More than 150 members of the Ball State University community came to the Worthen Arena lounge to watch as former Lehigh University head coach Billy Taylor was introduced as the new head coach for Ball State's men's basketball program.
Taylor was a candidate for the position when Ronny Thompson was hired in April 2006, however, Taylor had not been mentioned as a candidate until a few days before he was hired.
He will be the third coach in three seasons for Ball State. His hiring followed four weeks of intense speculation over who would replace Thompson, who quit on July 12, following and incident involving notes containing racial slurs left in the men's basketball offices, as well as new allegations from the NCAA.
"It is difficult to make that transition from one coach to another," senior guard Peyton Stovall said. "But, at the Division I level, if you want to win you're willing to make the sacrifice to do what you have to do to win."
Taylor spent five years at Lehigh where he amassed a 81-69 record. Perhaps more impressive is his graduation rate - he has seen 20 of his 21 student athletes graduate during his time at Lehigh and the 21st is six credit hours away.
"It's one of the things you look at; it's one of those things you can put a check mark by on the list," Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins said of Taylor, who earned a CPA after graduating from Notre Dame. "I'm mean, how many basketball coaches have their CPA? So he's committed to that and making sure his student athletes are successful in the classroom as well as on the court."
When Taylor took over at Lehigh he led the team to an immediate turnaround and spearheaded a 16-win season, 11 more than the program had scored the previous year.
"I think his greatest strength is that he is an experienced head coach who has dealt with the challenges of a struggling team and understands what it is you need to do to build a winning team," Ball State President Jo Ann Gora said. "He grew up in a small town and he currently works in a small town and I think he understands the interest and passion of people for basketball in a small town."
Collins said, following Thompson's departure, that one of the things he would look for was a coach who could recruit local talent. This is in start contrast to Thompson, who only recruited one player from Indiana, who never played for Ball State.
"Indiana is a talent-rich state in basketball," Taylor said. "I'm excited to be here and have the opportunity to recruit in-state here and attract that local talent that can put our program in a position to be successful in the future."
As of Monday, Taylor had met with most of the players and was working on assembling his staff. There are only three anticipated returning players who were not recruited by Thompson; Stovall, Anthony Newell and Brandon Lampley.
While most basketball coaching changes occur in April and early May, Taylor's August hire is considerably late, and will only increase the challenges he will face in the coming weeks.
"We have a lot of work to do," Taylor said.
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