Desmond L. Oliver (born December 4, 1969) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach who most recently served as the head coach at

East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although it is part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, the university is governed by an institutional Board of Tr ...

Playing career

Oliver played collegiately for one season at

Genesee Community College Genesee Community College (GCC) is a public community college with its main campus in Batavia, New York. It has campus centers in Albion, Medina, Warsaw, Dansville, Arcade, Lima (previously Lakeville), New York. Thus, the college covers areas no ...

under Bill Van Gundy, the father of

Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

and

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, before transferring to Dominican College in New York, where he served as a team captain.

Coaching career

In 1994, Oliver began his college coaching career as an assistant at

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where he stayed until 1997 before taking an assistant coaching position under

Tony Barone Anthony Andrew Barone Sr. (July 20, 1946June 25, 2019) was an American basketball coach and scout. A native of Chicago, he was head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Barone was appointed as the team's ...

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. Oliver would return to New York with stops at

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and St. Bonaventure before joining Bonnies' head coach

Jim Baron James Edward Baron (born March 20, 1954) is a retired American college basketball coach. He previously held the position of head coach at Saint Francis University, St. Bonaventure University, the University of Rhode Island and Canisius College. ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

where he'd stay as an assistant from 2001 to 2004. From 2004 to 2009, Oliver was an assistant under

Dennis Felton Dennis Alan Felton (born June 21, 1963) is an American basketball coach who is the associate head coach at George Mason University. His previous tenure was as an assistant coach at Fordham University. He is also the former head men's basketball c ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and the Bulldogs' 11th place squad that won the 2008 SEC tournament title and the auto bid to the 2008 NCAA tournament. After his time at Georgia, Oliver briefly served as an assistant coach at

Canisius Canisius may refer to: People * Saint Peter Canisius (1521–1597), Dutch Jesuit Catholic priest * Theodorich Canisius (1532–1606), Jesuit academic, half-brother of St. Peter Canisius * Henricus Canisius (1562–1610), Dutch canonist and historia ...

before a five-year stint as an assistant at

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

. In 2015, Oliver moved on to

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

to join

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, where he would earn a reputation as one of the top recruiters in college basketball. While with the Volunteers, Oliver was on staff for a SEC regular season title in 2017–18 and a Sweet 16 appearance in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. On April 5, 2021 Oliver was named the 18th head coach in

East Tennessee State East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a Public university, public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. Although it is part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, the university is governed by an instit ...

basketball history. In his first season at ETSU, Oliver led a young Buccaneer team to a 15-17 record, which was highlighted by winning the inaugural Naples Invitational. The Buccaneers went 12-20 in Oliver's second season, where nine of the losses were decided by 4 points or less. After two seasons, Oliver was dismissed from East Tennessee State on March 10, 2023.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Desmond Oliver
on

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