UMKC Basketball: Roos hire Billy Donlon as new head coach

After firing former head coach Kareem Richardson just over two weeks ago after six lackluster seasons, UMKC has found his replacement in Northwestern assistant coach Billy Donlon.

Billy Donlon, who coached Wright State to a 109-94 record from 2010-2016, takes over a fledgling program that consistently finds itself near the cellar of the Western Athletic Conference. In Richardson’s half-dozen years as the head coach, UMKC went 75-118 with only one winning season, in 2016-2017 when the squad finished 18-17.

The hope is that Donlon–who led Wright State to three seasons of at least 20 wins–can right the ship by keeping home local products. That means persuading guys like Ben Richardson and Clayton Custer, two members of last year’s Loyola-Chicago’s Final Four team, to stick around.

UMKC has never had a consistent winner in basketball, but the team has had its fair share of solid seasons.

https://twitter.com/UMKCmbb/status/1111659578599579649

Back in the early 1990’s, with Lee Hunt as the head coach, the Roos had three straight winning seasons of at least 15 wins with a high coming in 1991-92 as the team finished 21-7. That season, led in part by future first-round draft pick Tony Dumas, UMKC defeated Texas A&M (on the road), Baylor, and Creighton while hanging tough in close losses to Cincinnati and Nebraska.

Dumas, who averaged 21.6 points, 2.6 assists, and 4.6 rebounds that season, continued his great career even as the Roos (then Kangaroos) finished 12-17 his senior year. That season, Dumas averaged 26 points, 3 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game.

In that year’s draft, the Dallas Mavericks selected him with the No. 19 overall pick. He’d play four years in the NBA between the Mavericks, Suns, and Cavaliers, and remains the only UMKC basketball player to play in The League.

Imagine if that were to happen again today. Imagine if Donlon pulled that off: grabbed a local kid struggling to find offers elsewhere and turned him into a star capable of playing in the NBA. That would turn around UMKC from a place where coaches go to get fired to a small, localized successful program.

Donlon, with his head-coaching experience and Big Ten-pedigree from assistant stops at Northwestern and Michigan, looks more than capable of achieving that.

Home run hire.