Unfortunately we didn’t get the desired results on the pitch and I think “A change at the end of the season is in the best interest of the program,” UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford said in a statement. “I am grateful that Matt and I shared a mutual desire to have him complete the 2021-22 campaign with the men on our program over the next few weeks.”

Hired in 2017 to replace Derek Kellogg, McCall has yet to lead the Minutemen into the playoffs. The team is currently 12-16 overall and 5-11 in the Atlantic 10. In his five seasons at Amherst, he is 58-81 overall and 28-52 in conference .

McCall’s buyout costs just under $800,000, sources told ESPN.

Prior to taking over at UMass, McCall had two successful seasons at Chattanooga, heading to the NCAA Tournament in 2016. He served as an assistant coach under Billy Donovan in Florida from 2011 to 2015, and also spent three seasons as a assistant coach at Florida Atlantic. .

UMass went to the Final Four under John Calipari in 1996 but has struggled to achieve national relevance since then. The program has only one NCAA tournament appearance since 1998, which was held in 2014 under Kellogg.

Potential names who should be involved in the search for UMass coaches include John Becker of Vermont, Dana Ford of Missouri State, Bashir Mason of Wagner, James Jones of Yale, Jared Grasso of Bryant and former coach of Indiana Archie Miller.