Online Exclusive Update

Rick Samuels will not be on the sidelines for his 26th season as Eastern Illinois University’s men’s basketball head coach, as the athletic department announced Friday it would not renew Samuels’ contract.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my 25 years of coaching young men at Eastern,” Samuels said. “I’m privileged to have been part of this for three decades.”

The Panthers finished the season 12-16, losing 72-68 to Tennessee Tech Tuesday in the first round of the OVC Tournament.

Samuels and his three assistants will not be retained in a coaching capacity.

Rich McDuffie, Eastern’s director of athletics, said deciding not to renew Samuels’ contract wasn’t an easy decision, but the team hadn’t have been competitive enough.

“The one thing I always say is that Rick Samuels won’t embarrass you,” McDuffie said. “He didn’t; he managed the basketball program the way you want it managed.”

Despite McDuffie’s thoughts on Samuels as a man, there were expectations of winning that weren’t met, he said.

Eastern President Lou Hencken said watching the team play this season he knew the importance of the team’s success.

“I sat through those games and I just rooted harder than most of those people because I knew what was at stake,” Hencken said. “When balls bounced off the rim, I think I cringed about as much as he did.”

Samuels’ career record at Eastern was 360-360, and the team’s last NCAA Tournament appearance came in the 2000-01 season.

See more in Friday’s issue of the Daily Eastern News and www.thedailyeasternnews.com