After going 84-115 over the last six seasons, Samford is parting ways with head men’s basketball coach Scott Padgett. The Bulldogs went to the CIT back in 2017, but were just 10-23 this past year, their fourth sub-.500 season in six years under Padgett.
This was the first head coaching gig for Padgett, who played at Kentucky and in the NBA before becoming an assistant under John Calipari at his alma mater in 2009. After winning 20 games in 2016-17, he earned a contract extension through the 2021-22 season but failed to live up to expectations in the years that followed. In April 2018, four key players transferred out of the program and Padgett and the Bulldogs couldn’t recover from that blow.
Some names that make sense for Samford moving forward: Kentucky assistant Tony Barbee, Florida State assistant (and former Georgia Southern head coach) Charlton Young, Minnesota assistant (and former Tulane and The Citadel head coach) Ed Conroy and recently-fired head coaches Robert Ehsan (UAB) and Allen Edwards (Wyoming).
credit to Samford Athletics for the photo
