Larry Robert Eustachy (born December 1, 1955 in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

) 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, most recently the head coach of the Colorado State Rams He was previously the head coach at

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

and Eustachy was the AP Coach of the Year in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

after leading Iowa State to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament.

Coaching career

Idaho

At age 34, Eustachy became a head coach at Idaho in April

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

, succeeding Kermit Davis, who left the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

for

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

after consecutive Big Sky

titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

and NCAA tournament appearances. He had been an assistant in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

for a season ( 1986–87) under Tim Floyd, and Eustachy's first-year salary as head coach was $52,500. In his third year, he led the Vandals to the regular season championship 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 ...

, but they lost the tourney title game at

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

. Idaho was not selected for the NIT, and Eustachy departed a few days later.

Utah State

Eustachy took over the reins in Logan in March 1993, and had a very successful five-year stretch at Utah State; his teams won the Big West regular season three times and won the conference tournament in 1998. The Aggies were seeded thirteenth in the West region of the NCAA tournament, and fell to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

in the first round at

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

Iowa State

Eustachy was named head coach at Iowa State in late July 1998, after Tim Floyd left for the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

. Following a lackluster first season, the Cyclones had their best season in school history in

. They won a school record 32 games and came within one game of the

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

, and Eustachy was named AP Coach of the Year. After consecutive

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, 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 ...

titles in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, he signed a contract extension that, with incentives, made him the highest-paid state employee in Iowa.

Suspension and resignation

On April 28, 2003, ''

The Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa, United States. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cab ...

'' carried pictures of Eustachy kissing several young women and holding a beer at a party near the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

's campus just hours after the Tigers defeated his

Cyclones In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...

on Tuesday, January 21. The ''Register'' also reported that Eustachy had been seen at a fraternity party at Kansas State hours after his team lost to the Wildcats. On April 30, athletic director Bruce Van De Velde suspended Eustachy with pay and recommended that he be fired for violating a morals clause in his contract. Eustachy held a press conference in which he apologized for his behavior and admitted he had recently begun rehab treatment for alcoholism. He initially indicated he would contest the suspension, but announced his resignation on May 5. During the scandal, the ''Register'' reported that Iowa State documents showed that the NCAA cited Eustachy for rules violations related to paying players, including Jackson Vroman, for making free throws.

Southern Mississippi

On March 25, 2004, after a year out of coaching, Eustachy was hired as head coach at Southern Miss. In 2008, he took a leave of absence on January 9 to be with his ailing mother. Following the 2008–09 season, he returned his $25,000 bonus from the university, saying that after a disappointing season, he did not feel as though he had earned it. In 2011, Southern Miss went 21–10 and 9–7 in Conference USA play. The team failed to receive a bid to the NCAA tournament and turned down invites to the CBI and CIT. On February 25, 2012, Eustachy recorded his 400th career victory. In that same 2012 season, Eustachy led Southern Miss to a 25-9 season, a second-place finish in Conference USA, and the Golden Eagles’ first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1990, earning an at-large bid as an #9 seed. They would lose in the first round to #8 seed Kansas State. This still remains as the only appearance for Southern Miss in the NCAA Tournament since 1990, and just their 3rd overall appearance (1989, 1990, and 2012).

Colorado State

On April 12, 2012, Eustachy left Southern Miss and was introduced as the 19th head basketball coach in Colorado State history, after Tim Miles left for Nebraska of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

. Eustachy inherited a senior-laden roster that featured four returning starters and Minnesota-transfer Colton Iverson. The Rams were coming off a 20–12 season in which they made the NCAA tournament and lost to Murray State in the second round. CSU greatly improved in rebounding and defensively, leading to a historic season for the program. CSU cracked the top 25 rankings for the first time since 1954 during the season. At 11–5 the Rams finished second in the Mountain West, their highest finish in program history. For the second straight year, the Rams earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, this time as a No. 8 seed against Missouri. The Rams defeated the Tigers 84–72 to give Eustachy his first NCAA Tournament win since the Elite Eight run at Iowa State. It was CSU's first NCAA Tournament win since

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

and a program record 26th win. CSU lost in the second round to top-seeded

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

, ending the season 26–9. In August 2013, Eustachy signed a new contract to become the highest-paid coach in the Mountain West Conference. He has a base salary of $910,000 per year and will increase by two percent each following season, along with bonuses on top of it. In 2017, Eustachy recorded his 500th career victory on January 7. On March 5, he was named Mountain West Conference Coach of the year, after leading a CSU team with only seven available players to a second place conference finish in the MWC. In February 2017, '' The Coloradoan'' revealed that a 2014 Colorado State internal investigation recommended Eustachy's firing due to creating a culture of fear and intimidation by emotionally and verbally abusing his players and staff. However, Colorado State retained Eustachy and required him to attend anger management sessions, apologize to his team, and follow a zero-tolerance policy for directing profane language towards others or throwing or hitting objects, for which violations would result in termination for cause. On February 3, 2018, Colorado State placed Eustachy on administrative leave and promoted associate head coach Steve Barnes to interim head coach pending the completion of another inquiry into Eustachy's behavior. Colorado State confirmed the existence of that second investigation three days earlier on January 31; Eustachy resigned on February 26.

Boise State

On July 27, 2023, it was announced that Eustachy will be working with Leon Rice and the Boise State men’s basketball team as a volunteer senior advisor to the head coach for the upcoming season.

Head coaching record

References

External links