Tulsa Golden Hurricane Men's Basketball - History

History

Tulsa's basketball program was founded by W.R. Bergen in 1907, when the school still went by the name Kendall College. It went 1-1 in its first season. Following the 1908-09 season, the team went on hiatus for several years before restarting for the 1913-14 season under Harvey Allen. In 1917, the school played its first games outside the state of Oklahoma, but did not see great success until Francis Schmidt became head coach in 1918; Schmidt led the school to 16 consecutive victories in the 1919-20 season, the school record. The team hit hard times and achieved occasional modest success until the arrival of Clarence Iba in 1949. Of special note is the 1942-1943 winless squad under Mike Milligan, whose team went 0-10.

Under Iba, Tulsa reached the post-season for the first time in the 1953 NIT. (In March 1921, Tulsa had been invited to the National A.A.U. tournament after an 18-1 season which widely regarded them as Oklahoma champions). In 1955, Iba led the Golden Hurricane to their first Missouri Valley Conference title and NCAA tournament appearance. Joe Swank succeeded Iba in 1960. It was under Swank that the color barrier was broken in the Tulsa basketball program. Swank had some winning seasons, but the program would be without real success until the arrival of Nolan Richardson.

Nolan Richardson’s hiring helped to usher in a new era of success at Tulsa that has remained fairly consistent since then. He led the team the NIT Championship in the 1980-1981 season, his first at the school. Richardson also won two MVC regular season and two MVC tournament championships in his five season tenure. His flamboyant personality made him extremely popular; his teams adopted McFadden & Whitehead's "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" as their theme song during the Richardson years. Richardson was succeeded by J. D. Barnett, who continued the team's success, winning one tournament and one regular season championship and finishing lower than third in the conference only once. Barnett was fired, however, due to the significant increase in expectations at Tulsa following Richardson's success.

Barnett was succeeded by Tubby Smith, who went on to coach at Kentucky, Georgia and Minnesota. Smith spent four seasons at Tulsa, winning two MVC championships and leading them past the first round of the NCAA tournament for the first time, to the Sweet Sixteen in both the 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 seasons. A succession of high-profile coaches came through following Smith’s departure for Georgia. Steve Robinson led the team to consecutive NCAA appearances before departing for Florida State. Bill Self succeeded Robinson for three seasons, winning two WAC titles in the 1998-99 and 1999-00 seasons and leading Tulsa to its best record ever, a 32-5 record in the 1999-00 season. Tulsa advanced to the Elite Eight in the 2000 NCAA tournament as a #7 seed. Self departed for Illinois and was succeeded by Buzz Peterson. Peterson led the team to the 2001 NIT Championship and promptly took the head coaching position at the University of Tennessee.

Following Peterson’s departure, John Phillips led the team to NCAA tournaments in his first two seasons and won a WAC title. However, he passed on local high school star Caleb Green, a decision that came back to haunt him when Green signed with ORU. Phillips resigned on Christmas Day, 2004. The team finished that season 9th in the WAC, TU’s worst ever conference finish. Doug Wojcik was hired before the 2005-06 season to revive the program. He led the team to 20 wins in both his second, third, and fourth seasons and the 2008 College Basketball Invitational championship, led by tournament MVP Jerome Jordan. Wojcik's hiring also coincided with Tulsa's decision to join Conference USA.

Much has been made of Tulsa's ability to hire good coaching candidates but their inability to retain them like Gonzaga has been able to. Since Barnett's firing after the 1990-1991 season, no coach has stayed at the program more than four seasons and all but one have departed for larger programs. Barnett has speculated that finances may be a reason when larger programs come calling, but he also “n’t know what the real philosophical reasons are.”