The Seattle Redhawks men's basketball team represents Seattle University in

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 an ...

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 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

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 w ...

. 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 athletic ...

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 mos ...

(2012–present). They were previously a member of the West Coast Conference (1971–1980). The current head coach is Chris Victor, 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 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

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 in a stunning 84–81 upset, led by Johnny O'Brien. 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. 30,473 ...

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 home ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

on March 22. Despite finishing runner-up, Baylor was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was the first selection of the

1958 NBA draft The 1958 NBA draft was the 12th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 22, 1958, before the 1958–59 season. In this draft, eight NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball play ...

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

, Johnny O'Brien, 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 American a ...

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, Tom Workman, Frank Oleynick, Charlie Williams, Jawann Oldham, Charles Garcia, and Plummer Lott.

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 al ...

. 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. 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 West Coast Conference, where they played between 1971 and 1980, but were turned down. After declining an invitation to the now-defunct

Great West Conference The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football followin ...

, 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 eig ...

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 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 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 New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...

, 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 Wyomi ...

). 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

. 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 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI s ...

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

Pepperdine Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and ...

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. 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 nam ...

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 The accesso ShoWare Center is a multi-purpose arena in Kent, Washington, United States. About the venue The construction of the arena began September 2005, with the venue opening in January 2009. The principal tenants are the Seattle Thunderbi ...

in Kent, Washington on select years since moving back to D1. The games are referred to as the "ShoWare Classic". The Redhawk Center 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 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

in November 2018, but the rest of the 2018–2019 home schedule is being played on campus at the Redhawk Center.

Rivalries

Seattle U has two recognized rivals:

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

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 Hanf ...

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 (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