Billy Mims is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach and head coach of

Florida Tech Panthers The Florida Tech Panthers are the athletic teams that represent the Florida Institute of Technology, located in Melbourne, Florida, in intercollegiate athletics at the Division II level of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), competin ...

Coaching career

Greater London Leopards

Mims was recruited to his first professional head coaching role to lead the fledging Leopards franchise in their inaugural

BBL A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

season in 1994. A charismatic and animated figure, Mims developed the Leopards on-court, culminating in winning the BBL Cup in 1997, and BBL Championship titles in 1997 and 1998, the latter rewarding him with the BBL Coach of the Year title.

Leicester Riders

After leaving the Leopards during the 1999–00 season, Mims was appointed head coach at the struggling

Leicester Riders Leicester Riders are a British professional basketball team and the oldest club in the British Basketball League (BBL). Established in 1967, the club have played in various locations around Leicestershire before moving to their current purpose- ...

. The Riders had started the season 0–18, and had made the post season Playoffs in just one season in the prior five. Following Mims' appointment, the Riders saved face to finish the season with a 10–26 record. The following season, with odds against the Riders once more, the team confounded expectations to win the 2001 BBL Playoffs and National Cup. As the oldest basketball club in the United Kingdom, this was the first silverware the club had ever won. The success could not last, however, and following poor seasons in 2002 and 2003, and a difficult start to the 2003–04 season, the Riders parted company with Mims.

Florida Tech

After one year at the

Texas–Permian Basin Falcons The Texas–Permian Basin Falcons (also UTPB Falcons) are the athletic teams that represent the University of Texas Permian Basin, located in Odessa, Texas, United States, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the Nat ...

, Mims was appointed head coach of the

in June 2005. In 2018, Mims became the all-time winningest coach in Florida Tech history.

Broadcasting career

Mims regularly worked as a basketball pundit for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in their coverage of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

and

, a role he first took on in his days as coach of the Leopards in London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mims, Billy Living people Basketball coaches from Florida American expatriate basketball people in the United Kingdom Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Florida Tech Panthers men's basketball coaches