Penn fires trainer Steve Donahue, Columbia trainer Jim Engles steps down after groups omit Ivy League event

A couple of Ivy League faculties are actually in search of new head coaches.Each Columbia and Penn parted techniques with their respective basketball coaches on Monday. Longtime Columbia trainer Jim Engles opted to step down after 8 seasons with this system, the varsity introduced.Engles went 71-150 right through his near-decade run with the varsity. He was once employed forward of the 2016-17 marketing campaign, although he did not have a profitable season or make the NCAA event. Columbia in reality hasn’t made the NCAA event since 1968. The varsity’s remaining profitable season got here below former trainer Kyle Smith, who’s now at Stanford, proper prior to Engles was once employed.Columbia began the 12 months out on an 11-1 burst, or even disenchanted Villanova at the street in November. However the Lions misplaced 14 in their remaining 15 video games to finish the 12 months, which dropped them to 12-15 and to remaining within the Ivy League standings.”Columbia has supposed such a lot to me, and I have given the entirety I’ve to make this program the most efficient it may be,” Engles stated in a observation. “We won’t have completed our final objectives, however I am pleased with the tradition we constructed and the student-athletes we advanced off and on the court docket. I additionally wish to thank [athletic director] Peter Pilling for his fortify all over the years and know the way forward for this program is brilliant.”Penn fires trainer Steve DonahuePenn additionally break up with its head trainer on Monday. The Quakers fired longtime trainer Steve Donahue after 9 seasons with this system.Donahue first took over at Penn forward of the 2015-16 marketing campaign, and he’ll end with a 131-130 document. He led the Quakers to a unmarried Ivy League identify and an NCAA event look in 2018, which was once the group’s simplest look over the past 17 seasons. The Quakers had only one profitable document over the past 4 campaigns, and the group in large part fell aside this season.Penn went simply 8-19 this marketing campaign, although it nonetheless completed forward of Columbia within the Ivy League standings after beating the Lions two times. It was once Penn’s worst run in additional than a decade. Neither Penn nor Columbia certified for the Ivy League event this season, both.Earlier than Penn, Donahue spent 4 seasons at Boston Faculty and 10 seasons at Cornell, the place he reached the NCAA event in his ultimate 3 years.”I am appreciative of Steve’s lengthy tenure of management and repair to Penn basketball and our student-athletes, each as an assistant and head trainer,” athletic director Alanna Wren stated in a observation. “Steve has been steadfast in his dedication to this system and the improvement of our student-athletes. I have at all times had nice appreciate for his dedication to Ivy values, and he has been a robust consultant of Penn right through his profession. Sadly, the aggressive good fortune at the court docket has no longer been as much as our requirements. Whilst tough, a metamorphosis in management is vital to give you the championship-caliber revel in our student-athletes, alumni and fanatics be expecting. We want Steve and his circle of relatives the most efficient shifting ahead.”