Speraw let go as men's basketball head coach

UCF has decided to not retain Men's basketball head coach Kirk Speraw after 17 seasons with the program, UCF Associate Athletic Director Keith Tribble announced Monday afternoon.

Speraw finished with 279 total wins with the Knights, most in school history, and went 40-38 in Conference USA since UCF joined the league in the 2005-06 season.

"Over a period of years since I have been here, I have evaluated our program to see if we are doing the things necesary to move this program to the next level," Tribble said. "By the next level I mean for us to be able to compete in our conference and to be able to go the NCAA[tournament] and really try to find how we can do that. As I concluded that evaluation process, I just came to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of the program at this time to move in another direction."

The Knights just finished the 2009-10 season with a 76-54 loss to No. 21 UTEP in the second round of the C-USA tournament on Thursday, capping off a 15-17 season. It was Speraw's third consecutive season with no more than three games above .500.

"There is no one particular factor, but collectively, I just didn't think the program was moving in the right direction," Tribble said. "We had to do that and it was important for me and for our program."

Tribble said that the Knights will move fast on selecting a new head coach, but that they won't rush the decision.

"Hopefully (we will find someone) in the next three weeks, so we can move forward," he said. "That's my goal. I don't know if I will make that timeline, but that's indeed the timeline I want to try to get to because I feel it's important to move quickly but not too fast and that we have a coach ready and in place to start the recruiting process and also work with our current student athletes."