Clarence Eugene Iba (born November 5, 1940) is a former 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. He was previously the

Pittsburg State Gorillas The Pittsburg State Gorillas, commonly referred to as Pitt State, are the athletic teams that represent Pittsburg State University. They are in the NCAA Division II as a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA). Th ...

men's basketball coach until 2010. He was head coach at Houston Baptist from 1977 to 1985, Baylor from 1985 to 1992, and Pittsburg State from 1995 to 2010. He is the son of college basketball coach

Clarence Iba Clarence Victor Iba (April 20, 1909 – April 21, 1997) was the head basketball coach at the University of Tulsa. Iba coached the Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball team for eleven seasons, from 1949 to 1960. He is the brother of former Ok ...

and nephew of college basketball coach

Hank Iba Henry Payne Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwest Missouri S ...

Early life and education

Born in

Joplin, Missouri Joplin is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, Jasper and Newton County, Missouri, Newton counties in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bulk of the city is in Jasper County, while the southern portion is in Newton County. J ...

, Clarence Eugene Iba attended the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...

, where he played basketball from 1958 to 1961 under his father, head coach Clarence Victor Iba. After graduating in 1963, Gene Iba went to the

Navy Supply Corps School The Navy Supply Corps School (NSCS) is a 27-week training and "Basic Qualification Course" (BQC) in the United States located in Newport, Rhode Island. Those who complete the course become Commissioned officers in the Navy Supply Corps. The co ...

and coached its basketball team. Iba then attended Oklahoma A&M (now

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

) and served as a graduate assistant for the basketball team under his uncle

Henry Iba Henry Payne Iba (; August 6, 1904 – January 15, 1993) was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head basketball coach at Northwest Missouri State Teacher's College, now known as Northwest Missouri S ...

while completing his master's degree in business education.

Coaching career

In 1968, Iba became athletic director at Cleveland High School in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He then became head varsity basketball coach at Roosevelt High School in St. Louis in 1969 and led Roosevelt to the city championship in 1972. Iba moved up to the college rankings in 1972 as an assistant coach at

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

under

Don Haskins Donald Lee Haskins (March 14, 1930 – September 7, 2008), nicknamed "The Bear", was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball for three years under coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). He w ...

and remained for five seasons, during which UTEP made the 1975 NCAA Tournament. After UTEP, Iba became head coach at Houston Baptist in 1977. Iba turned around a program that went 11–44 in the past two years to a 14–13 record in 1979–80 and 18–10 record in 1980–81. The Trans American Athletic Conference (now

Atlantic Sun Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisi ...

) named Iba the Coach of the Year in 1981. Houston Baptist improved further, making the 1984 NCAA Tournament. Iba moved to Baylor as head coach in 1985 and led Baylor to post-season appearances in the 1987 NIT and 1988 NCAA Tournament. However, Baylor fell to 5–22 in the 1988–89 season and never made another postseason tournament. After the 1991–92 season, Baylor decided not to renew Iba's contract. Iba became head coach at Division II Pittsburg State in 1995. By Iba's second season, Pittsburg State earned its first national ranking in five years and first-ever NCAA Tournament victory. On February 15, 1999, Pittsburg State was ranked #1 in Division II men's basketball. and Iba was named MIAA Coach of the Year 1999. In 15 seasons as head coach, Iba had a 261–172 record with five NCAA Tournament appearances.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iba, Gene 1940 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Missouri Basketball players from Missouri Baylor Bears men's basketball coaches College men's basketball head coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in the United States Houston Christian Huskies men's basketball coaches Oklahoma State University alumni Pittsburg State Gorillas men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Joplin, Missouri Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball players UTEP Miners men's basketball coaches