But each of those title game appearances ended with a loss, and among the reasons WSU athletic director Bob Grant cited for parting ways with Donlon was a lack of fan engagement and inability to the reach the NCAA tournament.
Nagy has led South Dakota State to the NCAA tournament in three of the last five seasons, including this year when he guided the Jackrabbits to a 26-8 record en route to a Summit League tournament championship and a share of the regular-season title. SDSU earned a No. 12 seed and fell to No. 5 Maryland 79-74 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Nagy, 49, has spent 21 seasons at SDSU, compiling a 404-239 record. He is one of 13 Division I coaches with at least 20 years at his current school.
A 1988 graduate of Delta State with a degree in business administration, Nagy began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Illinois under head coach Lou Henson and alongside Nagy’s father Dick, a longtime Illini assistant, and was part of the coaching staff that took Illinois to the Final Four in 1989.
After earning his master’s degree in physical education from Illinois in 1990, Nagy returned to SDSU as an assistant coach from 1990-93. He then spent two years as an assistant at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville before returning to SDSU as head coach at the age of 29.
After winning four North Central Conference championships and five NCC Coach of the Year awards in addition to guiding the Jackrabbits to the Division II Elite 8 in 1997, Nagy led the program’s transition to Division I in 2004.
At the time, Nagy was second among active D2 coaches with a .781 winning percentage.
Wright State is expected to introduce Nagy at a press conference on campus Tuesday.
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