Coastal Carolina basketball coach Cliff Ellis, the 9th winningest coach in men’s Division One college basketball history, will announce his retirement effective immediately at a press conference slated to begin at 1:30 PM Wednesday on the Coastal campus. Coaching Changes reported assistant coach Benny Moss will take over as head coach.
National basketball reporter Jon Rothstein broke the story around 10:00 PM Tuesday night. A source later confirmed the news telling SportsTalkSC that the involvement in NIL and the Transfer Portal required of today’s coaches were major factors in Ellis’s decision.
Ellis celebrated his 78th birthday on Tuesday, one day after his final win. He finishes his career of 46 seasons on the D1 level with 831 wins against 565 losses. Prior to Coastal Carolina, Ellis coached at South Alabama, Clemson and Auburn. Ellis also coached at Cumberland University in Tennessee, an NAIA program, and thus has over 900 total wins in his career.
Ellis took all four of his programs to the NCAA Tournament, and he won at least one regular season conference championship at each school. Three of his teams, one at Clemson and two at Auburn, reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.