One of the toughest jobs in HBCU basketball – all of college basketball really – is now open again.
After weeks of rumors and whispers, Maryland-Eastern Shore officials have confirmed they have parted ways with men’s head basketball coach Jason Crafton.
“Jason Crafton is no longer serving as our head coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore,” officials told HBCU Gameday in a brief statement. “We are officially moving forward with the hiring process to identify the next head men’s basketball coach at UMES.”
HBCU Gameday reached out to Crafton previously.
Crafton spent four seasons at the helm of the HBCU program in which he went 43-76 overall, including a 9-20 season in 2023-2024. The previous season saw the program go 18-13 overall – its best winning percentage of its Division I Era.
Maryland-Eastern Shore is typically regarded as one of the most tough jobs in college basketball due to its miniscule budget and remote location in Princesse Anne, Maryland. It is one of only two Division I HBCU athletics departments without football. While the program had success in the CIAA in the 1950s and 60s and in the early days of the MEAC, it has just three winning seasons since the MEAC gained an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in 1981. Crafton’s 2022-2023 season was the best winning percentage in nearly 50 years.
“The most difficult job in getting things turned around is that there was no winning tradition,” Crafton said in March 2023. “Not a lot of reference points. We’re on a mission to be the first team in the history of the Div. I program to go to the Div. I (NCAA) tournament. We’re creating everything as we go. So the most difficult thing has been just fighting the lack of culture that’s been here and trying to create a culture on the fly. You do that by bringing in the right people.
“We had a season taken, couldn’t practice, couldn’t go five-on-five. But we came back with an edge. We did not just want to get here. We want win it and change the culture.”
Now this HBCU program will be starting from scratch moving forward.