Donald Joseph Tyndall was hired by Athletics Director Dave Hart in April 2014 as UT’s head basketball coach, replacing Cuonzo Martin. Hart conducted the search without the assistance of a search firm, relying on his extensive knowledge and contacts to identify potential candidates. Tyndall had served as the head coach at Southern Mississippi for two years, following serving his alma mater, Morehead State, as head basketball coach from 2006 to 2012. The NCAA placed Morehead State on probation in 2010 for improper booster participation in the program. Tyndall’s first head coaching job (1996–97) was at St. Catharine Junior College in Springfield, Kentucky. Prior to obtaining the head-coaching job, he served as an assistant coach at Iowa Central Community College (1994–96). He left St. Catharine to become an assistant at Louisiana State University (1997–2001), was then associate head coach at Idaho (2001–2) and Middle Tennessee State University (2002–6). The Vols were 16-16 in 2014–15 under Tyndall.
The NCAA announced in November 2014 that it was investigating the Southern Miss basketball program for improper benefits paid to nonscholarship athletes during Tyndall’s tenure as head coach. Southern Miss self-imposed a one-year postseason ban, and several players were declared ineligible because of receiving improper benefits. Tyndall spoke with the NCAA in November and again in March 2015 and admitted deleting e-mails that were requested by the NCAA. On March 27, 2015, Dave Hart issued a statement and released the termination letter given to Tyndall. The coach’s contract, worth $1.6 million annually, was through 2020, but a clause in the contract allowed UT to fire him “for cause” (as UT did) if the NCAA imposed penalties for significant infractions. After talking with NCAA representatives, UT concluded that Tyndall was likely to face such penalties.
On August 2, while in Knoxville, Tyndall married his fiancée, Nikki Taylor, a former Transylvania and Kentucky basketball player who had begun a career in basketball as consultant and floor coach at Southern Miss.