The 2015–16 VMI Keydets basketball team represented Virginia Military Institute in the

2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 13. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and ended with the Final Four in Houston April 2–4. Practices officially began on October 2. Rule changes The followin ...

. The Keydets were led by first-year head coach

Dan Earl Dan Earl (born October 12, 1974) is an American college basketball coach, was introduced as the head coach of Chattanooga Mocs on April 1, 2022. He is originally from Medford Lakes, New Jersey and attended Shawnee High School in Medford, graduati ...

and played their home games out of Cameron Hall, their home since 1981. Earl replaced

Duggar Baucom Robert Franklin "Duggar" Baucom (born September 21, 1960) is an American college basketball coach, most recently the head men's basketball coach at The Citadel Bulldogs basketball, The Citadel. Baucom was hired as the Citadel's head coach followin ...

, who departed for military rival The Citadel in March 2015. The Keydets played as a member of the Southern Conference for the second consecutive year, having been in the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

from 2003 to 2014. Prior to that, VMI was a member of the SoCon for nearly eighty years. They finished the season 9–21, 4–14 in SoCon play to finish in a tie for eighth place. They lost in the first round of the SoCon tournament to Samford.

Preseason

Departures

In addition to four seniors, VMI also lost sophomore forward Craig Hinton to transfer.

Coaching changes

In addition to the departure of Baucom, VMI assistant coaches Daniel Willis and Ryan Mattocks also left for The Citadel. Willis came to VMI in 2005 along with Baucom, and Mattocks was hired prior to the 2012–13 season. Additionally, the contract of assistant coach Ben Thompson, who was in his first season with the program, was not renewed. In May, Earl announced three hires to the coaching staff: Steve Lepore, Chris Kreider, and Jason Slay. Lepore came from Hargrave Military Academy and played college basketball at Wake Forest where he graduated in 2003. Kreider most recently served as an assistant coach at George Mason for four seasons, and also worked with former Southern Conference member

Georgia Southern Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hin ...

for two years. Slay had been an assistant at SoCon rival

East Tennessee State East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a Public university, public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although it is part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, the university is governed by an instit ...

the past two seasons, and played collegiately at

West Virginia State West Virginia State University (WVSU) is a public historically black, land-grant university in Institute, West Virginia. Founded in 1891 as the West Virginia Colored Institute, it is one of the original 19 land-grant colleges and universities e ...

Recruiting

Roster

Depth chart

Schedule

, - !colspan=9 style="background:#FF0000; color:#FFFF00;", Regular season , - !colspan=9 style="background:#FF0000; color:#FFFF00;", SoCon tournament 2015–16 VMI Basketball Schedule
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 VMI Keydets basketball team VMI Keydets basketball seasons VMI VMI Keydets bask VMI Keydets bask