Take a look at the best highlights from SMU's basketball season as they look to move on from coach Tim Jankovich, who is retiring. 2:34
Tim Jankovich has announced his retirement after 39 seasons as a college coach.
Jankovich has been at SMU since 2012 and has been the head coach for the last six years. He has been a college coach for 39 years, with a career record of 282-185, including stops at Illinois State and North Texas.
It has been an honor and a privilege to have coached at SMU. Basketball has been the center of my life since I was 8 years old. I've loved and cherished every second of it. The sacrifice has come with those incredible memories.
I find myself at a stage in my life where I no longer have the strength to make the necessary sacrifice for this position. I feel a strong pull to spend more time with my family and friends because I have neglected them the most over the years. I have decided to step down and retire from my position as head basketball coach. We loved our time at SMU and will always remember it.
One of the last teams left out of the NCAA tournament was the Mustangs, who went 24-9 with two wins over Memphis and a victory over Houston. They lost to Washington State in the NIT on Sunday.
Jankovich had a 125-64 record at SMU.
He took over for Larry Brown in July 2016 and led the team to a 9-1 record. In his first full season at the helm, Jankovich guided SMU to a 30-5 campaign, finishing 17-1 in the American Athletic Conference and earning a 6-seed in the NCAA tournament. The team earned NIT bids the past two seasons, and that was the only NCAA tournament appearance under Jankovich.
Jankovich was the head coach at Illinois State for five seasons before joining SMU. He guided the Redbirds to four NIT appearances, winning at least 21 games and finishing in the top three of the Missouri Valley Conference four times.
He was an assistant at Kansas and Illinois under Bill Self, as well as at Texas, Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
According to sources, Grant McCasland is the top candidate to replace Jankovich at SMU.
McCasland led the Mean Green to an NCAA tournament win over the Boilermakers last season and a Conference USA regular-season title this season.
The report was contributed to by the Associated Press.
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