Following up on a story that HoopDirt.com first reported back on 10/31 (IUPUI DIRT)…
The IUPUI basketball program and head coach Jason Gardner have announced the hiring of Byron Rimm II as the program’s associate head coach. Rimm brings 11 years of head coaching experience to Gardner’s staff and replaces longtime staffer Matt Crenshaw, who took a similar post at Ball State last month. Rimm has already begun day-to-day duties with the program and was on the bench for the recent win over Eastern Illinois. He was most recently at Alabama State and spent last season as an assistant at UC Riverside.
“Coach Rimm comes to our program highly recommended and we’re excited for him to build relationships with our guys and put his imprint on the IUPUI basketball program. He’s been a head coach, he’s been an assistant and he knows exactly what it takes to make us successful,” Gardner said. “I know he’s immediately going to help us in terms of scouting and practice preparation and getting our guys ready, night in and night out. He’s a really good evaluator of talent and teacher of the game. Everyone I talked to about him mentioned that he’s a true professional and he relates to people really well.”
Rimm has an extensive background in college basketball including having served as head coach at Prairie View A&M from 2006-15. During his time with the Panthers, the program ascended to new heights, including back-to-back appearances in the SWAC tournament championship game in 2013 and 2014. Before Prairie View, the Pensacola, Fla.-native gained valuable experience on the West Coast, which included assistant coaching stops at Pasadena City College and Chaffey Community College from 1997-2000.
He directed Cal State San Bernardino to a No. 3 national ranking in NCAA Division II during the 2000 campaign and then took over the reins as the head women’s basketball coach at Texas College in Tyler, Texas, guiding the team to a 20-12 mark in his lone season. At the time, the 20-12 mark was the most successful season in program history. He then had a four-year run as the head men’s coach with Jarvis Christian College before joining Prairie View A&M as an assistant for the 2005-06 season. He was promoted to the head coaching spot the following season at age 32.
He coached Prairie View A&M to winning seasons in 2008-09 and 2009-10 and won 115 games during his time as head coach. His 2014 squad boasted the highest APR ranking among SWAC teams and also registered the best score in program history.
Since then, Rimm has served as the director of basketball operations at Texas A&M Corpus Christi in 2016-17 and as an assistant at UC Riverside in 2017-18.
Rimm played at Ventura College and California State University Los Angeles before earning his degree from Cal State, Los Angeles in 1999. He earned his master’s degree in education from American InterContinental University in 2005.
