Lewis Preston will return as KSU’s men’s basketball coach once he resolves unspecified medical and personal reasons for a leave of absence. Preston’s temporary departure from the struggling program was announced in a press release on Jan. 2.
According to a Jan. 5 report in the Marietta Daily Journal, KSU’s Director of Athletics, Vaughn Williams, has put his confidence in Preston to return for the current campaign and next season.
“It could be a week, it could be two weeks,”Williams said in the report. “Right now, we just want him to take the time he needs to get things straight.”
Preston’s Owls were looking to turn a corner in the 2013-14 season, as six transfer players in Willy Kouassi, Bernard Morena, Tanner Wozniak, Orlando Coleman, Nate Rucker and Drew McGhee seemed primed to supplement a roster that had been hindered in the past by depth problems.
However, KSU (3-13, 0-3 A-Sun) has just one win against an NCAA opponent so far this season, and has lost their first three conference games by 71 combined points. At the time of Preston’s leave of absence, the Owls dropped their first two-conference games in Jacksonville by scores of 85-60 and 86-66 against North Florida and Jacksonville, respectively. They were also in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, albeit against the likes of Cincinnati, Georgia Tech and Indiana.
Preston’s record at KSU now stands at 9-67 and just 2-36 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Jimmy Lallathin, who’s in his third year with the Owls program after a four-year tenure as an assistant at Miami (OH), will serve as interim head coach in Preston’s absence.
“We are confident in Jimmy Lallathin taking the reigns and moving forward at this time,” Williams said.
Preston was Williams’ choice for hire when Williams took the Director of Athletics position in May of 2011. Tony Ingle, who led the Owls to an NCAA Division II national title in 2004, was fired after an 8-23 record in 2010-11 that included scholarship sanctions due to poor academic performance.
Before coming to KSU, Preston held assistant coaching jobs at Penn State, Florida and Notre Dame.
