Bob Cantu will join the University of Portland men’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant coach, head coach Terry Porter announced on Thursday. Cantu spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at UTEP and the previous 12 seasons at USC as an assistant coach, associate head coach and interim head coach.
Cantu brings a total of 19 years of college coaching experience to The Bluff and has regularly been rated as one of the top assistant coaches in the country.
“Bob brings a wealth of knowledge to our staff,” Porter said. “He has coached at every level in the college game and has been on a number of great coaching staffs. Bob is a strong national recruiter with extensive ties on the West Coast and specifically in Los Angeles. He will be a valuable resource for me in my transition to the college game. He has been with two programs in the last 15 years and has shown the ability to program-build from start-to-finish. Everyone that I reached out to in basketball circles said Bob would be a perfect fit and an excellent hire, so we are very excited to get him on campus as soon as possible.”
Cantu helped head coach Tim Floyd and the Miners compile 64 victories with two postseason tournament appearances and a second-place finish in Conference USA during his three seasons in El Paso. Cantu and UTEP finished last season with 19 wins which followed a 2014-15 campaign that ended with 22 victories and a trip to the NIT. In Cantu’s first season with the Miners, UTEP finished with 23 wins and earned an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
“First off, I want to thank UTEP Director of Athletics Bob Stull and Coach Floyd for allowing me to be part of the Miner family these past three seasons,” Cantu said. “This was a very difficult decision because of my close relationship with Coach Floyd. He hired me twice since 2005, between USC and UTEP. He has been a close mentor to me.
“My family and I are very excited for this opportunity. Portland is an amazing city and the West Coast Conference is extremely competitive. I have the opportunity to promote Terry Porter every day in recruiting. He played 17 seasons in the NBA and has been a head coach at two stops in the NBA. I think many recruits are going to be interested in playing for him. I am also looking forward to coaching Alec Wintering. Alec was a ball boy for us at USC from when he was 8-10 years old and I have known his brother for 15 years. This will be fun to work with him his senior year.”
Cantu coached under Floyd at USC from 2005-09. He also worked as an assistant coach under Henry Bibby and Kevin O’Neill while with the Trojans before rejoining Floyd at UTEP. Cantu served as interim head coach at USC for the final 15 games of the 2012-13 season and was twice named the Pac-12 Coach of the Week during his brief tenure.
Cantu was named the No. 24 assistant coach in the country by CoachStat.net in 2015 and was also rated the No. 4 assistant coach in the country for mid-major programs by Hoop Scoop and Basketball Times. He has regularly been named one of the nation’s top-20 assistant coaches by Fox Sports and Hoop Scoop from 2007-12, including the No. 2 assistant coach in the Pac-10 in 2010.
A native of Paso Robles, Calif., Cantu has earned a reputation as one of the top recruiters in the nation. While organizing all aspects of recruiting at USC, Cantu helped the Trojans assemble signing classes that were rated No. 1 nationally in 2007 (ESPN/Hoop Scoop), No. 7 in 2008 (Hoop Scoop), No. 5 in 2009 (Hoop Scoop) and No. 6 in 2010 (MaxPreps). USC also had a top-10 class in 2006 and a top-20 group in 2005, according to Hoop Scoop rankings.
Cantu recruited and coached 10 NBA players during his USC stint, including five who were selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. Former players currently on NBA rosters include Dewayne Dedmon (Orlando Magic), Taj Gibson (Chicago Bulls), O.J. Mayo (Milwaukee Bucks), DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors), Nikola Vucevic (Orlando Magic) and Nick Young (L.A. Lakers).
He helped lead USC to five NCAA Tournament appearances, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2007. The Trojans won the 2009 Pac-10 Tournament championship and set a school-record with three consecutive 20-win squads from 2007-09. USC also established a school record with 25 wins during the 2006-07 season.
Prior to his time on the bench at USC, Cantu was an assistant coach at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, Calif. (1997-00) and Sacramento State for one season (2000-01).
Cuesta College’s overall record was 65-37 during Cantu’s tenure with two Western State Conference titles (1998 & 1999) and three state playoff appearances. He also served three games as head coach for the Cougars and helped place 17 players in four-year universities with full scholarships, including 10 at the Division I level.
He started his professional career as a basketball administrative assistant at Cal Poly from 1996-97.
The Bob Cantu Fundamental Basketball Camps was established in June of 1997 and more than 7,500 campers have attended since its inception. Cantu is also an active member of the Latino Association of Basketball Coaches.
Cantu was a three-year varsity player at Paso Robles High School before graduating in 1992. He attended Cuesta College and Cal Poly before receiving his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Chapman University in 1997.
http://www.portlandpilots.com/news/2016/6/10/bob-cantu-named-mens-basketball-assistant-coach.aspx
Photo Courtesy Portland Athletics
