UCCS announces new men’s basketball coach following intense search

In conclusion to a month-long search for a new men’s basketball head coach, a new head coach has been announced. Jeff Culver, once the head basketball coach for Johnson and Wales University, has been selected to be the new head coach for men’s basketball. Culver has been named AII Conference Coach of the Year and has also led his team to multiple championships.

Following a mutual parting of ways between former head coach Russ Caton and Athletic Director Steve Kirkham, the UCCS men’s basketball team has been in search of a new coach. Caton, who was the head coach since 2006, resigned at the end of the regular season.

Kirkham said that the search has been intensive and has gone on for about a month. Kirkham even used former Denver Nuggets player Bill Hanzlik as a consultant to see who he thought would be the best fit for the men’s basketball team.     

“We have been searching for about a month now and it hasn’t been easy,” stated Kirkham. “We are looking for not only a coach, but a teacher who gets the kids to understand the minute details and fundamentals of basketball.”

According to Kirkham, the search was difficult because UCCS has such high academic standards compared to other schools in the RMAC.

“A lot of the schools we play against have open admission, but here at UCCS, we have academic standards we have to abide by, which isn’t a bad thing,” he stated.

Along with Colorado School of Mines in Golden, UCCS has the highest academic standards in the RMAC and is only behind CU-Boulder and Colorado State for highest in the state.

“Having those standards has made the search for a coach much more different,” Kirkham went on to say.

Besides finding a coach that can abide by UCCS’ academic standards, Kirkham has also said he wants a coach that is a great recruiter.

“To have a good team, you have to have good talent. Right now, our team doesn’t have a very strong inside presence, so having a coach that can find the right talent is what we are looking for too,” he stated. “It takes a great recruiter to identify potential, and a talented coach will help with that.”     

When going through the search, one of Kirkham’s main goals was to find a coach that would understand one of the key components of college sports: to graduate players as student-athletes.

“It takes a unique personality to make the kids better players but also realize that we want our athletes to graduate as student-athletes and still have the opportunity to do what they love.”