By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
When ULM announced veteran Division I assistant Ryan Cross as its new men’s basketball coach Wednesday morning, it bypassed LSU Shreveport head coach Kyle Blankenship.
He was a finalist for the job, and interviewed In Monroe while he once again guided the Pilots to the NAIA Tournament Sweet 16 in Kansas City. On social media Wednesday, Blankenship expressed his “hurt and gratitude” after ULM picked Cross.
“We love LSU Shreveport. We love the … NAIA. We absolutely have the best friends and people we call family right here in Shreveport,” he wrote. “But sometimes an opportunity presents itself and you think the timing is right.”
ULM apparently gave Blankenship reason to believe he was the choice in a search led by new athletics director S.J. Tuohy, but the job went to Cross – a former ULM assistant (2012-18) and associate head coach (2018-20), both under Keith Richard, along with roles as an assistant at Louisiana Tech (2003-06), Bossier Parish Community College (2011-12) and UAB (2020-23) then associate head coach at UAB for the last three seasons.
“We were hours away from reaching a dream that I’ve had for my entire life,” posted Blankenship. “It was in our grasp …. The timing just wasn’t my timing.”
He wrote, “Although crushed, devastated and disappointed, I will get up off the mat and continue to do my best, have fun and never quit. Only this time I’ll do it with MORE JOY!”
Blankenship, 43, is a Byrd graduate who has steered LSUS to the NAIA Tournament each of his 14 seasons as head coach. The Pilots have reached two NAIA Fab Fours, three Elite 8s, and captured six conference regular-season and four tournament championships as he has posted a career 356-118 record as men’s head coach, including 221-61 in conference play.
He is an eight-time Red River Athletic Conference men’s coach of the year. In a stunning oversight, Blankenship was bypassed for that honor on the women’s side in 2023-24, when he pulled double duty as interim women’s coach, tapped to fill that role two weeks before the season began while maintaining the men’s post. He ed the women to a 30-3 record and regular-season and tournament titles. The men’s team went 24-9. Both reached the NAIA postseason with the women notching their first-ever NAIA Tournament victory.
His rare, if not unprecedented feat did not go unrecognized. Blankenship won the Allstate Sugar Bowl Jimmy Collins Award for remarkable coaching achievement and the Louisiana Sports Writers Association women’s Coach of the Year honor for that feat and was the Shreveport-Bossier Journal 2024 Sportsperson of the Year, along with receiving an NABC Guardians of the Game award for leadership in 2025.
Blankenship is the career wins leader among all state men’s coaches. This year’s team finished 28-6 with a Sweet 16 berth.
He is serving as president of the 2025-26 NAIA-National Association of Basketball Coaches Executive Committee.
Cross comes to ULM after a 20-12 season with the Blazers, and UAB competing in the postseason in four of Cross’s six seasons on staff. He has junior college head coaching experience at Chipola College and Barton County, along with five seasons (2006-11) at Caldwell Parish High School south of Monroe.
Tuohy fired second-year coach Phil Cunningham after a 4-28 finish to the season.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
Continue your article here…