The University of Toledo and men's basketball coach Tod Kowalczyk agreed Monday to a contract extension through the 2023-24 season, the school announced.
“I'm just really excited about our team and excited about the future of what we've been building,” Kowalczyk told The Blade. “We're really grateful to President [Sharon] Gaber and to [athletic director] Mike O'Brien for having the faith and confidence that they do in our program.
“I also would like to just thank our players. They are ultimately the guys that perform, get it done, and buy in. We have a great group of men.”
Kowalczyk, who was hired in 2010, will make a base salary of $333,906. He also is set to receive $165,000 in marketing compensation for the upcoming season. Since 2011, the marketing compensation has increased by $15,000 each year. Under his contract, that marketing compensation figure will remain fixed starting March 30, 2023.
Kowalczyk also is entitled to certain bonuses relating to how the team performs in the Mid-American Conference, in the postseason, and whether he receives certain individual coaching accolades.
This is the second consecutive year the school and Kowalczyk agreed to a contract extension.
In talking about his decision to sign another extension, he emphasized program stability.
“Just for recruiting purposes, having a five-year contract is always important,” Kowalczyk said. “The stability of the program is huge with recruiting, especially in this day and age. You look at the transfer market, the turnover with players and staffs — to have continuity and to have consistency, especially with a program that is winning at a high level and doing it consistently.”
Last season, Toledo won its second consecutive MAC West Division championship, and fourth under Kowalczyk, in posting a 25-8 overall record.
It marked the Rockets’ fourth 20-win season in the past six years.
Last season ended with a 78-64 loss to Xavier in the first round of the NIT. In the MAC tournament, Toledo was upset by Northern Illinois 80-76 in the quarterfinal round.
“We were disappointed with our conference tournament loss, there's no question,” Kowalczyk said. ”Not necessarily disappointed with how we played, disappointed about the loss. Certainly we felt privileged and honored to play in the NIT. As you know, we only had six available players in that game, so that was a little bit of an uphill battle. We still had chances. In the second half we didn't play all that well, but in the first half I thought we played really good basketball with only six guys.”
In the past six seasons, the Rockets have gone 129-71 (.645 winning percentage).
In his nine seasons with Toledo, Kowalczyk has a 167-129 overall record (.564) and an 88-66 mark in MAC play (.571). His wins are third-best in team history. Kowalczyk’s tenure includes a program-record 27 wins in 2013-14 and MAC tournament title game appearances in 2014 and 2018.
"Our men's basketball program continues to thrive under Tod's leadership," O'Brien said in a news release. "His teams have consistently been among the elite programs in the Mid-American Conference, and we look forward to even greater success in the future. Just as importantly, Tod cares about his players as student-athletes, establishing an academic culture that is also at the top of the MAC."
Kowalczyk is 303-241 overall (.557) as a college head coach. Before coming here, Kowalczyk spent eight seasons at Green Bay, where he was 136-112.
First Published June 3, 2019, 3:54 p.m.
