Jones' departure adds twist to UCF rivalry

Jones' departure adds twist to UCF rivalry
With Central Florida's luring of Marshall basketball coach Donnie Jones, a pecking order has been established in Conference USA.

The Charleston Gazette
By Doug Smock
Staff writer

The Associated Press

With Central Florida's luring of Marshall basketball coach Donnie Jones, a pecking order has been established in Conference USA.

The Knights are at or near the top of it, and the Thundering Herd's athletic program is lagging behind.

That seems to be the message coming out of Orlando, where UCF has lured Jones, who this season guided the Herd to its first postseason appearance in 22 years. UCF named Jones as its new coach Monday, adding to one of Marshall's budding new rivalries a twist thought unimaginable even a few weeks ago.

Jones returns to the Sunshine State, where he helped ex-Marshall coach Billy Donovan lead Florida to two national championships. On the other hand, the Point Pleasant native is leaving his home state and even his wife's home county.

And that isn't all the departures, either. Seven-foot freshman Hassan Whiteside is expected to hire an agent, ending his college career. He was strongly considering entering the NBA draft as he rewrote Marshall record books for blocking shots.

In his first head coaching job, Jones was 55-41 in three seasons with the Herd. His 2007-08 team, pieced together with eight returning players and a few last-minute recruits, was 17-15, the first winning season in seven years.

His latest edition went 24-10, 11-5 in C-USA, sparking renewed excitement in the basketball program and drawing crowds up to 8,000 at Cam Henderson Center. Whiteside and Tyler Wilkerson became the first Herd players to reach second-team All-Conference USA status in the Herd's five-season membership in the league.

Jones even owns a 4-2 edge over UCF, with three consecutive victories - and it probably hastened the exit of coach Kirk Speraw. Speraw was fired by athletic director Keith Tribble after a 17-year career which spanned UCF's rise from the Atlantic Sun to C-USA, but ended with a 15-17 season, 6-10 in the league and a grisly tournament exit in C-USA.

When Speraw was fired, Jones remarked in passing how attractive the job was. For starters, he stands to receive a handsome pay raise. Jones' 2009 base salary is listed as $226,600 and he made $380,487.07 that year in total compensation. Media-related income and incentives tend to make up that difference for football and men's basketball head coaches.

He had signed a five-year contract extension prior to this season - while his career record was still .500 - that was worth $450,000, with incentives that could have earned him up to an additional $250,000. He'll get a reported $800,000 a year at UCF, which pays football coach George O'Leary at least $1 million, plus up to $500,000 in incentives.

Jones will take up residence in the 10,000-seat UCF Arena, which opened in the fall of 2007 with a price tag of $107 million. Jones has called it the second-best venue in C-USA, behind the NBA-caliber arena FedEx Forum at Memphis.

With an enrollment climbing past the 50,000 mark, UCF also stands to enjoy a rapidly increasing alumni base.

With Central Florida's luring of Marshall basketball coach Donnie Jones, a pecking order has been established in Conference USA.

The Knights are at or near the top of it, and the Thundering Herd's athletic program is lagging behind.

That seems to be the message coming out of Orlando, where UCF has lured Jones, who this season guided the Herd to its first postseason appearance in 22 years. UCF named Jones as its new coach Monday, adding to one of Marshall's budding new rivalries a twist thought unimaginable even a few weeks ago.

Jones returns to the Sunshine State, where he helped ex-Marshall coach Billy Donovan lead Florida to two national championships. On the other hand, the Point Pleasant native is leaving his home state and even his wife's home county.

And that isn't all the departures, either. Seven-foot freshman Hassan Whiteside is expected to hire an agent, ending his college career. He was strongly considering entering the NBA draft as he rewrote Marshall record books for blocking shots.

In his first head coaching job, Jones was 55-41 in three seasons with the Herd. His 2007-08 team, pieced together with eight returning players and a few last-minute recruits, was 17-15, the first winning season in seven years.

His latest edition went 24-10, 11-5 in C-USA, sparking renewed excitement in the basketball program and drawing crowds up to 8,000 at Cam Henderson Center. Whiteside and Tyler Wilkerson became the first Herd players to reach second-team All-Conference USA status in the Herd's five-season membership in the league.

Jones even owns a 4-2 edge over UCF, with three consecutive victories - and it probably hastened the exit of coach Kirk Speraw. Speraw was fired by athletic director Keith Tribble after a 17-year career which spanned UCF's rise from the Atlantic Sun to C-USA, but ended with a 15-17 season, 6-10 in the league and a grisly tournament exit in C-USA.

When Speraw was fired, Jones remarked in passing how attractive the job was. For starters, he stands to receive a handsome pay raise. Jones' 2009 base salary is listed as $226,600 and he made $380,487.07 that year in total compensation. Media-related income and incentives tend to make up that difference for football and men's basketball head coaches.

He had signed a five-year contract extension prior to this season - while his career record was still .500 - that was worth $450,000, with incentives that could have earned him up to an additional $250,000. He'll get a reported $800,000 a year at UCF, which pays football coach George O'Leary at least $1 million, plus up to $500,000 in incentives.

Jones will take up residence in the 10,000-seat UCF Arena, which opened in the fall of 2007 with a price tag of $107 million. Jones has called it the second-best venue in C-USA, behind the NBA-caliber arena FedEx Forum at Memphis.

With an enrollment climbing past the 50,000 mark, UCF also stands to enjoy a rapidly increasing alumni base.

Tribble reportedly was selling coaching candidates on UCF's expectation to join the Big East - a holy grail of sorts for several C-USA schools - in three to five years. Before joining Conference USA in the recent realignment, UCF held out to join the Big East as a ninth football school, even if that were the only sport to make the jump.

South Florida has long been suspected as being an impediment to UCF joining the Big East, even ending the Interstate 4 football rivalry. Then again, the Big East may need to restock on the football side if the Big Ten triggers another round of realignment.

UCF operated in 2008 on an athletic budget just under $30 million, according to Equity in Athletics reports, compared to Marshall's $22 million. The Knights averaged 5,411 per home basketball game, just under Marshall's 5,680, and that included a loud crowd of 9,460 that saw an 81-75 loss to the Herd.

Marshall's average was the best at the Henderson Center since 2000-01. The Herd also enjoyed a new locker room that was part of a $1.7 million renovation project, and more than $1 million in other improvements to the arena have been announced.

The Herd enjoyed its best conference record in any league since the final year of its Southern Conference days, 1996-97, and even earned a first-round bye in the C-USA tournament. But it floundered in the postseason, losing 80-64 to Tulsa in the C-USA quarterfinals and losing to Appalachian State in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com tourney.

Jones' exit may have given Herd fans a feeling that he left with unfinished business, going 0-3 in C-USA tournament play. That was much the same as when he left with mentor Donovan to Florida. Donovan stayed at Marshall two seasons, leading it to the Southern Conference quarterfinals and semis in a 35-20 stint.

Marshall players were hit with the news on their first day back from spring break and there was some shock. Athletic director Mike Hamrick addressed the team, and vowed to monitor the program closely, i.e., make sure players go to class, follow through with tutoring and the offseason program, etc.

By several accounts, that wasn't quite the case when Marshall fired coach Ron Jirsa after the 2006-07 season. In the four weeks between Jirsa's departure and Jones' hiring, players drifted off and one player, Darryl Merthie, lost a semester's eligibility because of it. (Merthie has recovered and will graduate this semester.)

Jones' buyout is $500,000. Hamrick, who hired football coach Doc Holliday in December, will try his hand at hiring a basketball coach. The timing favors a quick process. Not only does the season end for everybody by Monday night, but every coach in America attends the Final Four - and those interested can find Hamrick in Indianapolis.

"Our search will begin immediately. There will be no public comment during the search in order to protect the integrity of the process," Hamrick said. "We have invested a great deal in our basketball program and we will find the right person to lead our program."

Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.