Cheyenne – Wyoming coach Steve McClain was fired Monday, days after the Cowboys ended a fourth straight season without reaching postseason play.
Wyoming finished its ninth season under McClain at 17-15 overall, 7-9 in the Mountain West Conference. McClain leaves with a record of 157-115 – 67-63 in league play.
“We just needed a new direction for the program, a new face, so to speak, to represent our program,” Athletic Director Tom Burman said in a news conference.
Burman, who took over as AD five months ago, said everything from poor records to poor ticket sales to academics factored into his decision.
McClain’s contract ran through 2009-10 season. Under the terms of that deal, the university will pay McClain a lump sum of $380,000 for the remaining three years.
McClain did not immediately return phone messages left at his home.
In 2002, Wyoming went 22-9 and won an outright regular-season conference championship for the first time in 20 years. The Cowboys also received their first NCAA bid in 14 years, and upset Gonzaga 73-66 before losing to Arizona 68-60. In 2003, Wyoming finished 22-11 and reached the NIT.
It’s been a struggle the past four seasons, which included two losing records – 11-17 in 2004 and 14-18 last season.
The move came just hours after Mountain West Conference rival . The league will have at least four new coaches next season. New Mexico’s Ritchie McKay and Utah’s Ray Giacoletti have both been told they will not return next season.
Burman said he hoped to hire McClain’s replacement within four weeks. He acknowledged that other vacancies could make finding a new coach more difficult.
“That definitely changes things when you have so many openings at the same time, so many regional openings and nationally as well,” he said.
