Eastern Michigan basketball hires Stan Heath as next head coach
Eastern Michigan basketball has hired one of their own to lead the program.
The school announced Monday that it has hired Stan Heath to be the team's 30th head coach.
Heath, the former head coach at three colleges and one of assistants on the Michigan State basketball national championship team, will be formally introduced in a news conference Tuesday morning.
"Eastern Michigan is a special place for me and my family," Heath said in a released statement. "I look forward to working with our student-athletes and implementing a style and systems that excites our students, community, and alumni. Our goal is to win Mid-American Conference championships and be a perennial NCAA team."
Heath, 56, played at Eastern Michigan from 1985-87, and shortly thereafter began his coaching career, first at Hillsdale, then Albion, Wayne State and Bowling Green.
In 1996, Tom Izzo, fresh off of his first season at the helm at MSU, hired Heath as an assistant. It was the freshman seasons for Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and A.J. Granger. In Heath's five seasons with the Spartans, MSU made three consecutive Final Fours and won the 2000 national title.
Kent State hired Heath in 2001, and led the Golden Flashes to a 30-win season and an appearance in the Elite Eight. He was also the MAC Coach of the Year.
After one season, he was hired to replace Nolan Richardson at Arkansas, where he coached the Razorbacks to two NCAA tournament appearances in five seasons and a .536 winning percentage (82-71).
He was let go by Arkansas after the 2006-07 season and hired by South Florida. In seven seasons with the Bulls, he went 97-129 (.429), made one NCAA tournament appearance and was the 2012 Big East Coach of the Year.
After a two-year stint as an assistant with Boston College, Heath has been the head coach of the Lakeland Magic, Orlando's G League team, since 2017.
"One of the key messages I heard throughout the search process was the desire to find someone with Eastern Michigan connections as well as someone with a strong head coaching pedigree. In hiring Coach Heath, we absolutely have that person," EMU athletic director Scott Wetherbee said in a released statement. "He is a proven winner in both the collegiate and professional ranks, and his focus on positively impacting the lives of our student-athlete is infectious. We cannot wait to have him and his family back on campus and reintroducing them to the Eastern Michigan family."
Before college, Heath was an All-State honorable mention performer at Detroit Catholic Central.
Rob Murphy left EMU after 10 seasons to become the president and general manager of the Motor City Cruise, the Detroit Pistons' new G League team which begins play next season.
Contact Kirkland Crawford: kcrawford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @HiKirkHere.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Eastern Michigan basketball hires Stan Heath as next head coach