The Seattle Redhawks men's basketball team represents

Seattle University Seattle University (SeattleU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate p ...

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

Division I

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

competition. Established in 1946, the team was previously known as the Seattle Chieftains. The program experienced success during the 1950s and 1960s, reaching the NCAA Division I tournament 11 times. Led by 1958 No. 1 draft pick

Elgin Baylor Elgin Gay Baylor ( ; September 16, 1934 – March 22, 2021) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and executive. He played 14 seasons as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lak ...

, Seattle finished runner-up in the

1958 NCAA University Division basketball tournament The 1958 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 24 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball in the United States. It began on March 11, and ended ...

. Seattle was a member of

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

from 1946 to 1980, reclassified to NAIA in 1980, and rejoined the Division I level in 2008. They are a member of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to most of ...

(2012–present). They were previously a member of the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

(1971–1980). The current head coach is

Chris Victor Chris Victor is an American college basketball head coach who is currently the head coach at Seattle University. Playing career Victor attended Concordia–Irvine from 2001 to 2004. He helped lead Concordia to a NAIA title in 2003. Victor score ...

, who was previously the associate head coach.

History

1950s and 1960s: National prominence

Established in 1946, the program experienced a period of success during the 1950s and 1960s. Seattle produced more NBA players than any other school from 1960 to 1969. From 1953 to

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 ** Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

, the Seattle Chieftains reached the NCAA tournament 11 times. On January 21, 1952, the Seattle Chieftains beat the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name '' Harlem'' because of ...

in a stunning 84–81 upset, led by

Johnny O'Brien John Thomas O'Brien (born December 11, 1930) is a former backup second baseman and pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1953, 1955–58), St. Louis Cardinals (1958) and Milwaukee Braves (1959). O'Brien batted ...

. Six years later,

led the Chieftains to the championship game of the 1958 NCAA tournament, but fell to the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,47 ...

Freedom Hall Freedom Hall is a multi-purpose arena in Louisville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center, which is owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is best known for its use as a basketball arena, previously serving as the h ...

in Louisville on March 22. Despite finishing runner-up, Baylor was named the tournament's

Most Outstanding Player The term Most Outstanding Player may refer to: * The recipient of the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award * The NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player award * The College World Series Most Outstanding Player in college baseball * The N ...

and was the first selection of the 1958 NBA draft in April. Notable

alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

of Seattle University basketball include

, Eddie O'Brien,

Charlie Brown Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip '' Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a " lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great America ...

Eddie Miles Edward Miles, Jr. (born July 5, 1940) is a retired American basketball player. A 6'4" guard born in North Little Rock, Arkansas and a graduate of Scipio A. Jones High School, Miles was nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Arm" because of his sho ...

, Clint Richardson,

John Tresvant John B. Tresvant (born November 6, 1939) is a retired American basketball player. A native of Washington, D.C., he played high school football and baseball, but not play basketball as he was cut from the team. After graduating, he joined the U. ...

, Tom Workman,

Frank Oleynick Frank "Magic" Oleynick (born February 20, 1955) is an American retired professional basketball player. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he played collegiately for Seattle University. He played for the US national team in the 1974 FIBA World Ch ...

, Charlie Williams,

Jawann Oldham Jawann Oldham (born July 4, 1957) is an American former professional basketball player who played center. After being selected by the Denver Nuggets in the second round (41st overall) of the 1980 NBA draft, he went on to play in ten National Bas ...

Charles Garcia Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

, and

Plummer Lott Plummer E. Lott (born ) is a retired American professional basketball player and a New York Supreme Court justice. Born in Mississippi, Lott was a 6'5" (1.96 m) and small forward whose brief NBA career lasted with the Seattle SuperSonics from 1 ...

Cameron Dollar (2009–2017)

Seattle discontinued its men's basketball at the Division I level for some time, initially moving to NAIA in 1980. Seattle rejoined the NCAA as a Division III member and then as a Division II member in the

Great Northwest Athletic Conference The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. It has historically operated in the northwestern United States, but a ...

. In 2008, the program rejoined the Division I level. In 2009, Cameron Dollar was hired as the new men's basketball head coach to replace

Joe Callero Joseph Dominic Callero (born August 26, 1962) is an American college basketball coach, most recently the head men's basketball coach at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). He replaced outgoing coach Kevin Bromley i ...

. Seattle University and University of Washington agreed to renew their rivalry by playing annually from 2009 to 2017 while rotating sites. In 2017, the two schools played in the

2K Sports Classic The Empire Classic, formerly known as the 2K Sports Classic, is an annual college basketball event played in November at the beginning of the season and televised by ESPN. Originally known as the Atlantic City Shootout and produced by the Gazel ...

. The Redhawks played as an independent for the next three years before seeking a conference. Seattle first applied to the

, where they played between 1971 and 1980, but were turned down. After declining an invitation to the now-defunct Great West Conference, Seattle applied for membership in the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

and

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

but were again turned down. During the 2010–14 NCAA conference realignment, the

saw 12 of its members leave. In 2012, the WAC invited Seattle to join and Seattle accepted soon after. Seattle began the 2012–13 season in the WAC, and for the 2013–14 season only three members from the prior year remained in the conference (Seattle, New Mexico State, and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...

). The WAC added six new members for 2013–14, and once Idaho left for the Big Sky Conference in 2014–15, Seattle became the second-longest tenured WAC school after just three seasons in the league. Seattle won their first WAC tournament game in the 2014–15 season, beating Chicago State and UMKC en route to the WAC tournament finals where they lost to New Mexico State. The Redhawks finished the regular season 16–15, and earned an invite to the

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007-08 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, 2007–08 men ...

. It was the Redhawks' first appearance in a Division I postseason tournament since 1969. Seattle beat Pepperdine and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

in the first two rounds in the Connolly Center, before losing to Loyola (Ill.) in the semi-finals. Loyola (Ill.) would go on to win the tournament. In the 2015–16 season, Seattle was invited to the CBI again and hosted their first two games. After beating Idaho in the first round, the Redhawks fell to Vermont. On March 13, 2017, Cameron Dollar was fired after compiling a 107–138 record and two CBI appearances at Seattle.

Jim Hayford (2017–2021)

On March 29, 2017, Jim Hayford was hired as the new men's basketball head coach to replace Dollar, coming from rival

Eastern Washington University Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington. It also offers programs at a campus in EWU Spokane at the Riverpoint Campus and other campus locations throughout the state. Founded in 1882, the university is ...

. In his first year as head coach, Hayford compiled a 20–14 record, the Redhawks' first 20-win season since 2008 and first 20-win season in Division I play since the 1960s. The Redhawks fell to

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 o ...

in the first round of the 2018 CBI tournament. In his second year as head coach, Hayford compiled an 18–15 record, marking the Redhawks' first back-to-back 18+ win seasons since 2008–09 and 2009–10. The Redhawks fell to

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

in the first round of the 2019 CIT tournament.

Home court

Seattle moved to KeyArena, just a few miles from campus, for men's basketball in 2009 when the Redhawks moved to Division I. KeyArena opened on October 26, 1995, and plays host to other sporting events, family events, and other entertainment. Despite seating just over 17,000 people, Seattle curtains off the upper deck and only sells tickets for the lower bowl and luxury boxes, making the official capacity for Redhawks games 8,901. 1,160 of that is luxury boxes. Seattle has played a game at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington on select years since moving back to D1. The games are referred to as the "ShoWare Classic". The

Redhawk Center Redhawk Center is a 999-seat multi-purpose arena in Seattle, Washington on the campus of Seattle University. It was built in 1959 and is home to the Seattle University Redhawks women's basketball and volleyball teams, as well as the home court for ...

on the campus has been seldom used by the men's team as it only seats 999. Seattle U hosted their College Basketball Invitational games at the Redhawk Center in 2015 because KeyArena was in use for the

NCAA men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

. The Redhawk Center hosted six Seattle U home games in 2016–2017, and ten the next season (2017–2018).

Climate Pledge Arena Climate Pledge Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is located north of Downtown Seattle in the entertainment complex known as Seattle Center, the site of the 1962 World's Fair, for which it was ...

continues to be considered the program's primary home court; however, it is scheduled to be closed from 2018 to 2021 while being totally rebuilt. Two early-season home games were played at the ShoWare Center in November 2018, but the rest of the 2018–2019 home schedule is being played on campus at the

Rivalries

Seattle U has two recognized rivals: Washington and

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Ha ...

Washington

The two schools are only 2.8 miles apart and have met 33 times. Cameron Dollar came from Washington as an assistant under

Lorenzo Romar Lorenzo Romar (born November 13, 1958) is an American basketball coach and former player. He is the head men's basketball coach at Pepperdine University, a position he held from 1996 to 1999 and resumed in 2018. Romar also served as the head me ...

, which helped restart the rivalry when the Redhawks returned to Division I. The schools first met in 1952, then played every season from 1969 to 1979 when Seattle U left the NCAA. Washington leads the series 29–4. They have played every season since 2009 on a rotating home-court basis.

Eastern Washington

Seattle U and

have met 14 times since they first played in 2009. The "Intrastate Battle" rivalry game between them is sometimes played twice a season in a rotating home court basis, though sometimes is only played once. The series is currently tied 7–7. An establishing chapter began in 2017 when Jim Hayford left his head coaching position EWU for the same job at Seattle U. Hayford's assistant, Shantay Legans, was hired as his successor. On December 3, 2017, in Hayford's first game against his former team and assistant, Seattle U won 85–64

Season-by-season records

Postseason appearances

NCAA Division I tournament

The Redhawks have made the NCAA Division I tournament 11 times, though none since 1969, in part due to not being in Division I for over half of their drought. Their combined record is 10–13.

NIT appearances

Seattle has made two appearances in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

(NIT). They have a combined record of 0–2.

CBI appearances

Seattle has made three appearances in the

(CBI). They have a combined record of 3–3.

CIT appearances

Seattle made their first appearance in the CIT tournament in 2019. They have a combined record of 0–1.

Retired numbers

References

{{Western Athletic Conference men's basketball navbox