Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
The Kevin McKenna era at Indiana State is over.
Several sources with knowledge of the situation, all of whom declined to be identified until an official announcement is made, have confirmed to the Tribune-Star that ISU men’s basketball coach Kevin McKenna will leave ISU to take a job on Dana Altman’s staff at the University of Oregon.
The official announcement from ISU is expected today.
Calls placed to McKenna and Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman were not returned as of press time.
The ISU coaching staff met with the ISU players on Sunday and confirmed the news that McKenna would be leaving the program.
McKenna coached at ISU for three seasons. His record with the Sycamores was 43-52. After two losing seasons, ISU finished 17-15 and tied for fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2010, its first winning season in nine years. The Sycamores received a bid to the College Basketball Invitational as a result.
McKenna replaced Royce Waltman in March 2007 and got the job after a month-long search. McKenna worked on Altman’s staff at Creighton for nine years over two different periods.
This is the second time McKenna has left a head coaching position to return to an Altman-coached team. McKenna coached Nebraska-Omaha from 2001 to 2005 before he left that job to return to the Bluejays, where he also played and was an All-Missouri Valley Conference player.
Altman was hired at Oregon from Creighton in April.
McKenna is the second head coach among ISU’s past three coaches who has left the Sycamores for another job. In 1997, Sherman Dillard left ISU to become head coach at his alma mater, James Madison.
