Emporia State announces new head men's basketball coach
EMPORIA (KSNT) - Emporia State men's basketball has its new leader.
ESU is hiring Tom Billeter to be the next head men's basketball coach, the athletic department announced on Thursday.
Billeter comes to Emporia after 21 seasons at DII Augustana, in Souix Falls, South Dakota, where he earned National Coach of the Year honors twice. The Vikings went 393-224 overall with Billeter at the helm. He led Augustana to nine NCAA tournaments, three regular season NSIC Championships, two NSIC Tournament Championships and 18 consecutive winnings seasons since 2007.
The new head coach replaces Craig Doty, who took a DI job with Houston Christian on March 15. Doty led the Hornets for six seasons.
"I cannot thank President Ken Hush, David Spafford and assistant athletic director Steve Rodecap for this opportunity to be the next head coach at Emporia State University," Billeter said in a statement from ESU Athletics. "The MIAA is an outstanding basketball conference and we are extremely excited and look forward to the competition."
Emporia State finished 19-12 in 2023-2024.
"Hornet basketball has had a very good success in the past few years which lead to a tremendous pool of highly qualified candidates from all levels of basketball," ESU athletic director David Spafford said. Coach Billiter was among our top level of candidates that possess the integrity, passion and experience that we were looking for to continue to elevate our program."
Under Billeter, the Vikings even notched a win over the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2016. The same season, he led Augustana to the DII National Championship and earned NABC, Basketball Times and Basketball Bulletin National Coach of the Year while the Vikings finished 34-2.
Prior to Auguststana, he was also a head coach at North Dakota State for five seasons, going 97-50. He also served as a graduate assistant at the University of Arizona and has assistant coaching stints Texas A&M, Rice and St. John's.
Billeter is a 1984 graduate of the University of Illinois.