James Allen Dickey (born April 2, 1954) is an American

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach and current Senior Advisor of men's basketball at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...

. He was most recently an assistant coach at

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

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

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

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

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

and again in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, and at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

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 wi ...

, 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 ...

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 also included schools from Oklaho ...

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 collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

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 inst ...

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 166–124 () 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 Arkansas Shooting guards 20th-century American sportsmen