Ray Giacoletti

Last updated
Ray Giacoletti
Biographical details
Born (1962-04-14) April 14, 1962 (age 62)
Peoria, Illinois, U.S.
Playing career
1980–1984 Minot State
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1984–1985 Minot State (GA)
1985–1986 Western Illinois (GA)
1986–1987 Oral Roberts (assistant)
1987–1989 Fresno Flames (assistant)
1989–1993 Illinois State (assistant)
1993–1997 Washington (assistant)
1997–2000 North Dakota State
2000–2004 Eastern Washington
2004–2007 Utah
2007–2013 Gonzaga (assistant)
2013–2016 Drake
2019–2022 Saint Louis (assistant)
Head coaching record
Overall203–192 (.514)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
Big Sky tournament (2004)
Big Sky regular season (2004)
MWC regular season champion (2005)
Awards
Big Sky Coach of the Year (2004)
MWC Coach of the Year (2005)

Raymond Bryan Giacoletti (born April 14, 1962) is a former men's basketball coach, having served as head coach at Drake University, and The University of Utah. He played collegiate basketball at Minot State University in North Dakota from 1980 to 1984, where he was a four-year letterman and a team captain for two seasons. He received his degree in physical education in 1985.

Contents

Giacoletti was previously the head coach at North Dakota State University, Eastern Washington University, and the University of Utah. At Utah, he was a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award in 2005, he was also named the 2005 Playboy National Coach of the Year. [1] Giacoletti resigned as Drake coach on December 6, 2016.

Coaching history

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Giacoletti began coaching in 1984 when he was named a student assistant coach at Minot State while finishing up his degree. Giacoletti then became a graduate assistant at Western Illinois University during the 1985–86 season. After spending a year at Western Illinois, Giacoletti became an assistant coach for Oral Roberts University during the 1986–87 season.

After 3 seasons at the collegiate level, Giacoletti moved to the professional ranks, where he spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Fresno Flames of the old World Basketball League. Giacoletti then returned to college coaching in the 1989 season, where he was named an assistant head coach under Bob Bender at Illinois State. After three seasons with Illinois State, Bender was named the head coach of the University of Washington, where Giacoletti accepted an assistant position with the program. He was an assistant coach with the Washington Huskies from 1993 to 1997, until he accepted the head coaching job at North Dakota State.

By accepting the head coaching job at North Dakota State, Giacoletti returned to the state where he spent his collegiate years. In his first season as a head coach, Giacoletti guided North Dakota State to an 18–9 (.667) record. In his second season, North Dakota State finished with a 14–13 record and in his third season as coach, they went 16–11. Giacoletti would then leave North Dakota State for the head coaching job at Eastern Washington University. His final overall record at North Dakota State was 48–33.

In 2000 Giacoletti was named the head coach of the Eastern Washington Eagles. He would guide the Eagles to their best four year stretch in program history. Giacoletti would compile a 69–50 (.580) record as head coach at Eastern Washington, including a 41–17 (.707) record in Big Sky Conference play. In his third season as head coach of Eastern Washington, Giacoletti led the Eagles to an 18–13 record and the school's first post season tournament in school history, making the 2003 National Invitation Tournament. Giacoletti's best season was the 2003–2004 season, where the Eagles went 17–13 (11–3 in Big Sky play) and won the Big Sky Conference Championship. Giacoletti then guided the team to its first ever Big Sky tournament championship and the school's first ever NCAA tournament appearance. Eastern Washington would lose to highly favored Oklahoma State in the first round.

After successful stints with North Dakota State and Eastern Washington, Giacoletti was named the head coach of the University of Utah Utes. He replaced the legendary Rick Majerus, who retired in the middle of the 2003–2004 season. In his three seasons at Utah, Giacoletti led Utah to a 54–40 (.574) record.

In Giacoletti's first season, the Utes went 29–6 (.829) and won the Mountain West Conference regular season championship. After beating UTEP in the first round, the 6th seeded Utes upset 3rd seeded Oklahoma in the 2nd round to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16. It was the school's first Sweet 16 since the 1998 season, when Utah finished as the NCAA runner-up to Kentucky. Ironically, it was Kentucky who would beat Utah once again, ending the 2nd winningest season in school history.

During Giacoletti's tenure, Andrew Bogut was named the John R. Wooden Award winner [2] and became the #1 draft pick in the 2005 NBA draft – joining fellow University of Utah student-athlete Alex Smith as the only time that two athletes from the same school were selected #1 in their respective drafts in the same year. Giacoletti was named the 2005 Mountain West Coach of the Year, after guiding the Utes to a 13–1 conference record, the best record in conference history.

Giacoletti's second season was dramatically different from his first. Gone was All-American Andrew Bogut, starting point guard Marc Jackson graduated, Justin Hawkins decided to transfer to New Mexico State and Richard Chaney transferred to Troy State, all major players in Utah's Sweet 16 run the season before. The Utes struggled with a young team and finished with the school's first losing record since the 1989 season, with a record of 14–15.

Giacoletti's third season saw a further decline and the Utes had their worst season since 1983–84 (11–19). His approval rating among fans plummeted and many Ute fans sought his resignation. There were even a few anti-Giacoletti web sites that popped up including Giacolettimustgo.com. A day before Utah's final regular season game, versus conference rival BYU, he resigned as Head Basketball coach effective at the end of the season. [3]

At Drake, Giacoletti's teams got worse each season, just as at Utah (based on won-loss records). He resigned after 3+ seasons at Drake with a 32–69 record.

On March 26, 2007, Giacoletti replaced former Gonzaga assistant coach Bill Grier as an assistant coach.

Giacoletti's overall coaching record is 203–192 (.514) in 14 seasons. Giacoletti owns a 2–2 overall record in the NCAA Tournament and an 0–1 record in the National Invitation Tournament.

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
SeasonTeamOverallConferenceStandingPostseason
North Dakota State Bison (North Central Conference)(1997–2000)
1997–98North Dakota State 18–99–9T–5th
1998–99North Dakota State 14–138–10T–5th
1999–00North Dakota State 16–119–96th
North Dakota State:48–33 (.593)26–28 (.481)
Eastern Washington Eagles (Big Sky Conference)(2000–2004)
2000–01 Eastern Washington 17–1111–52nd [4]
2001–02 Eastern Washington 17–1310–42nd
2002–03 Eastern Washington 18–139–52nd NIT First Round
2003–04 Eastern Washington 17–1311–31st NCAA Division I Round of 64
Eastern Washington:69–50 (.580)41–17 (.707)
Utah Utes (Mountain West Conference)(2005–2007)
2004–05 Utah 29–613–11st NCAA Division I Sweet 16
2005–06 Utah 14–156–106th
2006–07 Utah 11–196–10T–6th
Utah:54–40 (.574)25–21 (.543)
Drake Bulldogs (Missouri Valley Conference)(2013–Dec. 2016)
2013–14 Drake 15–166–12T–8th
2014–15 Drake 9–226–127th
2015–16 Drake 7–242–1610th
2016–17 Drake 1–7*0–0*
Drake:32–69 (.317)14–40 (.259)
Total:203–192 (.514)

      National champion        Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion        Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion      Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

*Resigned on December 6, 2016, with Jeff Rutter taking over for the rest of the 2016–17 season.

Related Research Articles

Richard Alexander Glas is an American basketball coach who was most recently the head men's basketball coach at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. In a coaching career that spanned 1970 to 2017, Glas had various assistant and head coaching positions in college basketball and was head coach at Minnesota Morris from 1974 to 1979, Willamette from 1979 to 1984, North Dakota from 1988 to 2006, and Concordia from 2008 to 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Pimm</span> American former basketball coach

Jerry Pimm is an American former basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Utah from 1974 to 1983 and the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1983 to 1998, compiling career college basketball coaching record of 395–288.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah Utes</span> Intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Utah

The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' Utes; the women's gymnastics team is known as the Red Rocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Krystkowiak</span> American basketball player and coach

Larry Brett Krystkowiak is a retired American professional basketball player, and former head coach of the Utah Utes men's basketball team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utah Utes men's basketball</span> Basketball team that represents the University of Utah

The Utah Utes men's basketball team, also known as the Runnin' Utes, represents the University of Utah as an NCAA Division I program that plays in the Big-12. They play their home games at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. The school has made the NCAA tournament 29 times, which ranks 20th in NCAA history and tied for third most appearances behind UCLA and the University of Arizona in the Western United States. They last made the tournament in 2016. Utah won the NCAA Championship in 1944, defeating Dartmouth College 42–40 for the school's only NCAA basketball championship. However, the school also claims the 1916 AAU National Championship, which was awarded after winning the AAU national tournament. They have also won the NIT once, defeating Kentucky in 1947. In 1998, the Utes played in the NCAA championship game, losing to Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Boylen</span> American basketball coach

James Francis Boylen is an American basketball coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Boylen served as head coach for the University of Utah, coaching the program from 2007 to 2011 before being fired on March 12, 2011. The Utah job was his first head coaching position after spending over a decade as an assistant at both the NBA and NCAA levels. He replaced Ray Giacoletti, who was fired from Utah on March 3, 2007. Prior to joining Utah, Boylen spent two years at Michigan State University (MSU) as assistant coach under Tom Izzo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Nagy</span> American basketball coach

Scott Michael Nagy is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach for Southern Illinois Salukis men's basketball. He had previously served as head coach at South Dakota State for 21 seasons (1995–2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drake Bulldogs men's basketball</span> Drake Universitys mens basketball team

The Drake Bulldogs men's basketball team represents Drake University, located in Des Moines, Iowa, in NCAA Division I basketball competition. The program is best known for making the 1969 Final Four. The Bulldogs have appeared seven times in the NCAA tournament, making their most recent appearance in 2024.

Benjamin Abraham Braun is an American former men's college basketball coach and college basketball analyst. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Siena Heights University (1977–1985), Eastern Michigan University (1986–1996), the University of California, Berkeley (1996–2008), and Rice University (2008–2014), compiling a career coaching record of 615–517. He won the most games (185) of any head coach in the history of the Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball program and was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year three times. As the head coach of the California Golden Bears, he won the Pac-10 Coach of the Year and had a 219–154 record (.587). Braun currently is a studio and game basketball analyst for the Pac-12 Network.

Brian Delance Johnson is an American professional football coach and former quarterback who is the assistant head coach and offensive pass game coordinator for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He has been an offensive coordinator for the NCAA's Utah Utes, Houston Cougars, and Florida Gators and the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. Johnson played college football at Utah and was briefly a member of the United Football League's (UFL) New York Sentinels in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004–05 NCAA Division I men's basketball season</span> Basketball season

The 2004–05 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 10, 2004, progressed through the regular season and conference tournaments, and concluded with the 2005 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament championship game on April 4, 2005, at the Edward Jones Dome in Saint Louis, Missouri. The North Carolina Tar Heels won their fourth NCAA national championship with a 75–70 victory over the Illinois Fighting Illini.

Ricky Dean Rasnick was an American college football coach. He was the head football coach at Eastern Michigan University from 1995 to 1999. Rasnick's 1995 team was the last Eastern Michigan Eagles football team to finish with a winning record until the 2016 season, 21 years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Smith (basketball, born 1972)</span> American college basketball coach (born 1972)

Craig Francis Smith is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach for the Utah Utes men's team of the Big 12 Conference. He served as an assistant for Tim Miles at four schools – Mayville State, North Dakota State, Colorado State, and Nebraska. Smith was also the head coach at Mayville State from 2004 to 2007, at South Dakota from 2014 to 2018, and at Utah State from 2018 to 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016–17 Drake Bulldogs men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2016–17 Drake Bulldogs men's basketball team represented Drake University during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Bulldogs were led by interim head coach Jeff Rutter. They played their home games at the Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa and were members of the Missouri Valley Conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017–18 Drake Bulldogs men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2017–18 Drake Bulldogs men's basketball team represented Drake University during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Bulldogs were led by first-year head coach Niko Medved. They played their home games at Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa as members of the Missouri Valley Conference. They finished the season 17–17, 10–8 in MVC play to finish in to finish in a tie for third place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the MVC tournament to Bradley. They were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament where they defeated Abilene Christian in the first round in a game referred to as the Lou Henson Classic. In the second round they were defeated by Northern Colorado.

The 2017–18 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2017, followed by the start of the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play began in late December 2017 and concluded in March with the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004–05 Utah Utes men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2004–05 Utah Utes men's basketball team represented the University of Utah in the 2004–05 season. Led by first year head coach Ray Giacoletti, due to longtime head coach Rick Majerus' resignation one year prior, the Utes made the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament. After the season, Sophomore forward Andrew Bogut was selected first overall in the NBA draft, by the Milwaukee Bucks, eventually playing with the Golden State Warriors, the Dallas Mavericks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Bogut also became the first foreign-born player to be drafted first overall from an American college.

Brad X. McCaslin is an American football coach and former player. He was most recently the defensive tackles coach at the University at Buffalo. He was previously head coach at Benedictine University, and a long-time assistant at the University of Nebraska Omaha prior to the discontinuance of football at that institution after the 2010 season. He also spent four seasons as a defensive coordinator under Chris Creighton at Drake University and Eastern Michigan University.

Stan Johnson is a Liberian-born basketball coach and former player who is the current head coach of the Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season</span> American college football season

The 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, was organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level.

References

  1. ↑ "Ray Giacoletti Named Playboy National Coach Of The Year – The Official Athletic Site of the University of Utah". Utahutes.cstv.com. 2005-11-21. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  2. ↑ Larson, Francesca (2010-02-22). "Twenty-two of the midseason John R. Wooden Award candidates took the court Saturday – John R Wooden Award". Woodenaward.com. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  3. ↑ Lewis, Michael C. "Utah Local News – Salt Lake City News, Sports, Archive – The Salt Lake Tribune". Sltrib.com. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  4. ↑ "Composite Standings" (PDF). Bigskyconf.com. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.