James Allen Dickey (born April 2, 1954) 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 and current Senior Advisor of men's basketball at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

. He was most recently an assistant coach at

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 ...

. He previously served as the men's head coach at

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

from 1991 to 2001, where he led the Red Raiders to the NCAA tournament in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

and again in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, and at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

from 2010 to 2014.

Biography

Early years

Dickey attended

Valley Springs High School Valley Springs High School is a secondary school in Valley Springs, Arkansas, United States. The school is the sole high school serving grades 9 through 12 in the Valley Springs School District. In 2012, Valley Springs was nationally recognized wit ...

, where he played basketball from 1970 to 1972. He later played for

Central Arkansas Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of ...

from 1972 to 1976.

Coaching career

Dickey's best team was the Texas Tech's 1996 unit, which finished 30–2, including an undefeated record in the final season of

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

play. They won the SWC conference tournament and advanced all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Raiders moved to the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...

for the 1996–97 season, and appeared to pick up right where they left off with a solid 19–9 season. It was discovered during the inaugural Big 12 basketball tournament, however, that two players had played the entire season while academically ineligible. Hours after the team's first-round game, Texas Tech announced that it was withdrawing from postseason consideration and forfeiting its entire conference schedule. The Raiders had lost that game, and would have had to forfeit it if they had won. A subsequent investigation revealed massive violations dating back to 1990 in men's basketball and nine other sports (though Dickey himself was not personally implicated). As a result, the NCAA stripped Tech of its two NCAA tournament wins in 1996 and docked it nine scholarships over four years. The lost scholarships were too much for Dickey to overcome, and he tallied four straight losing seasons before being fired in 2001. He was announced as the head coach of the

Houston Cougars The Houston Cougars are the athletic teams representing the University of Houston. Informally, the Houston Cougars have also been referred to as the Coogs, UH, or simply Houston. Houston's nickname was suggested by early physical education instr ...

on April 1, 2010.James Dickey succeeds Tom Penders at Houston Cougars – ESPN
/ref> After four seasons and a 64–62 record, Dickey resigned his position as head coach.

Head coaching record

College

*Texas Tech vacated its 1996 NCAA tournament appearance due to ineligible players; official record is 28–1.
**Texas Tech forfeited its entire 1996–97 conference slate due to ineligible players, but Dickey was ruled not to have been affected.
†Official record at Texas Tech is 164–123 () without vacated games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickey, James 1954 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball coaches Central Arkansas Bears basketball players College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Harding Bisons men's basketball coaches Houston Cougars men's basketball coaches Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball coaches Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball coaches Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball coaches Place of birth missing (living people) High school basketball coaches in the United States Shooting guards