Following Monday’s announcement that Jimmy Lallathin was no longer coaching the men’s basketball team, athletic director Vaughn Williams disclosed Saturday that the program is undergoing an internal review. He refused to disclose any aspects of the review. The evaluation is supposed to be completed in two weeks, according to a statement given to the media.
Lallathin has been reassigned within the athletics department, according to the statement. Again, Williams declined to provide more details. Through an Open Records Request, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has requested from Kennesaw State all of Williams’ correspondences regarding Lallathin.
Calls and texts throughout the week to Lallathin weren’t returned.
Lallathin was promoted to interim head coach during the middle of the 2013-14 season after Lewis Preston took a leave of absence for personal and medical reasons. Williams said in January 2014 that he fully expected to Preston to return as head coach for the 2014-15 season. Less than two months later, Preston wasn’t retained.
Less than three days after that Kennesaw State announced that Lallathin, one of Preston’s assistants, was promoted to head coach. Lallathin guided the Owls to a 10-22 record, which was an improvement over the team’s 6-25 record last season.
Kennesaw State is 85-175 since transitioning to Division I in 2005-06.
On Friday, Williams agreed to discuss the opening, but not Lallathin. He said that a national search will be conducted for the next coach and said he hoped to post the job Monday.
“I like to do it thoroughly, but as quickly as we can do it, as long as we can get the right person to do everything we believe we can do,” he said.
Williams said he has the same expectations for men’s basketball that he has for other sports: He wants them to succeed in the classroom, win championships and represent their conferences in postseason play.
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