Departure of Southeast Missouri State men's, women's basketball coach announced

Within a span of an hour and a half on Monday afternoon, there were openings for the Southeast Missouri State University men's and women's basketball head coaching positions.

The university announced the resignation of women's coach Ty Margenthaler, and shortly on the heels of that came the announcement of the firing of men's coach Dickey Nutt.

The news came 2 1/2 weeks after the Southeast men's season-ending loss in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament and about three weeks after the women's regular season ended when it failed to make the conference tournament for the sixth consecutive year.

Nutt coached the Redhawks for six seasons and compiled a record of 80-108 overall and 41-59 in the OVC.

He had two winning seasons: 17-16 in 2012-13 and 18-14 in 2013-14.

Southeast Missouri State coach Ty Margenthaler shouts to his players during the first half against Illinois-Springfield on Dec. 21 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

Southeast secured a spot in the eight-team conference tournament five times during Nutt's reign but never advanced past the quarterfinal round.

The Redhawks finished eighth in the OVC with a 7-9 record this season and lost 79-74 to Morehead State in the first round of the tournament to conclude the year 13-17.

"After evaluating the season but also evaluating since I've been here, Coach Nutt, he's done some good things from what he inherited in Year One to Year Six, but the thing that really stood out to me and just looking back at the season was where we stood from an Ohio Valley Conference standpoint," Southeast athletic director Mark Alnutt said. "Yes, we had back-to-back winning seasons my first year here and last year, but when you look at our standing in the OVC, it's been pretty flat, and obviously it declined a little bit this year. ... I just felt that, from a competitive standpoint, that we should be better as a program.

"And also Year Six of a program, you expect to have that taking shape and that going more of a positive direction. The expectations that were laid out to Dickey, which he and I talked about and he agreed upon before this season -- just didn't reach them. After thinking about this and again from a timing standpoint, it was a difficult decision. I just felt it was best for us to go in another direction."

Margenthaler went 37-78 and was 18-46 in the OVC in his four seasons at Southeast.

Southeast Missouri State coach Ty Margenthaler talks to his team during a timeout in the second half of the game with Austin Peay Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015 at the Show Me Center.

The Redhawks, which have not reached the conference tournament since 2009, finished tied for 10th in the OVC standings this season after finishing the season 10-19 and 3-13 in the conference.

Margenthaler was suspended for the first two games of the season last year.

The Southeast Missourian reported in December the women's basketball program was under NCAA investigation due to violations committed by Margenthaler and a former assistant coach.

"A lot of that you can look at performance as well, on the court, but as we all know, too, there's a looming NCAA [case] that they're investigating us," Alnutt said. "That was a situation that obviously we acted swiftly and self-reported, self-imposed some discipline, and now that's in the hands of the NCAA."

The university will pay buyouts for both coaches to bring the total to three contracts Southeast will pay next year for coaches who no longer work at the university due to firing or resignation.

Former football coach Tony Samuel had two years remaining on his contract when he was fired in November 2013. He received a buyout of $145,833.38.

Margenthaler's payoff for his resignation is $29,500, according to Alnutt, while Nutt, who agreed to a new contract through the 2016-2017 season last April, is set to receive $93,636.

The terms of his contract state Nutt, whose contract was for a base salary of $124,848 per year, would be paid half the remaining base salary under his current contract through April 30, 2016, and a quarter of the remaining base salary between May 1, 2016, and April 30, 2017.

Alnutt will be assisted by senior associate to the president Brady Barke in the search for Nutt's replacement and senior associate director of athletics and senior woman administrator Cindy Gannon for Margenthaler's replacement.

"We're just beginning," Alnutt said.

"We're going to post the job tomorrow on the traditional websites. ... Already you have a lot of people expressing interest for this job on both sides. It's just a matter of us doing our due diligence, not rushing just to rush and having an opportunity to vet out some key folks and hopefully be in a position to have both of them hired by the end of April. Hopefully it's before that, but that's the anticipation right now."

The search will include attending the men's basketball Final Four in Indianapolis and women's Final Four in Tampa to seek out potential candidates.

"We'll have an opportunity to go to the final fours to hopefully be in a position to have some direct face-to-face contact with some people, and then after that, I envision bringing in a couple finalists in here to actually see the place, be here physically, see Cape Girardeau, and then at the end of the day be able to hire a candidate," Alnutt said. "The one thing that we're going to work on is I want to make this very competitive in terms of salary for the head coach and also for the assistant coaches' salary pool."