Ford Gave Kent State No Notice Before Accepting Job at Bradley

Joel Nielsen found out he had lost his men’s basketball coach Sunday night via the Bradley University website.

The Kent State Athletics director said in a press conference Monday afternoon he never had a chance to counter-offer before two-time Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year Geno Ford accepted the head coaching position at Bradley in Peoria, Ill.

“My final conversation with coach Ford was around 5:30 (Sunday) afternoon,” Nielsen said. “At that point, there wasn’t a formal offer and there obviously wasn’t an acceptance. Much like the players and coaches, I was alerted to the Bradley website at about 9:30 at night.”

The surprise at the announcement left Nielsen unable to offer a counter to Bradley’s proposal, which has been rumored to be around double Ford’s $300,000 salary at .

“We would have liked the opportunity to sit down with Geno and talk further about what we could do at Kent State,” he said. “We had every intention this week to sit down, but I would have been more than happy — whether it by phone or however — to talk further about what his ideas were.”

The announcement of Ford’s departure comes less than a week after Kent State lost at Colorado in the NIT quarterfinals. In his three years as head coach, Ford amassed a 68-37 record and won back-to-back MAC regular season titles. The NIT appearance was the team’s second in as many years.

Kent State offered Ford a contract extension after the 2009-2010 season that raised his annual pay to $300,000, making him the highest-paid coach at the university. A buyout clause was included, which Nielsen expects Bradley to honor.

“Our expectation is that the contract’s fulfilled,” he said. “We’re going to have that expectation that liquidated damages are fulfilled. Our contract is very straightforward.”

Nielsen said the athletic department will begin its search for his replacement immediately. Ford’s top assistant, Rob Senderoff, has been named interim head coach in the meantime.

While Nielsen said he plans to look internally and externally, Senderoff is considered by many to be a strong candidate for the job. The 37-year-old coach was an assistant at Kent State from 2002-2006 before leaving for Indiana for two seasons. He returned in 2008 to be on Ford’s staff.

After finishing 12-20 overall and last in the Missouri Valley Conference, Bradley fired coach Jim Les, who had been at the helm of the Braves for nine years. A powerhouse team in the 1950s, the Braves have made just one NCAA tournament appearance in the last decade, a Sweet 16 run in 2006.

In the Bradley announcement, Ford said nothing of his two tenures as a coach at Kent State.

“I am ecstatic to work at such a great institution with such a rich basketball history,” Ford said in the statement from Bradley.