Pleasant named new basketball coach

Former Kent State assistant will begin job Monday

ABILENE -- Klint Pleasant fulfilled a coaching dream Tuesday when he was named the head men's basketball coach at ACU.

ACU director of athletics Shanon Hays made the announcement at a Tuesday evening press conference at the Teague Special Events Center. Pleasant becomes the 13th head basketball coach in school history, replacing Mike Martin, who announced his resignation on July 24.

Pleasant comes to ACU from Kent State, which enjoyed a great 2001-02 season. The Golden Flashes won a Mid-American Conference-record 30 games and advanced to the NCAA Tournament?s "Elite Eight" with Pleasant on the sidelines as an assistant coach.

Now the former ACU football player (he played under head coach Dr. Bob Strader in 1994) and 1998 graduate of Lipscomb (Tenn.) University, returns to Abilene and the job he has wanted since he began coaching.

"I've anticipated this day since the day I left here in 1996," Pleasant said. "Between that time and now, the head coaching position at ACU has turned into my dream job. This is where I grew up as a man, and, more importantly, as a Christian. I've wanted to return to Abilene since the day I left."

Pleasant will begin almost immediately, saying that he will probably be back in Abilene on Monday to begin his new job. Hays said assistant coach Stephen Hamrick -- who has been the interim head coach since Martin's resignation -- would stay with the university and the basketball program in some capacity.

For Hays, however, Tuesday was a day to talk about what he believes Pleasant can do for a program that has struggled recently, winning just 25 of 78 games in Martin's three seasons at the helm.

"I love Klint's enthusiasm and passion for the game," Hays said. "He's considered one of the top young assistant coaches in the country, and he comes highly recommended from some of the top coaches in the college game.?

Following his only season at Kent State, Pleasant appeared to be set to go to Southeastern Conference powerhouse Arkansas when Kent State head coach Stan Heath accepted the job of replacing Nolan Richardson. Pleasant, however, decided to stay at Kent State, saying he thought staying at Kent State would give him the best chance to be a head coach somewhere in the future.

"This is probably the only job in America that I would have lured me away from Kent State," Pleasant said.

Pleasant's former bosses had nothing but praise for their former assistant coach.

"Abilene Christian has found a truly outstanding young basketball coach," said Heath, who became the Arkansas head coach on March 28. "His passion and knowledge of the game will bring a lot of success to the Wildcat program. He's a very hard worker, and a student of the game. With his history of success, there's no question that ACU found the right guy."

"Current Kent State head coach Jim Christian -- who was elevated from assistant coach to head coach following Heath?s departure -- was just as effusive in his praise for Pleasant.

"ACU has hired a guy who understands the value of a university, and the value of an education," Christian said. "He?ll be an asset, not only to the university, but to the Abilene community as well. He represents all of the Christian principles and values that you need to build a successful program. I'm looking forward to watching both Klint and the ACU program grow over the next few years."

Prior to joining the Kent State program, Pleasant served as an assistant coach at both the University of Tennessee-Martin (1999-2001) and Wayne State University in Detroit (1998-99).

While at UT-Martin, he helped the Skyhawks qualify for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the first time in school history. During his tenure at WSU, Pleasant helped lead the team to a 25-5 record, a conference championship and an NCAA Division II Tournament bid.

He previously served as a student assistant at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., where he worked under head coach Don Meyer, the fastest coach to reach 700 victories in the history of college basketball.

A native of Rochester, Mich., Pleasant attended Waterford Kettering High School where he was a first team all-conference selection in football and a team co-captain in basketball. His father, Garth Pleasant, has won more than 500 games as the head men's basketball coach at Rochester College in Rochester Hills, Mich., during the past 29 seasons, and was selected as the Michigan College Coach of the Year in 1989.

Pleasant, 27, earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science from Lipscomb in 1998 and a master?s degree in education from UT-Martin in 2000.

Pleasant said he is looking forward to revitalizing a program that has won just 13 games in the last two seasons, and ended the 2001-02 season on a seven-game losing streak.

"If anything, those numbers just motivate me," Pleasant said, "because there's no better time to take over than when you have a chance to have immediate success. There's not much that could scare me away from this university."

And it's that attitude that has Hays excited about his newest coach.

"He knows what ACU is all about, and what it stands for," Hays said. "I can?t imagine finding anyone better suited to filling this position and getting our basketball program headed in the right direction."