Tournament Tumult: Agony of Playoff Defeat For McKay Upon Liberty Return

April 3rd, 2015 - 11:31

Ritchie McKay had the freedom to return to the school (Liberty) where he joined a dubious list of coaches winless in the NCAA Division I Tournament despite directing at least four different major universities.

Last year, a question surfaced regarding whether Tulsa struck gold or buried the golden egg when the Golden Hurricane lured coach Frank Haith away from Missouri. After all, Haith posted only one NCAA Tournament victory - with Miami (Fla.) in 2008 - in his first 10 years as a head coach. But if things don't work out with Tulsa, at least he has enough credentials to join ESPN as an expert insofar as Fran Fraschilla, Dino Gaudio, Seth Greenberg and Dick Vitale each have a lone NCAA playoff triumph in a collective 45 years of DI head coaching.

ESPN analysts Dan Dakich, Craig Robinson and Tim Welsh never posted an NCAA Tournament win but they're nowhere close to being 0-6 like Oliver Purnell. If Haith fails with the Golden Hurricane before abandoning ship again for another school, he can rest easy he'll never be on the following list of coaches such as McKay and Lamar mentor Tic Price who are winless in NCAA tourney competition despite being bench boss of at least four major colleges:

Winless Coach DI Years Four or Five Division I Schools NCAA Record
Frankie Allen 24 Virginia Tech, Tennessee State, Howard, Maryland-Eastern Shore 0-2
Jim Baron 28 Saint Francis (Pa.), St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island, Canisius 0-2
Jeff Bzdelik 11 Maryland-Baltimore County, Air Force, Colorado, Wake Forest 0-1
Ron Greene 22 Loyola LA, New Orleans, Mississippi State, Murray State, Indiana State DNP
Joe Harrington 17 Hofstra, George Mason, Long Beach State, Colorado DNP
Jeff Lebo 17 Tennessee Tech, Chattanooga, Auburn, East Carolina DNP
Ritchie McKay 13 Portland State, Colorado State, Oregon State, New Mexico, Liberty 0-1
Chuck Noe 15 Virginia Military, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Virginia Commonwealth DNP
Buzz Peterson 16 Appalachian State, Tulsa, Tennessee, Coastal Carolina, UNC Wilmington 0-1
Tic Price 11 New Orleans, Memphis, McNeese State, Lamar 0-2
Oliver Purnell 27 Radford, Old Dominion, Dayton, Clemson, DePaul 0-6
Bob Weltlich 22 Mississippi, Texas, Florida International, South Alabama 0-3
Jim Wooldridge 20 Southwest Texas State, Louisiana Tech, Kansas State, UC Riverside 0-1