 KENT, OH – Kent State University will begin the search for its 24th men’s basketball head coach with the announcement today that Geno Ford has accepted a similar position at Bradley University.
“I’d like to thank Geno for the seven years he gave to Kent State — the last three as our head coach,” said Director of Athletics Joel Nielsen. “He has left the program in tremendous shape and with a very bright future. I’m confident that we will find a replacement to maintain our winning tradition.”
Kent State Associate Head Coach Rob Senderoff has been named interim head coach. A national search for a new head coach will begin immediately.
In only three seasons at the helm of the Golden Flashes program, Ford led the team to three consecutive postseason appearances and a pair of Mid-American Conference regular season titles.
In 2010-11 alone, Ford took a Kent State team that entered the season with 10 first-year student-athletes and only three players that had previous experience in the program to a 25-12 overall record and a trip to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament. Along the way the Golden Flashes became the first MAC team in 21 years and just the second in 48 years to win back-to-back outright regular season championships.
Ford compiled a 68-37 (.648) overall record and a 35-13 (.729) mark in MAC play during his Kent State tenure which saw him earn MAC Coach of the Year honors each of the last two seasons.
By leading the Golden Flashes to their championship this year he became the first MAC coach in 48 years to led his team to consecutive outright regular season titles. He is one of only the four head coaches in the 64-year history of the league to accomplish the feat, joining a select group that includes Harold Anderson (Bowling Green, 1962 & 1963), Bill Roher (Miami, 1952 & 1953) and John Wiethe (Cincinnati, 1948, 1949, 1950 & 1951).
Courtesy of Kent State Athletics
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