Quinnipiac Fires Tom Moore

Quinnipiac severed ties with head coach Tom Moore Tuesday morning, firing the coach after his 10th season with the program, following the Bobcats’ first round loss to Niagara.

Moore finishes his time with the Bobcats with an overall record of 162-150 and a 106-82 mark against conference opponents between the NEC and MAAC.

The 51 year-old former longtime UConn assistant joined the Hamden, Conn. program in 2007 to replace Joe DeSantis, who led the Bobcats’ transition from Division II to Division I. Under Moore’s tenure, the Bobcats won the NEC regular season title in 2010, but lost in the championship game 52-50 to Robert Morris.

In a statement released by the Quinnipiac Athletic Department Tuesday morning, second-year Athletic Director Greg Amodio stated:

“After reviewing the last two seasons and talking with Coach Moore, I have decided that a change in leadership of the men’s basketball program is needed for it to move forward in meeting our goals. We are grateful to Tom Moore and his staff for their commitment to our program over the past 10 years. We appreciate all that he has done for the University in guiding his student-athletes’ performance on the court and in the classroom.”

Quinnipiac made four postseason appearances under Moore; two trips to the CIT, one to the CBI and one to the NIT, but never won a postseason game.

Moore led the program’s transition into the MAAC, finishing tied for third place in his team’s first season in the league. The Bobcats’ hopes were dashed in their first conference tournament when they lost guard Umar Shannon – who started every game and averaged 14.3 ppg – in the regular season’s final week.

Without him, Quinnipiac managed to beat Niagara in the quarterfinals, but fell to Manhattan 87-68 in the 2014 MAAC semifinals.

“I still to this day think if we hadn’t lost Umar, that we might have been in the championship game that night,” Moore said after his final game against Niagara, reflecting upon the 2014 tournament.

That was the presumed high point of Moore’s tenure in the MAAC, as his teams went on to finish sixth, ninth, and eighth in each successive season, never earning a conference tournament win.

Throughout his tenure, the Bobcats were known as a strong rebounding team and led the nation in at least one rebounding category for six straight seasons prior to 2016-17. This season Quinnipiac ranked seventh in the country in offensive rebounds per game (14.07).

Quinnipiac graduates three players, but this season had two freshmen named to the MAAC All-Rookie Team. Mikey Dixon (16.8 ppg) and Peter Kiss (13.3) each surpassed the previous school scoring record for freshmen at the Division I level (13.0). Dixon was named MAAC Rookie of the Year for the 2016-17 season.

DHR International has been retained to assist the Bobcats’ head coaching search, which will begin immediately.

Vincent Simone covers the MAAC, Hofstra, and more for NYC Buckets. You can follow him on Twitter @VTSimone.