Arkansas State fires women’s basketball coach Brian Boyer.
Arkansas State University announced Wednesday it has parted ways with 20-year head women’s basketball coach Brian Boyer, the longest tenured men’s or women’s basketball coach in school history.
A four-time Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year, Boyer finished his
20th season as ASU’s head coach with a
12-18 record and a firstround, 63-49 loss at Coastal Carolina in the Sun Belt Boyer Tournament on Monday.
The school has not set a timetable for when it will name a new women’s basketball coach because of ongoing postseason play, said Arkansas State Athletic Director Terry Mohajir.
ASU will spend “all of the next week” vetting candidates to replace Boyer, Mohajir told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“There’s no real timeline,” Mohajir said, “but that all depends on people’s schedules and whether some of the candidates that we narrow down are in the postseason or not.”
Boyer did not immediately respond to the Democrat-Gazette’s request for comment.
Boyer was named ASU’s women’s basketball coach before the 1990-2000 season and finished with a career record of 333-287 in 20 seasons.
ASU finished with a winning percentage at or better than .500 in 14 of his 20 seasons.
“He’s been a really good employee and very loyal to Jonesboro and the community and our university,” Mohajir said.
Arkansas State made seven National Invitational Tournament appearances and collected three Sun Belt regular-season championships, including outright regular-season titles in 2013-14 and 2015-16.
In three seasons from 20132016, Boyer’s teams compiled 73 victories, the most victories in program history in a three-year span.
In the past three seasons, ASU finished 34-57. The Red Wolves were 7-24 in 2016-17, 15-15 last season and 12-18 this season.
“I am pretty sure that he was not surprised,” Mohajir said. “He was very professional and understood. We talked to him about some previous conversations. He understood.”
ASU has not produced a winning season since it recorded a 27-6 record in 201516 — a year that gave ASU an outright Sun Belt regular-season championship and in which Boyer was named coach of the year.
Boyer was the longest-tenured Sun Belt conference women’s basketball coach prior to Wednesday.