Emporia State Men's Basketball Coach Craig Doty Accepts DI Position

“I want to express my gratitude to the many incredible people at Emporia State for your support and love during our six year ESU tenure,” said Doty.

Doty just completed his sixth season as head men’s basketball coach at Emporia State in 2023-24. The Hornets have averaged 20.7 wins per game over the last three seasons, going 62-30 in that time. Despite having players miss a combined 70 games to injury or illness last season, the Hornets won 19 games which included a 14-3 record at White Auditorium and a sweep of Washburn in the Turnpike Tussle. Emporia State ranked as high as No. 15 in the NABC NCAA Division II National Poll after starting the season with a 9-1 record.

“Coach Doty has done a very good job the last six years as our men’s basketball coach,” said Emporia State Vice President Director of Athletics David Spafford. “He has elevated the program to new heights that positions our program for further success in the MIAA and nationally.”

In six seasons leading Emporia State, Doty has coached 16 All-MIAA selections and Emporia State’s first All-American since 2003, Tray Buchanan. Doty’s team broke the school-record for MIAA wins in a season with 15 in 2021-22 and then matched the mark again in 2022-23 while breaking ESU’s NCAA era program record for wins with 23. Three Hornets have scored at least 1,000 points at Emporia State under his leadership and eleven of Doty’s ESU players have inked pro contracts.

“I am grateful for Kent Weiser who changed my family’s life when he hired me,” said Doty. “I am thankful for President Hush and David Spafford for their visionary leadership. We were asked every day to “think bigger” and we were given the resources to move things forward. They were a blast to work with as they pushed us to be our best while also having a great understanding of competitive college athletics and the modern day student-athlete.”

In each of the past four seasons, the Hornets have appeared in the national polls, receiving votes for multiple weeks each season while being ranked in the top 25 for six weeks in 2022-23 and as high as No. 15 in 2023-24. Under Doty’s tutelage, the Hornets have six wins over nationally ranked opponents.

Off the floor, the men’s basketball program has been just as impressive. Doty’s Hornets won the Community Service National Championship in 2022 finishing first in the NCAA Division II Helper-Helper standings among the nearly 300 member schools. In the classroom the team GPA has moved up an entire grade point since his arrival. In the fall of 2023, the Hornets boasted the best men’s basketball academic semester since ESU began recording team GPA’s with a 3.23 team GPA and the program has been consistently at or above the 3.0 mark on a semester-by-semester basis.

The success has translated into the stands as the Hornets have ranked in the top 25 of NCAA Division II attendance in all five of his non-COVID years at Emporia State. This past season the Hornets outdrew 72 NCAA Division I schools in average attendance.

“Thanks to the Emporia community,” said Doty. “Alexys and I not only raised our four children in the community, but we also watched your children grow, too. It was a special time in our family’s life that we will cherish forever.”

Doty was introduced as the head men’s basketball coach at Emporia State on April 27, 2018. Through twelve seasons as a college head coach, Doty has won two NJCAA National Championships and one NAIA National Championship. Doty has a 259-126 head coaching record with a 146-98 record at the four-year level while his teams are 31-10 in post-season play.

“As a coach and a person, Coach Doty has grown tremendously while becoming a leader on our head coaches staff,” said Spafford. “While we will all miss Coach and his family in our program, university and community, we are excited to watch him live out his dream of coaching in Division I and achieving great things.”

This season the Hornets became just the 16th program to win 1,500 games. A national search for the 18th head basketball coach at Emporia State will begin immediately.