South Dakota men’s basketball coach Todd Lee has announced the hiring of Luke DallaRiva as his third assistant coach. DallaRiva completes Lee’s staff as he enters his first season at the helm of the Coyotes.
DallaRiva comes to South Dakota from Grand Canyon where he spent the past four seasons as the director of basketball operations alongside Lee and GCU head coach Dan Majerle.
“It is great to have Luke join our staff,” Lee said. “Having worked closely with him the last four years, he understands what I need and want and will be able to provide things to me without me even having to ask for them. He works extremely hard and is excited to join the staff and help us build the program.”
While at Grand Canyon, DallaRiva served in all aspects of the program including compliance, recruiting, team travel, academic monitoring, practice planning and game preparation. He was named a National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) 30-Under-30 recipient after the 2016-17 season.
Grand Canyon played in the Western Athletic Conference championship game this past season while earning postseason play in three of his four years with the program.
“I am excited to get back to work for Coach Lee,” DallaRiva said. “Having worked with him, I’ve seen his championship attitude and pedigree. Coach Lee has a track record of taking his schools from good to great, and USD is poised to build on its own championship pedigree.
“I could not be more excited to get in the gym with the team and get to work on winning a championship.”
Prior to his time at GCU, DallaRiva was a graduate assistant at Kent State, helping with game and practice preparation and video duties. He also spent time at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, working under NBA Skills Trainer Dan Barto. DallaRiva assisted in the training of 12 NBA draft picks in 2012 and 2013 draft classes including lottery picks Kendall Marshall and Moe Harkless.
He began his coaching career at St. Augustine High School in San Diego, California, as an assistant coach, winning the 2013 California Division State Championship. St. Augustine finished the 2012-13 season ranked No. 32 nationally according to MaxPreps.
DallaRiva double-majored as a student at the University of San Diego, obtaining bachelor of arts degrees in history and biology. He earned his master’s degree in business administration from GCU in 2016.
https://goyotes.com/news/2018/6/26/mens-basketball-lee-completes-staff-with-hiring-of-dallariva.aspx
