Coastal Carolina men's basketball coach Cliff Ellis, the active leader in career wins, is retiring, he announced Wednesday.
Coastal Carolina said Ellis coached his final game Monday night, a 110-46 victory against St Andrews. It said associate head coach Benny Moss will take on the role of interim coach and that Ellis will remain with the school working on special projects as he completes his contract.
Ellis said in a release from the school that he planned to retire at the end of the season, "but in fairness to my players and my coaching staff, I wanted all of them, but especially the staff, to have a chance to show what they are made of."
Ellis, who turned 78 on Tuesday, is the oldest coach in Division I this season. He'll finish his career with 833 career wins at four different Division I schools: South Alabama, Clemson, Auburn and Coastal Carolina. He notched another 78 wins at NAIA school Cumberland.
Ellis guided all four Division I schools to the NCAA tournament, including one Sweet 16 appearance with Clemson and two with Auburn. He won eight regular-season championships, most recently in 2014 with Coastal Carolina.
Ellis' most successful team was Auburn in the 1998-99 season. He guided the Tigers to the SEC regular-season championship and a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament, where they beat Winthrop and Oklahoma State before falling to Ohio State in the Sweet 16.
He'll finish his career ranked in the top 10 in career wins.
With Ellis retiring, the new active career wins leader is Kentucky's John Calipari.
The Chanticleers improved to 3-5 with Monday's victory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.