Sources: Daniel leaving UCA for Marshall

Central Arkansas women’s basketball Coach Matt Daniel will be named the coach at Marshall University, sources told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Central Arkansas women’s basketball Coach Matt Daniel will be named the coach at Marshall University, sources told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

— Central Arkansas women’s basketball Coach Matt Daniel will be announced as the head coach at Marshall University this week, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette learned Sunday.

Sources told the Democrat-Gazette that Daniel notified UCA players on Sunday via telephone that he was leaving. Daniel, 36, will take over for Royce Chadwick, who left Marshall in April to become head coach at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Chadwick went 161-169 in 11 seasons at Marshall.

Daniel and UCA Athletic Director Brad Teague couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday.

Daniel compiled a 72-50 record in four seasons at UCA, leading the Sugar Bears to a Southland Conference regular-season championship last season. UCA finished 24-7 in 2011-2012 and lost to Oklahoma State in the first round of the Women’s NIT in March.

The Sugar Bears ranked sixth in the nation in three point field goal percentage defense (24.5 percent) last season and 14th in scoring defense, allowing 52.5 points per game.

After finishing 6-23 in his first season at UCA in 2008-2009, Daniel led the Sugar Bears to a 21-8 record in 2009-2010 - a 15-game improvement from the previous season and the eighth best turnaround in NCAA Division I history. The Sugar Bears lost to McNeese State in the Southland Conference Tournament championship game in 2011, but made their first Division I postseason appearance, losing to Alabama-Birmingham in the Women’s Basketball Invitational.

In four seasons at UCA, Daniel won the Southland Conference Coach of the Year award twice (2010, 2012). He recruited several Arkansas high school stars, including Megan Herbert (Shiloh Christian), Desiree and Destinee Rogers (Camden Fairview) and Micah Rice (Little Rock Parkview). Herbert, who will be a senior next season, is a two-time Southland Conference Player of the Year and has averaged 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game in three seasons at UCA.

Next season, UCA’s freshman class includes England guards Jameka and Janeka Watkins, who led the Lions to two consecutive Class 2A state championships.

Marshall, which is located in Huntington, W. Va., finished 16-14 overall and 7-9 in Conference USA last season, losing in the first round of the C-USA Tournament to SMU. The Thundering Herd have not played in the NCAA Tournament since 1997.

Under Daniel, UCA added new chair back seating at the Farris Center, overhauled the locker room and coaches’ offices along the construction of a film room and study hall for the players.

Daniel’s father, David, is a former high school basketball coach and is the athletic director at Jonesboro. He coached his brother Josh at Texas-Arlington.

UCA hired Daniel in January 2008 to replace Checola Seals-Horton. Daniel was an assistant at Missouri in 2005-2008 before being hired by Teague. But Daniel did not take over on the court until the fall of 2008, spending his time recruiting, as former Sugar Bears coach Ron Marvel guided the program for the remainder of the 2007-2008 season.

Daniel, from Jonesboro, was named the Democrat-Gazette’s Mr. Basketball and led Jonesboro to the Class AAAAA state title in 1994 and earned the state tournament MVP as a senior. He played two seasons at Colorado before transferring to Harding in 1996.

Daniel spent one season as an assistant men’s coach at Arizona State in 1998-1999 and four seasons (1999-2003) at Texas-Arlington. He was the head boys’ basketball coach at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock in 2003-2004, leading the Bruins to a 34-1 record before heading to Colorado to serve as a women’s assistant under Ceal Berry.

Sports, Pages 19 on 05/28/2012

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