University of North Dakota men’s basketball head coach Paul Sather announced the hiring of Randall Herbst as an assistant coach on Tuesday evening.
Herbst brings over 25 years of coaching experience, most recently serving as an assistant coach at Minot State the past two seasons, helping to lead the Beavers to the NSIC Tournament semifinal in 2020-21.
“Randall brings a wealth of experience to our basketball program, including time in the Summit League and here at UND,” said Sather. “He’s had great success everywhere he’s been, both as an assistant and as a head coach. North Dakota basketball got better today!”
Early in his career, Herbst was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at North Dakota from 2000-06, also serving as the associate head coach at UND from 2004-06. During his time with the Fighting Sioux, Herbst coached three NCC Players of the Year, three All-Americans, and Jerome Beasley – the 2003 NCAA Division II National Player of the Year, who went on to be drafted by the Miami Heat in the second round of the 2003 NBA Draft.
“I can’t really put into words what it means to me. I am so thankful for this opportunity,” Herbst said. “My family and I are so excited to be back in Grand Forks. I’ve known Coach Sather for a long time and I’ve always had the utmost respect for him and his teams. I’m coming back to UND to help him, his staff and the players win. Together we will accomplish great things. I can’t wait to get started!”
Prior to coaching at Minot State, Herbst spent four years as an Associate Head Coach with the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. He helped guide the Phoenix to the 2016 NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years, also helping five players earn First-Team or Second-Team Horizon League honors. He also coached the 2020 Horizon League Freshman of the Year in Amari Davis.
In the 2018-19 season, Herbst guided Green Bay to the CIT Championship game before finishing the season with a mark of 21-17.
Herbst led the Phoenix to the 2015-16 Horizon League Tournament Championship for their first NCAA Tournament appearance in over 20 years, and then coached the 2016-17 team to the program’s fifth-straight postseason appearance. In 2017, Green Bay accepted an invite to the 2017 College Basketball Invitational while finishing third in the Horizon League with a 12-6 record.
Herbst played a key role in recruiting during his first two seasons at Green Bay, signing JUCO transfers Charles Cooper and Jamar Hurdle. Cooper earned Horizon League All-Tournament team accolades in Detroit in 2017 and was a key part of the Phoenix’s success after finishing second on the team in scoring with 13.6 points per game. Herbst also coached the 2017 Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year in Warren Jones and First-Team Horizon League selections Sandy Cohen and JayQuan McCloud.
The four years prior, Herbst served as the top assistant coach at Omaha. In 2013-14, the Maverick men made their first Division I postseason appearance after being invited to play in the College Insider.com Tournament (CIT), where they advanced to the second round.
Herbst was named the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Mary in 2009 and led the team until 2011. He guided the Marauders to a 38-19 record as their head coach, including a record of 23-6 in 2010-11. During that time, the University of Mary won 16 consecutive conference games to go 18-4 and finish second in the NSIC standings. In 2010-11, the Marauders qualified for the NCAA Division II Central Regional Tournament for the first time and Herbst was named the North Dakota College Coach of the Year. He was also a finalist for the NCAA Division II Coach of the Year that season. Herbst’s two most notable recruits at the University of Mary were eventual All-American Anthony Moody and First-Team All-NSIC player Eric Erdmann.
From 2007-09, Herbst served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Omaha. In his first season with the Mavericks, Herbst helped lead Omaha to a school-record 25 wins, the NCC Tournament title and a second-round appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament. While at Omaha, he recruited and signed two-time First-Team All-Summit League and Defensive Player of the Year Tra-Deon Hollins and J.T. Gibson, who was Mr. Basketball in Minnesota in 2015.
Before his first stint at Omaha, Herbst spent the 2006-07 season as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Florida Southern.
Herbst graduated from Winona State in 1993, with his first head coaching experience coming at Waldorf Junior College from 1998-2000. While at Waldorf, Herbst’s team won 19 games in 1998-99, the second most in program history. Waldorf was ranked No. 1 in the country in team defense in both the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 seasons.
Before Waldorf, Coach Herbst coached at Lincoln Memorial University during the 1997-98 season, helping to lead LMU to a 19-8 record, good for the second-highest single-season win total in school history at the time.
Herbst’s collegiate coaching career started at North Iowa Area Community College from 1993-97. NIACC recorded three winning seasons, two 20+ win campaigns and won the 1995 NJCAA Division II National Championship.
In 2016, Herbst was inducted into the Waldorf University Hall of Fame for his incredible contributions as both a student-athlete on the baseball and basketball teams and later as the head men’s basketball coach. Herbst was a two-time All-Region XI selection and two-time NJCAA Academic All-American in basketball and baseball, the assistant coach of NIACC’s 1994-95 NJCAA national championship team and the head coach of the Waldorf men’s basketball team that ranked second in school history for wins in a season and first in the nation in team defense.
Herbst was Waldorf Junior College’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1991 and earned academic All-America honors as a player. He was also a two-time team captain and two-time all-region honorable mention pick. He went on to play two seasons at Winona State, helping the Warriors in back-to-back winning seasons in 1991-92 and in 1992-93. Herbst scored 1,031 points during his collegiate career, graduating cum laude with a degree in physical education and adding a Master of Science degree in sports administration from Minnesota State in 2005. In September 2012, Herbst was inducted into the Beaver Dam High School Hall of Fame.
Herbst Named Assistant Coach at University of North Dakota
