Cincinnati Bearcats basketball officially adds Tim Buckley as assistant coach

Two months after losing assistant Josh Loeffler to a head coaching job at Loyola (Maryland), the University of Cincinnati basketball team has filled the void by hiring Tim Buckley from South Carolina.

"I'm excited to welcome Tim Buckley to our staff," UC head coach Wes Miller said. "He brings a wealth of experience that is unique in college basketball. He has experience working with great players and great coaches as a high major assistant, and he's been a part of very successful teams. On top of that, he's been a head coach and has spent time recently in the NBA."

Buckley, previously at South Carolina for two years, spent 10 years as a head coach at Ball State (2000-06) and NCAA Division III Rockford in Illinois (1989-93). He has over 35 years of coaching experience, with recent assistant stops at South Carolina, UNLV, Indiana, Marquette and Iowa. While at Ball State, he helped lead the team to upset wins over No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 UCLA during the 2001 Maui Invitational.

Buckley previously worked with Bearcat assistant coaches Jake Thelen and Drew Adams at Indiana, as well as with Adams when he was a walk-on under Steve Alford at Iowa.

This past season, South Carolina posted its greatest single-season turnaround in school history at 26-8, returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. The 26 victories tied the 2016-17 Final Four team for the most wins in program history.

South Carolina allowed just 66.4 points per game during the regular season in 2023-24, which led the SEC, and was one of just four teams in the SEC to rank in the top-50 of adjusted efficiency on offense and defense via KenPom.

Prior to his Columbia stint, he was an assistant at UNLV from 2019-22, first under current Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger, then remained for the 2021-22 season with Kevin Kruger.

UNLV had its best of the three seasons in 2019-20, finishing in a tie for second in the Mountain West Conference, its best finish in 12 seasons. The Rebels' marquee win was at No. 4 San Diego State, their highest-ranked true road win in 29 years.

During the summer of 2020, Buckley was named one of the top assistant coaches in the Mountain West by Stadium's Jeff Goodman.

Buckley was also a scout with the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves for two years (2017-19) before returning to coaching with UNLV's Runnin' Rebels. Before his time in the league, he worked as assistant and associate head coach under Tom Crean and Indiana for nine seasons (2008-17).

He was on staff for the entire Crean tenure in Bloomington, helping the Hoosiers to a 166-135 record (.551) including a 138-69 mark (.667) the last six seasons. While at IU, Buckley was a part of two Big Ten titles (2013, 2016), four NCAA Tournament appearances and three trips to the Sweet Sixteen. He helped coach three All-Americans in Cody Zeller, Victor Oladipo and Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell.

Buckley had assistant coaching stops at Marquette (2007-08) under Crean and at Iowa (2006-07) under Alford.

3 Bearcats head to NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

The 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships are this week in Eugene, Oregon and a trio of Bearcats will compete. Juniors Dominique Hall and Abby Knouff will compete in the men's decathlon and pole vault, respectively, while freshman Juliette Laracuente-Huebner will be in the women's heptathlon.

Dominique Hall

Hall punched his ticket to Eugene after recording the second-best decathlon score in program history (7649) after battling lengthy weather delays at the Big 12 Championships. He was the UC men’s highest podium finisher at the Big 12 Championship, placing second overall.

He enters the competition ranked 16th in the nation and will be the first Bearcat to compete in the decathlon since Damien Berthenet did in 2021. The last Bearcat to earn All-American honors in the decathlon is current associate head coach and Bearcat Hall of Famer Chris Wineberg (2004).

Abby Knouff

Abby Knouff has a chance to become the first Bearcat woman ever to earn outdoor All-America honors in the pole vault after she advanced from the NCAA East First Round

She will head to the NCAA Championships ranked 16th in the country. At the East First Rounds, she placed fifth overall after clearing an outdoor personal best mark of 14’ 1.25”. Her new outdoor best mark is the second-best bar clearance in program history. Knouff broke the indoor school record this past season, clearing a bar height of 14’ 2”.

The Tallmadge, Ohio native earned All-Big 12 honors in the pole vault as she placed fifth overall at the Big 12 championships, Knouff qualified for the NCAA Championships last season but did not compete.

Juliette Laracuente-Huebner

Laracuente-Huebner has had one of the most dominant freshman seasons in program history. After earning indoor All-America honors in the pentathlon earlier this year, she will make her first appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the heptathlon.

The Marengo, Ohio native qualified for the championship meet after breaking the school heptathlon record with a score of 5637 points at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where she finished fourth overall.

Her score is tied for the 18th-best point total in the NCAA this season, and she will be the only freshman entered in the heptathlon at the meet.

Laracuente-Huebner qualified for the NCAA East First Rounds in three other separate events but chose to focus solely on the heptathlon. The three other events in which she qualified were: long jump (23rd, 20' 6", triple jump (34th, 41'8") and high jump (45th, 5'9.29").

In addition to holding the school record in the heptathlon, she currently ranks third in the long jump, fifth in the triple jump and ninth in the high jump.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Tim Buckley from South Carolina joins UC Bearcats basketball staff