#8 Ronnie Thompson

John Thompson Jr.’s son and JTTIII’s little brother are about the only things on this guys resume that get him work in basketball. He was Brian Ellerbe’s number one assistant at Loyola (MD) and had one horrific season at Ball State compiling a 9-22 record and alienating virtually the entire university community in the process. His brief tenure at Ball State was such a disaster after committing the same NCAA violation twice in the same calendar year, having no on court success, little recruiting success, and not being able to cope in the confines of a dysfunctional athletic department that he did the only thing that his arrogant, entitled, immature mind could come up with…He resigned claiming Muncie, Indiana as a seething hotbed of racial unrest, and filed a lawsuit against the school he had just set the single season loss record for. He brought national attention to Ball State for his wrongness which is no easy task.

The Lowlights:

· Allowed/ directed assistant coaches to observe off season workouts during the summer he was hired. After this violation was reported to the NCAA by the athletic department he did it again the next summer resulting in further punishment from the NCAA

· Posted a school record 22 losses in his only season at Ball State

· Lost 6 players from his roster and 4 of his recruits in his 15 month tenure

· According to star guard Peyton Stovall told his players “not to trust white people,”(coincidentally the roster included no white players even though there were 4 on scholarship when he was hired) and used the N word very liberally

· During the second internal investigation of NCAA violations he reported on receiving racially hostile notes under his office door…which later were shown to be printed in the basketball offices

· After receiving a vote of confidence from the AD and president he sent several carefully worded emails, secretly tape recorded all of his conversation with athletic department officials (for 3 months) and resigned filing a law suite the next day.

· In an interview with ESPN hack Michael Wilbon which his dad sat in on Ronny made some of the following claims:

o That he was instructed not to “socialize,” but to recruit.

o That his wife and child had to flee in the middle of the night for fear of racial violence.

o That he had to purchase basketball’s for practice as the program didn’t have any when he arrived.

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