While March Madness is about to be in full swing, several teams that did not make the NCAA Tournament are already in the process of changing head coaches. For the Eastern Michigan Eagles, they made the decision to part ways with head coach Stan Heath following the conclusion of the regular season. And they’ve settled on a replacement with the expected hiring of Billy Donlon as the new head coach, as per Pete Nakos of On3.
The hiring of Billy Donlon as head coach comes as Eastern Michigan finished with their sixth losing season in the past eight years. The other two years the Eagles finished at .500. Heath was at the helm for five seasons, compiling an overall record of 57-99. He initially took over in 2021 after the departure of Rob Murphy to the G League.
Eastern Michigan has not made the NCAA Tournament since the 1997-98 season when they were a 13 seed.
Donlon joins the program having spent the past four seasons as the associate head coach at Clemson under Brad Brownell. He does have head coaching experience, getting his first start at Wright State ahead of the 2011-12 season. He spent six years at the helm as Raiders head coach, leading the program to one College Basketball Invitational appearance and one CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
After he was let go by Wright State, Donlon was an assistant coach at both Michigan (2016-2017) and Northwestern (2017-2019) before landing another head coaching gig at Kansas City. He spent three seasons at Kansas City, overseeing the program’s move from the Western Athletic Conference to the Summit League in 2020. Donlon’s best season came in his final year with the Roos when he led the team to a 19-12 overall record, and 12-6 in Summit League play.
