Less than one month after naming new men’s and women’s head basketball coaches at SC State, Athletics Director Stacy Danley has been fired.
New SC State President Alexander Conyers announced Tuesday in a press release that Danley had been terminated, effective immediately. The release, made available to the media but not on the school’s website, said Danley was not under contract with the university.
“SC State University has made the decision to move our athletics programming in a different direction,” Conyers said in the release. “We thank Mr. Danley for his service to the university. We wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Keisha Campbell has been named to replace Danley on an interim basis. Campbell is an SCSU alum, former Hall of Fame basketball player and former women’s head coach at SC State. She has also been director of athletics at Hampton University.
Series of developments at SC State
Conyers, a SC State graduate and retired U.S. Army colonel, was unanimously voted by the school’s Board of Trustees to the permanent position of president in April. He had served as acting president since July 2021. He was named interim president a month later on August 25, 2021.
He had been in the position as Danley has been engulfed in a swirl of controversy over the past year. Danley took over as the Bulldogs’ athletics director in 2017.
Danley abruptly fired women’s head basketball coach Audra Smith in late February of this past basketball season. The firing came a day after Smith filed a Title IX lawsuit against the university. Smith, a former head coach at Clemson, was hired in 2018.
Two weeks after Smith’s firing, former men’s head coach Murray Garvin named Danley in a suit he filed against the university. Garvin, who was head coach for the Bulldogs from 2013-2021, claimed the program was underfunded and accused Danley of interfering with his coaching duties and withholding monies due to the program. Danley did not renew Murray’s contract after the 2021 season.
Danley’s recent moves
Danley announced on July 12 the hiring of longtime Cincinnati assistant Erik Martin as the new men’s head coach. A day later, he hired former Rutgers assistant Timothy Eaton as the new women’s head coach.
The men’s position at SC State had been open since mid April when Madlock resigned. The former Memphis assistant resigned after one year to take over as head coach at Alabama State. Madlock was reportedly also not under contract at SC State.
Assistant Ervin Monier was named interim head coach after Smith’s firing and finished out the women’s season.
.