Hunter, the men’s basketball coach at Georgia State, responded by text. The story, posted by the Dayton Daily News, included Hunter as one of five candidates to replace Billy Donlon, who was fired by athletic director Bob Grant last week.
Wright State is located in Dayton, Hunter’s hometown. He attended Miami (Ohio), where he later became an assistant coach. After 17 seasons at IUPUI, Hunter took over Georgia State before the 2011-12 season.
He led the Panthers to consecutive Sun Belt Conference regular-season titles in 2013-14 and 2014-15, as well as the Sun Belt tournament championship last season, where he became a bit of a celebrity because he tore his Achilles while celebrating the win. Coaching from a stool, Hunter led the Panthers over Baylor in the NCAA tournament, capped by his son R.J. hitting a 3-pointer to win the game, before losing to Xavier.
He received "feelers" for jobs after last year's success, but said he wanted to stay at Georgia State.
The Panthers went 16-14 during the 2015-16 season and were beaten in the first round of the Sun Belt tournament. He is 103-59 at Georgia State.
The team will return several playes from this year’s team, including Jeremy Hollowell and Isaiah Williams, and will welcome two of the highest-rated recruits in Georgia State history in guard D’Marcus Simonds and forward Chris Clerkley.
Hunter had a base salary of $500,000 this season. His contract has a buyout of $600,000 if executed before April 30. It drops to $550,000 if executed between May 1-April 30, 2017.
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