Timothy Michael Cluess (born March 9, 1959) 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 who most recently was the head men's basketball coach at Iona College. He is also a former head coach of Long Island University–C.W. Post.

College playing career

Born in

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, Cluess played college basketball at St. John's (1979–81) and Hofstra (1982–83).

Professional playing career

Cluess played professionally in Europe and Australia.

Coaching career

High school

Cluess was the head coach of Saint Mary's High School in

Manhasset, New York Manhasset is an affluent Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. It is co ...

for 14 seasons (1991–2005). Cluess's Gaels won four Class A New York State Catholic High School Athletic Association (NYSCHSAA) championships and two New York State Federation of Secondary Schools Athletic Associations (NYSFSSA) championships. However, St. Mary's played in the Class A Division, and failed to advance past the New York City representative of much stronger Class AA Division each time they attempted to advance for the right to play in the New York State Class AA Federation Tournament. In 2004–05, Saint Mary's posted a 25–1 overall record. The lone loss came against a New York City team, Xaverian, from the class AA Division as St. Mary's once again failed to advance past New York City in the Class AA Division.

College

Cluess’ first college coaching job was the 2005–06

Suffolk County Community College Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) is a public community college in Selden, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and is funded in part by Suffolk County, New York. Suffolk County Community College was ...

team that finished with a regular season record of 20–9. They appeared in their first

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the governing association of community college, State college (disambiguation), state college, and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 sepa ...

Division III tournament that year, winning their first two games before being eliminated in their third game and finishing the season at 22–10. After one year at the junior college level, Cluess became the head coach for the

Long Island University C.W. Post Campus LIU Post, formally the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and often referred to as C.W. Post, is a private university in Brookville, New York, on Long Island. It is part of Long Island University (LIU), and the largest school in the ...

Pioneers. He led the team to three straight first-place finishes in the

East Coast Conference The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located primarily in the state of New York, with a single ...

, including two conference tournament titles in 2007–08 and 2008–09. In four seasons at LIU-Post, Cluess led the team to two

NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament (officially styled by the NCAA as a "Championship" instead of a "Tournament") is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II, a grouping of ...

s in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. The 2008–09 squad finished the regular season with a record of 24–0, in route to an

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

Elite Eight tournament appearance and a 30–1 final record. In April 2010 Cluess replaced

Kevin Willard Kevin Schreiber Willard (born April 6, 1975) is an American college basketball coach and the incoming men's basketball head coach at Villanova University. Willard played basketball at Western Kentucky during the 1992–93 season before transfer ...

as the head men's basketball coach at Iona College. Cluess' record in nine seasons at Iona was 199–108. Just before the 2019–20 pre-season, Cluess took a leave of absence to deal with personal health issues. Associate head coach Tra Arnold took over head coaching duties for the remainder of the season. On March 13, 2020, Cluess stepped down from Iona due to his health issues.

Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (; born September 18, 1952) is an American basketball coach who is the head men's basketball coach at St. John's University (New York City), St. John's University. He was also the head coach of Greece national basketball t ...

was named to replace Cluess as head coach the next day.

Head coaching record

Junior college

College

References

External links

Iona profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cluess, Tim 1959 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Australia American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball players from Queens, New York College men's basketball head coaches in the United States High school basketball coaches in New York (state) Hofstra Pride men's basketball players Iona Gaels men's basketball coaches Junior college men's basketball coaches in the United States LIU Post Pioneers men's basketball coaches Small forwards Sports coaches from New York City St. John's Red Storm men's basketball players 20th-century American sportsmen