Idaho State Coach Resigns
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Idaho State University men’s basketball coach Doug Oliver announced Tuesday that he will step down after the conclusion of this season, the school announced.
Oliver has been the head coach at Idaho State since 1998 and he is currently in his eighth season at the helm of the Bengals. The Bengals have finished third or higher in three of the last five seasons, although ISU is currently 7-8 overall and 0-4 in the Big Sky Conference. The Bengals have lost six straight, including four of the last five in the final 10 seconds and have only won one game since knocking off UC-Davis on Dec. 10.
The Bengals started the season 6-1 with the only loss being a 90-66 loss at Kansas in the season opener on Nov. 18.
“After 32 years of coaching at all levels, there’s a time that you just feel it,” Oliver said at a press conference held Tuesday. “I don’t know if I’m done coaching. There is nothing in the cards right now for (assistant coaches) Jay (McMillin), Louis (Wilson) or myself, we don’t know what we are going to do next year, but we are professionals, we are educators, and we’re good at what do. The one thing it hasn’t done is translate into enough wins.
“Coming off of this past weekend that had nothing to do with my decision. It was the pressure that I believe through the group dynamics that I watch everyday standing in front of a group of 15 young men and my assistants. There was a pressure there that was not necessary. Some of the kids felt that they were playing, and I’ll put this quite frankly, for my job, and that’s not true, and not fair.”
Oliver is the 19th head coach in ISU history, Oliver is fifth in career wins at Idaho State with 82. His current overall record is 82-128.
“We’ll go ahead and begin the search immediately, and the timing of the announcement allows us the time to with this process instead of rushing through it, and we can go through a normal search process,” ISU Director of Athletics Paul A. Bubb said at the press conference. “I think the timing of the announcement allows us to move ahead, but at the same time we are probably going to be looking at people that are also coaching right now, so they would be somewhat limited by what they can and can’t do.
“I just want to reiterate that Doug Oliver has coached this team with class and dignity, and those are the things I was told before I ever got here to Idaho State. He has recruited good student-athletes, and he has run his program in a first-class manner.”
No immediate candidates for possible replacements are known at this time.
