Dick Bender has been named assistant men’s basketball coach at the College of Charleston, as announced by head coach Earl Grant on Tuesday.
Bender reunites with Grant after serving the last four years as director of operations for the Clemson men’s basketball program under head coach Brad Brownell. The Tigers compiled a 74-58 overall record during his time in the upstate and advanced to postseason play twice. Bender will work primarily with the Cougars’ wing players.
“Dick Bender is the consummate professional,” Grant said. “His organization and attention to detail is second-to-none. He has a great basketball mind and has experience in the Big South, Missouri Valley, Conference USA and ACC. He will do a great job of developing and mentoring our young players.”
The Tigers improved by 10 wins from 2012-13 to 2013-14, posting a 23-13 overall record last season with a trip to the NIT semifinals. Clemson’s 10-win improvement tied the school record for the best single-season turnaround as the team ended the season ranked No. 1 nationally in three-point field-goal percentage defense.
In 2011-12, Bender was part of a staff that helped Clemson to a 16-15 overall record and 8-8 mark in conference play. It was the fifth-straight ACC regular season with at least a .500 record for the Clemson program, an all-time record at the school. In addition, the Tigers knocked off three NCAA Tournament teams in Florida State, NC State and Virginia. The 20-point win over ACC Tournament champion Florida State would prove to the be the Seminoles’ largest margin of defeat that season.
In his first season at Clemson, Bender was an important part of the staff that led the Tigers to a 22-12 final record in 2010-11. Clemson was 9-7 in the ACC, the No. 4 seed for the conference tournament in Greensboro, N.C. The Tigers advanced to the NCAA Tournament for a record fourth-straight season and won their first-round game over UAB, 70-52, in Dayton, Ohio.
Bender brought nearly 25 years of collegiate coaching experience including 18 at the NCAA Division I level, to the Tiger staff when he was hired after a coaching stint at Tulane University in 2010.
He began his collegiate coaching career as the top assistant coach at DePauw University under the late Royce Waltman in 1987. Bender helped the NCAA Division III Tigers to an outstanding four-year overall record of 80-30 (.727). DePauw was ranked No. 1 twice during his tenure. Bender helped the Tigers to a national runner-up finish in the 1990 NCAA Tournament.
After his stint with DePauw, Bender served as an assistant coach under Ron Bradley at Radford from 1991-97. The Highlanders compiled the top conference record and non-conference record of all the teams in the Big South Conference during Bender’s six seasons with the program. He was part of the coaching staff that guided Radford to a 73-72 upset over LSU during the 1993-94 season. While at Radford, Bender spent time in Charleston recruiting current CofC Head Coach Earl Grant.
Bender left Radford in 1997 and was reunited with Waltman as part of the staff at Indiana State. Bender coached with the Sycamores for 10 seasons from 1997-2007. He helped ISU to consecutive 20-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999-2000 and 2000-01.
In 1999-00, the Sycamores compiled a 14-4 record in the Missouri Valley Conference and won the regular season title. Indiana State then won the MVC Tournament the following season. The Sycamores went on to upset No. 4 seed Oklahoma, 70-68, in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament.
Bender was also part of the ISU staff that defeated perennial power Indiana in back-to-back seasons. The Sycamores defeated the Hoosiers on the road in Bloomington by a score of 63-60 on Dec. 11, 1999, Bob Knight’s final season at Indiana. The following season, ISU won 59-58 with a buzzer-beater at home over Mike Davis’ squad.
Originally from Grantsville, Md., Bender graduated from Western Maryland in 1986 and earned his master’s degree from DePauw in 1989. He was a two-year letterman and team MVP at Western Maryland, where he ranked third in the nation in free throw accuracy for NCAA Division III players with a 91 percent clip in 1985-86.
Bender and his wife, Beth, are the proud parents of two sons: Dalton (23) and Dillon (21). Dalton is a graduate of Tulane and currently working in New Orleans, La., while Dillon is currently a junior basketball player at Mt. Aloysius College in Cresson, Pa.
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