Marist College assistant basketball coach Paul Lee this year is coaching his son, freshman walk-on guard Tucker Lee. A.J. Martelli/Poughkeepsie Journal
Marist College basketball coach Mike Maker talks about his team's big overtime win over Fairfield Saturday in the postgame press conference. A.J. Martelli/Poughkeepsie Journal
A few short clips from the Marist men's basketball home opener against Lehigh. Alex H. Wagner/Poughkeepsie Journal
The Marist College men's basketball team insists it will have a winning season, something that's eluded the team for nine years. A.J. Martelli/Poughkeepsie Journal
-
Marist's Paul and Tucker Lee talk basketball -
Mike Maker discusses Marist's win over Fairfield -
Video: Highlights from the Marist men's basketball home opener against Lehigh -
Video: Marist men predict winning season
The Mike Maker era is over at Marist College.
After four years and 28 total wins, the head coach has been "relieved of his duties," according to a release from Marist on Monday. Makers assistants have likewise been released, the school said.
“I have the utmost respect for Mike in the way he led our men’s basketball program,” Marist Director of Athletics Tim Murray said in a statement. “From the day he stepped on campus, Mike guided our program with class and integrity. The program accurately represented our expectations in the classroom and community, but ultimately we had to make a decision that was in the long-term best interest of the team.”
Murray and the troubled program are launching a national search to hire its fifth head coach in 12 seasons.
Maker at year's end: 'People want results'
Marist men stumble through season-ending defeat
The announcement came less than an hour before the Marist women's basketball team was scheduled to take on Quinnipiac in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference final.
Marist ended a 6-25 season with a 71-57 loss to Fairfield in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference first round. It was consecutive year that Marist has finished last or tied for last in the regular season. Maker's final record was 28-97, including a 1-4 record in MAAC tournament play.
After the final loss, Maker took verbal responsibility for the program's lack of success in a press conference.
“I know we have to win more. That responsibility falls on my shoulders. We haven’t been able to do that,” Maker said. “So, we have a lot of work to do.”
That work will now belong to Murray, the school's search committee, and eventually the incoming coaching staff.
"Marist strives for excellence both on the basketball court and in the classroom," Murray said in a statement. "Our goal is to compete for a MAAC championship each year."
But, the men's basketball team's problems predate the man who was lured to Marist from Division III Williams College in 2014.
Marist's last winning season came in 2007-08, Matt Brady's last at the helm. Chuck Martin served as coach for five seasons; his team's best record of 14-18 came in 2011-12 before he was fired one year later. Jeff Bower coached in 2013-14 before leaving Marist to become the Detroit Pistons' general manager.
Paul Lee, one of Maker's assistants released Monday, has been at the school since Martin's first season and briefly served as interim coach during the offseason before Bower was hired.
Combined, Marist has a 79-236 record in the last decade, and interest in the team has seemingly plummeted. Whereas the school averaged 2,381 fans per home game in the 2007-08 season, it averaged 1,224 this season.
One fan in attendance at the Times Union Center to watch the MAAC women's final Monday, Sam Calvelli, said he "shocked" at the timing of the announced firing.
Tim McGrath, another Marist fan in the stands, agreed, but said the move itself was no surprise.
"It hasn’t been working," McGrath said. "I was at every game and it was the same thing. They’d keep it close in the first half and lose it in the second half."
Marist was among the worst in the nation this season in several key statistical categories.
Out of 351 Division I teams entering Monday, Marist was ranked:
- 333rd in points allowed
- 333rd in scoring margin
- 336th in assist-to-turnover ratio
- 344th in turnover margin
- 301st in rebounding margin
- 344th in steals per game
- 295th in blocks per game
- 292nd in assists per game
Some of those flaws have been endemic through the past decade. Marist has ranked 286th or worse in scoring margin in seven of the last 10 years, 285th or worse in rebounding margin in nine of those years, and 290th or worse in assist-to-turnover ratio in six of those years.
Marist next season will have a talented group of senior wings — the product of Maker's first recruiting class — headlined by Third Team All-MAAC combo guard Brian Parker.
But, Marist struggled to recruit talent to bolster that class, namely in the frontcourt to aid its ongoing rebounding troubles. The team also played this season without a natural point guard, a position neither of Maker's two incoming recruits play.
This story will be updated