Emporia State has hired Tom Billeter to be the next head coach of Hornet men’s basketball the school announced today. Billeter comes to Emporia after spending 21 seasons as the head coach at Augustana in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. There he led the Vikings to a 393-224 record while making nine NCAA Tournament appearances with three regular season NSIC championships. Billeter departs Sioux Falls, S. D. after his 18th consecutive winning season with the program and two NSIC Tournament titles. Prior to Billeter’s arrival, Augustana basketball had suffered through 17-straight losing seasons in NSIC play. In 2016, he was the Basketball Bulletin National Coach of the Year after leading the Vikings to a 34-2 record and the 2016 National Championship.
He has compiled a 490-274 record in 26 seasons as a head coach after going 97-50 at North Dakota State while leading the Bison to four NCAA Tournaments while the program was in NCAA Division II. Billeter has several years of experience at the Division I level spending six seasons on the bench at Texas A&M in the Big 12 from 1998-2003 and one year at St. John’s in the Big East. The Illinois graduate began his career on the staff of Lute Olsen as a graduate assistant at Arizona. He inherits a program that went 19-12 this season but graduated seven seniors and will return no starters after Kaden Evans and Solomon Oraegbu elected to enter the transfer portal. ESU Athletic Director David Spafford talked about the championship pedigree that set Billeter apart.
Billenger will be introduced at a press conference Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. at the Sauder Alumni Center on the ESU campus.
Edit: Updated with comments from ESU Athletic Director David Spafford.
