Mar 11, 2014 09:02 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis has fired men's basketball coach Todd Howard Sunday. Howard coached Jaguars for overall 19 seasons including 16 as assistant coach and associate head coach, and as head coach for the last three seasons. The Louisville native went 26-70 in the last three seasons.

"I would like to thank Todd for his dedicated service to the IUPUI athletics department and to our basketball program," IUPUI athletic director Michael Moore said in a statement. "He guided the program with great pride, effort and integrity."

Under Howard's leadership, jags posted 14-18 in his first year but 6-26 in each of the last two seasons. IUPUI went 0-3 in the Summit League tournament under Howard.

Howard called IUPUI as his favourite place in the world and wished that the athletic staff would have given him a little more time to better the records.

"IUPUI is all I've known for 19-plus years, and I know the hard work that has gone into building a league champion, an NCAA tournament team, an NBA draft pick and much more," Howard said. "In this era, we were just too young and too injured, and that's hard to overcome.

While assisting former coach Ron Hunter, Howard led the Jaguars to make their only appearance at the NCAA tournament in 2003 and assisted in the development of George Hill, the current Indiana Pacers guard. Plus, the GPA and Academic Progress Rate data of the athletes also improved under Howard.

Moore said that a consulting firm is helping the university to search for Howard's replacement.

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit