Tom Billeter (born February 12, 1961) 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, currently the head coach at

Augustana University Augustana University is a private Lutheran university in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The university identifies 1860 as the year of its founding, the same as its Rock Island, Illinois Swedish-heritage sister school, Augustana College. It derives ...

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up ...

. He previously has been the head coach at

North Dakota State University 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 ...

, as well as holding assistant coaching roles at a number of

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

colleges. He led Augustana to the 2016 NCAA Division II national championship and was named the national coach of the year in that season. Billeter is from Byron, Illinois and obtained his undergraduate degree from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

. He began his coaching career as a high school coach, then made his entry into college coaching as an assistant to

Lute Olson Robert Luther "Lute" Olson (September 22, 1934 – August 27, 2020) was an American basketball coach, who was inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the head co ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. He then moved to

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

under Scott Thompson. He was hired as head coach of then-Division II

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 ...

, where he led the Bison to four consecutive 20-win seasons in his five seasons at the helm (from 1992 to 1997). He left the school, despite his success, to take an assistant coaching job at high profile Division I program St. John's. After a year at St. John's, then five seasons as an assistant at Texas A&M, Billeter was hired as head coach at Augustana in 2003. After going 42–69 in his first four seasons, he then led the Vikings to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2008 to 2010. Billeter received the Clarence Gaines Coach of the Year award in 2013. In the 2014–15 season, the Vikings went 31–3 but were knocked out of the 2015 NCAA tournament by Northwest Missouri in the second round. The Vikings avenged the loss the following season as they went 34–2 behind national player of the year

Dan Jansen Daniel Erwin Jansen (born June 17, 1965) is a retired American speed skater. A multiple world champion in sprint and perennial favorite at the Winter Olympics, he broke a ten-year Olympic jinx when he won a gold medal in his final race, which ...

and won the school's first national championship. Billeter was named the national Division II coach of the year by the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, head men's basketball coach at the University o ...

(NABC) at the conclusion of the season. On January 26, 2019, Billeter won his 300th game as Augustana Vikings coach.

College coaching record

References

External links

Augustana Vikings bio2016 National Champions retrospective
{{DEFAULTSORT:Billeter, Tom 1961 births Living people American men's basketball coaches Arizona Wildcats men's basketball coaches Augustana (South Dakota) Vikings men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Illinois College men's basketball head coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in the United States North Dakota State Bison men's basketball coaches People from Byron, Illinois Rice Owls men's basketball coaches St. John's Red Storm men's basketball coaches Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball coaches University of Arizona alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni