Hellenthal’s late-season dismissal about giving QU chance to get ahead in changing basketball program’s direction

QUINCY — Josh Rabe didn’t want to fall any further behind.

So as the Quincy University athletic director debated when the appropriate time to dismiss Ryan Hellenthal as men’s basketball coach might be, he kept coming back to the same question.

Why wait?

“This is a matter of timing,” Rabe said Friday afternoon. “It’s just the fact we need to get on top of recruiting. We need to improve our student-athlete experience. And we need to retain some of the players we have. I think we need to move in a direction that accomplishes all of that.”

The first step on that journey took place at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Approximately 12 hours after the Hawks suffered a 93-86 loss at Truman State — their ninth consecutive loss to their region rival — Rabe informed Hellenthal and assistant coach Kevin Reynolds they were being terminated immediately.

Quincy has four games remaining on the regular-season schedule and will play at least one game in the expanded Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. Assistant coach Pat Richardson will serve as interim coach while a search for a full-time replacement is already underway.

Blindsided by the timing of his dismissal, Hellenthal said he would release a statement in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Hawks have a break in their schedule with no Saturday game and don’t take the floor again until 7:30 p.m. Thursday when they play host to Rockhurst.

At the same time, Rabe will begin evaluating potential candidates.

“It’s on us to get it right,” Rabe said of the hiring.

He has a wishlist of what he wants to find in the next coach.

“I’m looking for a recruiter, a developer, someone who is going to come in energized, the kind of person who will embrace this basketball crazy community and turn it into something we all envision,” Rabe said.

That vision is a team that is an annual participant in the GLVC Tournament and is continually in the conversation for NCAA Tournament berths.

That hasn’t been the case since the 2016-17 season when the Hawks went 25-6 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament with Hellenthal on the bench as Marty Bell’s top assistant. The following August, Bell retired from coaching and promoted Hellenthal as his replacement.

It’s been an uphill battle since. Hellenthal has compiled a 50-80 overall record with a 27-66 mark in the GLVC. His first two teams each won nine games, while the Hawks improved to a 14-14 record in 2019-20. However, in the COVID-19 shortened season in 2020-21, the Hawks went 6-15 with a 3-7 mark at Pepsi Arena.

This season, the Hawks went 7-4 prior to the Christmas break, but they are 5-10 since with seven of those losses by seven points or less.

Ultimately, the lack of success within the GLVC and the inconsistent play led Rabe to his decision. He was adamant there were no improprieties or other extenuating circumstances that forced Hellenthal’s dismissal. 

“Ryan is a good basketball coach. It just hasn’t worked out the way both he and I thought it would,” Rabe said. “Ryan is a good person, and this has nothing to do with his character or anything he did wrong. This is a decision of where the program is going.”