Kent State men’s basketball coach Rob Senderoff had an eventful five-day stretch at the end of March.

On Sunday, March 23, the six-seeded Flashes knocked off the second-seeded Stanford Cardinal in the second round of the NIT to push KSU into the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinal match was played on Wednesday, March 26, and Kent State’s season ended at the hands of Loyola University Chicago in a 72-62 game.

It was Senderoff’s first time in the NIT as head coach of the Flashes, and it was the team’s first time competing in the tournament since the 2010-11 season.

After the team finished up its season, the next day, Thursday, March 27, published rumors surfaced on X, saying Senderoff would leave Kent State to sign with Fordham University.

The rumor implied a signing was decided by Senderoff but not completed at that time.

However, on Friday, March 28, Senderoff flipped the script and verbally committed to returning to Kent State on an X video post on the team’s account before signing officially later that day.

Senderoff agreed with the team to be signed to a six-year contract extension that Friday afternoon, running until the 2030-31 season.

In every season of the extension, the coach will make a base salary of $500,000 per year not including incentives — his yearly salary figure is more than what Kent State football coach Kenni Burns made in the 2024 season ($475,000).

“I am just happy to be back, and I am appreciative of President Diacon and (Athletic Director) Randale Richmond for believing in our program and in what we’re doing and what we want to continue to do here at Kent State,” Senderoff said.

The rumors around Senderoff leaving to sign with Fordham seemed believable before Senderoff’s extension with the Flashes because of the history he had with the program.

Senderoff is a native of Spring Valley, N.Y., which is about 40 minutes from Fordham, and he also was an assistant coach at the university from 1997-99.

Additionally, the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics for Fordham was the director of athletics for Akron from 2021-24.

Finally, the job of head basketball coach was a vacant position ready to be filled by Senderoff after Fordham fired Keith Urgo following a 12-21 season. Since it was not Senderoff who filled that position, Fordham hired Mike Magpayo on March 29 to have the role.

Those three reasons fueled the speculation the job was all Senderoff’s, but he never truly wanted to leave Kent State.

“In my heart, I don’t ever think I ever really wanted to leave Kent State, and I am glad that I am able to stay here for the foreseeable future,” he said.

The rumors came quickly for the team, as Senderoff was coaching deep into Wednesday night in the team’s NIT quarterfinals game with the initial rumor being published Thursday afternoon around 2:30 p.m.

“You can see a timeline of when they let go of their coach — I am not exactly sure when that was, but these processes are pretty quick, and our season ended Wednesday night, so I certainly was not entertaining (offers),” Senderoff said. “Anything prior to that would have been speculation.”

While the rumors of him officially signing with another university were not true, Senderoff did have other offers sent to him, but he still made the decision to stay at Kent State Thursday night, saying the decision was “not that difficult.”

“We have a tremendous basketball program with an opportunity, year after year, to have great success,” Senderoff said. “The world of college basketball has changed over the last few years, and Kent State has enabled us to continue to have success in this new era. That is the most important thing as a coach — you just want to have an opportunity to compete, and now I feel like we do on our end. I didn’t want to leave knowing that.”

Richmond and Kent State were able to secure the basketball program’s winningest and longest-tenured coach in its history Friday afternoon.

Senderoff has been at the helm of KSU basketball for 14 seasons, starting his head coaching tenure in 2011. In that time, he has accrued a record of 288-176.

“The energy, passion and dedication he brings daily is contagious, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him continue building on this incredible foundation,” Richmond said in a statement. “The future of Kent State basketball has never been brighter.”

This includes two Mid-American Conference Tournament championships (2017 and 2023), which sent the Flashes dancing in the NCAA March Madness Tournament. KSU lost both opening games of the tournament, however.

Senderoff also has an NIT appearance under his belt after this season where he has a winning record in the event at 2-1.

In 2022, Senderoff was awarded MAC Coach of the Year after finishing the season 28-7, winning the MAC Tournament and facing the Indiana Hoosiers in the first round of March Madness.

Fans will have a lot to be excited for with not only Senderoff coming back, but also the return of eligible big time players.

Several players have made the commitment to stay with the Flashes for next season via the team’s Instagram page.

This includes the likes of junior forward Delrecco Gillespie (8.1 points, 8.1 rebounds per game this season), sophomore guard Cian Medley (7.2 ppg, 2.6 rbg, 4.0 apg), graduate student guard Morgan Safford (10.6 ppg, 6.1 rpg) and redshirt sophomore Magnus Entenmann (1.2 ppg, 0.7 rbg).

“I hope we will continue to have great success,” Senderoff said. “I hope our students in particular will come to support our guys by coming to games. In the winters, coming to the M.A.C. Center has always been one of the highlights of a cold winter in Northeast Ohio, and I hope we see a lot of great, exciting basketball in the M.A.C Center during the next six winters.”

John Hilber is sports editor, contact him at [email protected].