Tennessee State Dismisses Cy Alexander

[aggierattler]

Cy Alexander Out As Head Coach

Tennessee State University director of athletics, Teresa Phillips has announced the dismissal of head basketball coach Cy Alexander.

“We thank Coach Alexander for his service to the basketball program as head coach,’’ said Phillips. “The program at this time, however, needs a new direction.”

Alexander was in his sixth season at Tennessee State posting a record of 67-107 and 48-56 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Overall, in 24 years, Alexander has posted a record of 344-306.

Last season, TSU finished 15-17, 10-10 in the OVC, after reaching the championship game of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

Mark Pittman will serve as interim head coach.

Mark Pittman

Mark Pittman joined the Tennessee State basketball program in 2003, reuniting him with head coach Cy Alexander.

Pittman served previously as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under Alexander at South Carolina State from 1989-92.

A 1977 graduate of Illinois, Pittman is a veteran of both the collegiate and high school coaching ranks.

Along with his tenure at South Carolina State, he was an assistant and recruiting coordinator at Cincinnati from 1983-89. He was an administrative assistant at Jacksonville University (1998-2001) and worked as an assistant coach at Florida Community College (1996-98). He also served as both a graduate assistant and student assistant basketball coach at Illinois.

He is a member of several professional organizations including the Florida Basketball Coaches and the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He has held positions on the NABC Planning Committee and NABC Assistant Coaches Committee. He has authored several articles that have been in various publications.

Pittman is a native of Chicago, Ill. He and his wife Jill, have four children, Cameron, Max, Thomas and Andrew

[Aggie One]

It's probably time for Cy to hang it up coaching wise but honestly no one has won a thing at TSU in basketball in nearly 30 years and that predates both Alexander and myself as well.

[DOOMS]

There was one stretch in the '90s when I think they won back-to-back ovc titles. They had a big juco center that ended up in the pros and a guard from the same juco. For the life of me I can't remember either player's name or who was coaching, or even which years. I do remember the center was smacking the ball back in people's faces during the ncaa tourney game. Of course, they lost.

TSU is a little different. For whatever reason proven winners don't win there much anymore. Bill Davis could barely get over .500 there as a football coach, and the man won at Savannah State and Johnson C. Smith.

Oh well, best of luck to Cy.

[SixtiesAggie]

He will probably resurface somewhere in MEAC. I use to love those classic battles between A&T and Howard when he an AB were running the show there.