File Photo / Jonathan Coffey for The Current

In a move that shocked many in the department and throughout campus, the University of Missouri-St. Louis athletics department announced Wednesday that head men’s basketball coach Chris Pilz resigned his post effective immediately.

Pilz, a former All-American player at UM-St. Louis and 2002 inductee into the UM-St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame, had just completed his seventh season as coach of the Tritons when the decision was announced.

“We want to thank Chris for all his contributions to the University of Missouri-St. Louis athletics throughout his career as a both a student-athlete and a coach, and we wish him and his family well in all their future endeavors,” UM-St. Louis athletics director Lori Flanagan stated in a statement released by the department. “Chris served his student-athletes and this university with class and dignity.”

Pilz finished his tenure as UM-St. Louis coach with a 77-114 record, the third-most wins in UM-St. Louis coaching history. Those totals include this past season’s 12-16 record, which was good enough to get the Tritons into the Great Lakes Valley Conference Postseason Championship Tournament.

That appearance in the GLVC Tournament proved to be Pilz’s final appearance as UM-St. Louis coach, as the Tritons lost their first-round game two Saturdays ago to Wisconsin-Parkside, by the score of 74-60.

That loss ended the team’s 2009-2010 season, and the Tritons returned to campus afterward with no indications that anything dramatic might happen regarding a change at the top of the program.

Then on Tuesday evening, rumors started flying amongst local basketball insiders that the coach might step down or be asked to do so. By Wednesday morning several local media outlets began reporting that a change was going to happen, and by the afternoon it became official when the athletic department announced that Pilz was no longer the UM-St. Louis men’s basketball coach.

“I would like to thank all my current and former student-athletes for their many contributions to this program and my staff for their loyalty, effort, attitude and commitment to excellence. With them I was able to gain invaluable coaching experience in the toughest Division II basketball conference in America,” Pilz said in a statement. “I was excited about coming to work every day, and it was a privilege to work alongside some wonderful people in the athletic office and across campus. I wish the university and our entire athletic department good luck as they move forward.”

Athletic department officials and Pilz himself declined to comment on why the coach chose to leave, or whether he was asked to step down. Several players on the team, who asked to remain nameless, said they believed Pilz was asked to resign. However it was made, the players were all dismayed by the decision.

One player who was particularly upset that Pilz was leaving, said that he “wasn’t sure” if he wanted to remain at UM-St. Louis, and that if Pilz landed a coaching position at another school in the area, he would transfer to that school so he could play for Pilz.

If Pilz does not pursue another college coaching position, some believe he might return to coaching high school, where he was very successful prior to taking the UM-St. Louis job in 2003, including a 107-55 mark at local power Hazelwood Central.

However the next few months play out for all involved, this past season will go down as one of the most unusual in program history.

The Tritons started the season 6-0, the best record to start a season ever in UM-St. Louis history, but by midseason, injuries, miscues and strained team chemistry had weakened the unit to the point that it lost 10 straight games in January and February, the second-longest losing streak in program history.

UM-St. Louis finished the season by losing 11 of its final 13 games, leaving Pilz with just two winning seasons in his seven-year stint with the Tritons.