This is what you need to know about Evansville men's basketball head coach David Ragland

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — David Ragland officially was announced as the University of Evansville's new men's basketball head coach Tuesday afternoon.

The 41-year-old will return to his hometown, where he graduated from Harrison High School and the University of Southern Indiana. He spent this past season on staff at Butler University.

"It is a dream come true to return home," Ragland said in a news release. "Evansville is such a special place for my family and myself, and the opportunity to come back to where it all started means the world. Growing up in the city, I understand what the Purple Aces' program means to the community  From Day 1, I will work to establish a program that the entire University of Evansville campus community and the city of Evansville will be proud of."

Get to know the Purple Aces' eighth Division I coach in program history.

University of Evansville: David Ragland named new men's basketball coach

He has one dozen years of Division I coaching experience

UE will mark his seventh stop in 13 years, and only twice has he been on the bench for a team with a losing record.

Ragland received his first D-I opportunity as an Indiana State assistant in 2010 under Greg Lansing. He spent four years with the Sycamores and helped them reach the postseason each year, including an NCAA tournament appearance in his first season.

He then spent one year at Bowling Green in the Mid-American Conference and the next three in the Horizon League with Northern Kentucky and Valparaiso. Ragland moved to Utah State from 2018-21, helping the Aggies make a pair of NCAA tournament appearances and earn another berth in 2020 before March Madness was canceled.

Ragland was at Butler University this past season under coach LaVall Jordan. He then was retained in the same role for new coach Thad Matta after Butler made a coaching change.

This isn’t his first head coaching job

Ragland previously spent two years up U.S. 41 as the head coach of junior college Vincennes University from 2008-10. The Trailblazers went 44-19 with him at the helm, reaching the NJCAA district tournament finals his second year.

He was an assistant with the program for three seasons before he took over. His first coaching job was at Frank Phillips College, a juco in Texas, from 2004-05.

Ragland was a standout player locally in high school and college

The 5-foot-11 Ragland orchestrated Harrison High School’s run to the 1999 Class 4A semistate, where it ran into Indiana Mr. Basketball and future Arizona All-American Jason Gardner, and Indianapolis North Central. Ragland was the Southern Indiana Player of the Year as a senior as the Warriors went 21-3.

The following year as a freshman in college, he sparked Missouri Southern to the NCAA Division II final four and a 30-3 overall record. He spent his final two seasons on the West Side with the University of Southern Indiana, which won 47 games as he led them in assists both years.

The son of former EVSC school board president Karen Ragland, he’s a firm believer in academics. He got into coaching to build relationships, helping young players grow as men. Ragland’s father, Darrell, passed away in August 2017 from pancreatic cancer.

He's not the Aces' first head coach with local ties

Ragland notably was a finalist for the UE opening in 2018 alongside fellow Harrison alumni Walter McCarty and Calbert Cheaney. McCarty, of course, got the job and later led UE to arguably its highest and lowest points of the past 20-plus years.

However, Evansville natives and UE alumni have a long-standing history of leading the Aces.

Arad McCutchan graduated from Bosse High School in 1930 and coached his alma mater from 1936-43. After he spent the following three years serving for the U.S. Navy, he returned home to take over the Aces from 1946-77. McCutchan led them to five NCAA College Division championships.

Marty Simmons later was a UE Hall of Fame player before spending 11 years as an assistant and 11 more as the head coach, during which he went 184-175. Simmons is a native of Southern Illinois but graduated from UE.

Ragland will face an uphill battle at UE

Only one head coaching job — South Carolina State — remains open in Division I. Perhaps surprisingly, it was open before the Aces even fired Todd Lickliter.

It's late in the game to be taking over a program and Ragland must play catch-up. Graduate assistant Jo Griffin is the only member of Lickliter's staff who was retained, so Ragland will need to fill his staff before they truly can begin recruiting. UE already has missed out on opportunities to evaluate players for next year's signing class, too.

Ragland will have four open scholarships to fill, though all of the current players are expected to stay on board. The Aces will not be on campus again until late June when the "Summer 2" session starts.

They're coming off a 6-24 campaign and have finished last in the Missouri Valley Conference three times in the past four seasons. UE needs to replace five of its six top scorers from a team that averaged the fifth-fewest points in D-I. Returners accounted for just 33% of the overall minutes played.

Nonetheless, there's a new regime in place that's hungry to turn things around.

“I’ve been around success, I know what it looks like,” Siegfried said when he was introduced. “I’ve been on the plane when we’re headed to the Final Four with Derrick Rose. I know what that does for a community, and I know what it will do here.

“The successes that took place (in Evansville) in the ‘80s, especially towards the end of the’ 80s and the ‘90s, I remember those successes, and we’re ready to make some noise.”

Chad Lindskog is the sports editor of the Courier & Press. You can contact him by email, clindskog@gannett.com, or on Twitter: @chadlindskog.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: What to know about Evansville men's basketball coach David Ragland