Having coached on the island of Hawaii for the past 23 years, Jeff Law will make his way back to the mainland as he will become the next men’s basketball coach at Western New Mexico University as announced by WNMU Director of Athletics Mark Coleman.
“Jeff Law has been a very successful head coach for a long time. He not only has experience with on court coaching, but also with recruiting the southwest as well as California,” Coleman said. “I have known and competed against Jeff for more than 20 years and he has always been a competitor and the consummate professional. We are very lucky to have him take us to the next level in our men’s basketball program.”
Law had an impressive run at Hawaii-Hilo, a member of the Pacific West Conference, going 208-188 in 15 years, which was good for second on the Vulcans’ all-time winningest coach list. At the end of the 2002-03 season, he became the first Hawaii-Hilo basketball coach to take a team to an NCAA Division II Regional.
“The excitement of being able to work with your closest and most trusted friend in the world doesn’t come around every day,” Law said. “Mark is a quality person and working with him, representing WNMU, is an opportunity that I am very much looking forward to.”
Two years later, his team finished ranked 8th in the final NABC/NCAA Division II poll posting a 25-4 record which led him to be named Pacific West Conference and NABC/NCAA Division II West Region Coach of the Year.
During his tenure guiding the Vulcans, 40 players received All-Conference honors.
Prior to his arrival at Hawaii-Hilo, he spent eight years as an assistant to Riley Wallace at the University of Hawai’i. During that time, the Rainbows were 142-96.
Before landing in Hawaii, Law was an assistant coach at Santa Monica College and associate head coach at Los Angeles City College.
Law takes over for Coleman who stepped down to focus on athletic director duties after coaching the Mustangs for the past 10 years.
“WNMU and the basketball program provide an extremely intriguing challenge,” Law added. “The conference is very difficult to say the least. However, as a coach, it is those types of challenges that make you want to improve yourself as a coach.”
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