NCAA investigation played role in Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach Ty Margenthaler's resignation

With an NCAA investigation looming over the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball program and another abysmal season in the books, Ty Margenthaler resigned as the coach of the Redhawks.

The news of Margenthaler's departure after four seasons was announced by the university on Monday. He submitted his letter of resignation on Friday.

"While I had hoped to achieve more during my tenure here at Southeast, I feel it is in the best interest of everyone involved to resign as head coach of the Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball program," Margenthaler said in a release. "I would like to personally thank the university community, fans and student body for their support and thank the student-athletes for their efforts over the last four years."

Margenthaler could not be reached by phone for comment.

Margenthaler was named Southeast's seventh women's basketball coach on April 14, 2011, replacing John Ishee after five seasons.

The Redhawks went 4-14 in the Ohio Valley Conference and tied a school record with 21 losses in each of Ishee's last two seasons.

Southeast was 10-19 overall in Margenthaler's final season and 3-13 in the OVC to tie for 10th place in the 12-team league.

The season started with Margenthaler serving a two-game suspension. The Southeast Missourian reported in December that the women's basketball program was under NCAA investigation due to violations committed by Margenthaler and a former assistant coach. The investigation is ongoing.

"The situation that you have there is let them do their work and see where this comes out, so when it came to that decision it was more or less looking at, again, the performance but also understanding that you have this other piece over here that's looming, which we don't know when that's going to become available," Alnutt said. "Obviously they're investigating right now. They'll look into it, but it could trigger something else so we felt it was appropriate to give him the option of being able to resign at this time, which he accepted."

The university expects to have an update on the investigation from the NCAA next month.

"It will just be more like a notice, and then obviously they do their work and then the official won't be until potentially the fall," Alnutt said. " *... Obviously with the new structure their trying to be more diligent. We just want to know as quickly as possible so we know if there's anything in addition that we'll be penalized for."

Margenthaler, who went 37-78, was 18-46 in the conference and failed to make the OVC tournament while at Southeast, was an assistant at Wisconsin for five years prior to taking the job as the Redhawks coach.

Margenthaler played two seasons at Indian Hills Community College and finished his collegiate career playing for his dad Jack at SIU Edwardsville, where he graduated from in 1997. He then spent two seasons coaching alongside his dad at SIUE.

He coached at Roxanna High School in Illinois from 1997-99 before joining the Bradley staff as an assistant from 2000-06.

"Coach Margenthaler and I met and decided that it was in the best interests of the program that he step aside," Southeast athletic director Mark Alnutt said in a release. "While he came to our program at a difficult time with back-to-back 21-loss seasons, the program has not rebounded as much as we had both hoped. We appreciate Ty's efforts and we wish him and his family well in the future."

Heather Ezell, who has been an assistant on Margenthaler's staff since his first season and served as the head coach during Margenthaler's suspension, will be the acting head coach until Margenthaler's replacement is hired.