Saul Edward Phillips (born October 10, 1972) is an American college basketball coach. He is currently the head coach of the

Northern State Wolves The Northern State Wolves are the athletic teams that represent Northern State University, located in Aberdeen, South Dakota, U.S., in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Wolves compete as members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Co ...

men's basketball team. Phillips is a graduate of University of Wisconsin–Platteville.

Coaching career

North Dakota State University

Phillips got his start at NDSU as an assistant coach under Tim Miles in 2004. When Miles left the school to coach Colorado State in 2007, Phillips was promoted to head coach. In 2009 Phillips led the

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...

Bison to win the Summit League tournament championship and became the first team since Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana–Lafayette) in 1972 to advance to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in their first year of eligibility. On January 17, 2013; Saul Phillips notched his 100th win with the Bison. Phillips reached the NCAA tournament once again in 2014 after winning the Summit League tournament. Seeded 12th in the NCAA Tournament, the Bison upset 5th seeded Oklahoma in the second round 80–75, then lost to 4th seeded

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

44-63 in the third round. He is currently 4th on the all-time wins list in NDSU men's basketball history.

Ohio University

On April 6, 2014, Phillips agreed to become the 18th head coach of the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Bobcats The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

. The 2014–15 Bobcats finished with a 10–20 overall record and only 5 wins in the MAC in spite of the presence of future NBA player

Maurice Ndour Maurice Daly Ndour (born June 18, 1992) is a Senegalese professional basketball player for the Nagoya Diamond Dolphins of the Japanese basketball league. He played college basketball for the Ohio Bobcats and has represented the Senegalese natio ...

. In 2015–16 the Bobcats went 23–12 and 11–7 MAC Conference record giving them the #2 seed in the 2016 MAC tournament. Junior Antonio Campbell was named the 2016 MAC Player of the Year after averaging a

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

throughout the season. The Bobcats lost to Buffalo in the semifinal game of the MAC Tournament 74–88. Ohio accepted an invitation to the 2016 College Basketball Invitational. They reached the semifinals but lost to Morehead State. His 2016–17 went 20–10 overall and 11–7 in the MAC which was good for second place. His last two seasons at Ohio were plagued by player injuries and resulted in 14-17 records both seasons. On March 13, 2019, Phillips' contract was not renewed by Ohio after 5 seasons. One of his successes at Ohio turned out to be offering Jason Preston, who was unrecruited out of high school, a scholarship. Preston was later selected in the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA u ...

Northern State University

On June 11, 2019, Phillips was named the head men's basketball coach at Northern State following the departure of Paul Sather In his first season, the Wolves won the NSIC regular season championship and the NSIC tournament championship. However, the postseason was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Head coaching record

''**-During the 2020-21 season, only a North and South Division winner were awarded, no overall conference championship was given due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

House Hunters

Season 185, episode 7 of HGTV's show

House Hunters ''House Hunters'' is an American unscripted television series that airs on HGTV and is produced by Pie Town Productions. Each episode follows people making a decision about a new home purchase or rental. Format ''House Hunters'' follows indiv ...

featured Saul as he and his wife search for a home in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

References

External links

Ohio profile

North Dakota State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Saul 1972 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Wisconsin Basketball players from Wisconsin College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Lake Superior State Lakers men's basketball coaches Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball coaches North Dakota State Bison men's basketball coaches Northern State Wolves men's basketball coaches Ohio Bobcats men's basketball coaches People from Reedsburg, Wisconsin Wayne State Wildcats men's basketball coaches Wisconsin–Platteville Pioneers men's basketball players