Cleveland State Basketball: Dennis Felton out after 2 years as head coach

Let’s take a closer look at the situation at Cleveland State Basketball, who today fired Dennis Felton after two seasons leading the program.

After just two seasons with the Vikings, Cleveland State has announced the firing of Dennis Felton and his entire coaching staff. He led the program to a 22-44 mark and failed to field a competitive team in the Horizon League. Felton came to the Vikings as a relatively successful coach with an SEC Tournament championship on his resume, but the situation at Cleveland State necessitated the firing, even at this time of the year.

Felton came to Cleveland after three years on Frank Haith’s staff at Tulsa. The Howard grad began his career on the coaching staffs of teams like Tulane, Providence, and Clemson (the latter two under Rick Barnes) before becoming head coach at Western Kentucky. He led the Hilltoppers to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances before being hired by Georgia. His time with the Bulldogs wasn’t successful, but was punctuated by an SEC Tournament title in 2008 as the 11th seed in the conference.

Cleveland State was his first head coaching position in eight years when he was hired in 2017. He replaced Gary Waters, who experienced some success in his decade-plus with the Vikings, but had a difficult time building and retaining talent. There was certainly optimism when Felton took over the program, especially with the Horizon League in a very winnable state, as teams like Butler, Loyola-Chicago, and Valparaiso had vacated the league in recent years. However, this did not happen, and things only grew worse.

On the court, the team had yet to develop into a conference contender, but the trouble started brewing in recent months. In June, freshmen Seth Millner and Rashad Williams both entered the transfer portal, with Williams developing as one of the best sharpshooters in the entire league. The situation was only worsened at the beginning of July, as the Vikings’ two top scorers (Tyree Appleby and Jaalam Hill) both hit the transfer portal as well. With such a mass exodus, a multitude of questions was understandably posed.

In recent years, Cleveland State has seen star players transferring out, much like many mid-majors in today’s game. However, this kind of exodus spelled much larger problems for Felton and this program. Recently hired athletic director Scott Garrett alluded to building a positive culture for the program in his statement announcing Felton’s firing. We may never know the exact behind-the-scenes details, but the Vikings cut ties with Felton before the situation got worse.

Unfortunately, Cleveland State now finds themselves without a coaching staff in the middle of July. There are still spots to fill on this roster, making this imminent coaching search even more important. Garrett spent nine years at Kansas State before coming in April and may look to bring in someone familiar to try to fix this Vikings program. Longtime KSU assistants Chris Lowery and Chester Frazier both fit this bill. Lowery previously spent eight years as head coach at Southern Illinois while Frazier was recently hired as an assistant at Virginia Tech. Garrett could also hire someone with Cleveland ties, though it would be smart to grab a coach with at least some collegiate experience.

The recent dominance of Northern Kentucky and Wright State have made life difficult for Cleveland State, though this program has clearly been unable to retain talent in recent years. This program has attracted former power conferences coaches like Rollie Massimino and Gary Waters, but they need to be smart with this hire. The Vikings don’t need the flashy name; they need someone who will repair this roster and rebuild the culture at Cleveland State. There are things we don’t yet know about Dennis Felton’s time with the Vikings, but it’s clear that he wasn’t the right man for this job going forward.