San Diego fires head men’s coach Sam Scholl after four seasons

Sam Scholl has been fired as the head men’s basketball coach at San Diego, the school announced on Sunday. The Toreros were 15-16 this season and 50-66 overall in four seasons under Scholl.

“Decisions like this are very difficult, especially when it involves people you care so much about,” AD Bill McGillis said in a statement. “Coach Scholl is an amazing man, and he has been a tremendous mentor to the young men in our program. Although we have not achieved the competitive progress we expected, Sam has poured his heart and soul into USD basketball, and he has led our program with great integrity from day one. Both as a student-athlete and as a coach, Sam has represented the university with great class, and no one cares more about the Toreros than he does. We are truly grateful for his leadership and wish him the very best moving forward.”

Scholl played two seasons at San Diego (1998-2000) and had two stints as an assistant at his alma mater (2000-07 and 2015-18) with a long run under Kerry Keating at Santa Clara in between.

He was officially hired in 2018 after serving as interim head coach to end the 2017-18 season, Scholl won 21 games and led USD to the NIT in his first season at the helm. However, he finished below .500 in each season since then.

credit to Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune for the photo