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Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk, second from right, smiles as he watches Nathan Boothe shoot a foul shot during the 2015-16 season.
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UT’s results not much different than Wright St.

BLADE/LORI KING

UT’s results not much different than Wright St.

Raiders fired coach, but Rockets stick with Kowalczyk

The athletic director at Wright State University on the outskirts of Dayton, a fellow named Bob Grant, is taking heat from media, fans and coaches alike over his decision to fire men’s basketball coach Billy Donlon.

The 39-year-old Donlon just polished off a 22-13 season with a school-record 13 conference wins and a third trip to the Horizon League championship game in the last four years. He led the Raiders to three 20-win seasons and one of 19 wins. His record in six seasons is 109-94, 53-49 in the Horizon.

Grant made clear his reasons for the decision: no NCAA or NIT tournament appearances — “those little gold nuggets,” he called them — and declining attendance.

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Wright State has been to the NCAA tournament twice in its history, which dates to 1970 overall and to 1987 at the Division I level.

WSU is one of those no-football midmajors, so men’s basketball is king of the roost and the main revenue sport. Wright State, which plays in the 10,400-seat Nutter Center, averaged 4,355 fans per home date this past season.

Donlon’s neighborhood rival/​colleague from less than one hour away in Cincinnati, Xavier’s Chris Mack, said: “It’s a bad decision. I don’t know who Wright State is pretending to be or trying to be, but that’s ridiculous.”

There were no academic or off-court scandals coming out of Wright State, including no bad behavior by the coach, and Donlon was graduating players at an acceptable level. The NCAA’s most recent Academic Progress Rate for WSU men’s basketball was 970, well above the penalty score of 930.

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There. That’s everything I can tell you about Billy Donlon, Wright State basketball and an athletic director who decided it wasn’t good enough.

Well, there is one more thing I can tell you. Toledo men’s coach Tod Kowalczyk, 49, must certainly be pleased that Bob Grant is not his boss because the facts and figures between Wright State and UT are eerily similar.

Kowalczyk, with the same six years under his belt with the Rockets that Donlon had at Wright State, is 102-93 overall and 51-51 in Mid-American Conference play.

He has led UT to five straight winning seasons, two with 20-plus wins and another at 19, after opening with a 4-28 mark during the 2010-11 season that was the continuation of the disastrous hiring that preceded his. That included a carry-over of APR issues that prompted a postseason ban (2012-13 season). The most recent APR figure has rebounded to 970, the same as Wright State’s score.

In the last three seasons, Kowalczyk’s teams have won 27 (NIT berth), 20 and 17 games and are 33-21 in MAC play. However, after two seasons of averaging more than 5,000 fans per home game in 7,300-seat Savage Arena, UT dipped to 4,478 per game for 15 home dates during the recently concluded season. There has been just one home sellout in the last three years.

The blank on Kowalczyk’s resume — including eight prior seasons at Wisconsin-Green Bay — is the same as on Donlon’s shorter history. No league tournament championships and, thus, no NCAA tournament berths.

The one big difference: Kowalczyk’s contract with UT, which he has led to one MAC tourney title game, has been extended through the end of the 2020-21 season. Donlon is unemployed.

Yes, TK can be thankful his boss is named Mike O’Brien, not Bob Grant.

Contact Blade sports columnist Dave Hackenberg at: dhack@theblade.com.

First Published March 21, 2016, 4:05 a.m.

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Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk, second from right, smiles as he watches Nathan Boothe shoot a foul shot during the 2015-16 season.  (BLADE/LORI KING)
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