Thanks to great sources who had HoopDirt.com out in front of this one. It’s now been made official…
A new and exciting era of McNeese Basketball is upon us when on Thursday, Director of Athletics Bruce Hemphill announced the hiring of BYU Associate Head Coach Heath Schroyer to lead the Cowboys’ basketball program.
An introductory press conference will be held at noon on Monday in the End Zone Room, located on the second floor of the Jack V. Doland Field House. The public is invited to attend.
Schroyer, who has 20 years of Division I coaching experience including nine years as a Division I head coach, broke into the coaching ranks in 1996 at Fresno City College before being hired on a year later at BYU for his first stint with the Cougars.
After spending four seasons at BYU (1997-2001) where he helped rebuild a team that won one game in 1996-97 to the Mountain West Conference regular season and tournament championships in 2000-01, he was an assistant coach at Wyoming (2001-02) where he helped guide the Cowboys to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1987-88 season.
Following his stint at Wyoming, Schroyer earned his his first head coaching job at Portland State from 2002-05 where he led the Vikings to 19 wins and the Big Sky Conference title in 2004-05 for the school’s first league title in any men’s sport.
He went on to become the associate head coach at Fresno State from 2005-07 and then back to Wyoming as head coach from 2007-11.
Schroyer was hired as an assistant coach at UNLV from 2011-14 where he was named one of the nation’s top 15 assistant coaches twice in three seasons. He helped UNLV land four McDonald’s All-Americans and two top 10 recruiting classes in three seasons.
He was named the head coach at UT-Martin in 2014 and guided the Skyhawks to back-to-back 20-win seasons and back-to-back appearances in the CIT.
While at UT-Martin, Schroyer was named the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year and was a finalist for mid-major Coach of the Year for the 2014-15 season.
He spent the 2016-17 season as the assistant head coach at North Carolina State and rejoined the BYU staff this past season where he has helped guide the Cougars to a 24-win season and an appearance in the NIT.
In addition, three of Schroyer’s assistants over the years are current Division I head coaches – Barrett Peery at Portland State, Dedrique Taylor at Cal State Fullerton, and Anthony Stewart at UT Martin.
His hire must be approved by the Louisiana Board of Supervisors, of which McNeese State is a member.
