UCI adds Oliver

BY BARRY FAULKNER

The UC Irvine men’s basketball program has added 35 years of coaching experience to its bench in the person of newly hired assistant Doug Oliver.

Oliver, 57, the lead assistant at Stanford for two seasons under former Cardinal head man Trent Johnson, is also a former head coach at Idaho State.

Oliver replaces Tod Murphy, UCI’s No. 2 all-time scorer who left after six seasons on Coach Pat Douglass’ staff to become head coach at Gordon College, a Division III school in Massachusetts.

Oliver, who left Stanford after Johnson became head coach at LSU before the 2008-09 season, had been serving as a special assistant to UCI Athletic Director Mike Izzi, working with external relations.

“I’m excited to have Doug join our staff with his background as a head coach as well as his being a longtime assistant for Mike Montgomery and Trent Johnson at Stanford,” Douglass said in a statement.

Douglass said Oliver would call the offensive plays, as Murphy did. Douglass also said the offensive schemes used at UCI are very similar to those at Stanford.

Douglass, 59, said he brought the idea of adding Oliver to the staff to Izzi. “I thought it would be helpful with Murphy stepping down,” Douglass said.

Douglass enters his 13th season, the last of his current contract, as UCI’s all-time victories leader with a 183-173 record at the helm of the Anteaters.

Oliver has 28 seasons of Division I experience. He was a Stanford assistant from 1986 to 1998, before guiding the Idaho State program for eight seasons, through 2006. His record at Idaho State was 88-134.

While at Stanford, Oliver helped Johnson and Montgomery record a combined 281 wins and make eight trips to the NCAA Tournament, including a Final Four berth in 1998.

“I am really excited to have the opportunity to work with Coach Douglass and his staff,” Oliver said in a statement. “I look forward to contributing to the UCI program in any way that I can.”

Oliver made previous stops as an assistant at Utah and Boise State.

He also coached at West Valley Community College and coached at four high schools.

He graduated from San Jose State with a degree in physical education in 1973.

He and his wife Debby have four children and five grandchildren.

In other UCI basketball news: Guard Patrick Rembert, who will be a junior next season, is recovering from a broken foot sustained in a pickup game in late July, Douglass said. Douglass said Rembert is expected any day now to shed a protective boot he has been wearing.

Would-be recruit Brandon Durham, who singed with UCI in April, failed to meet academic requirements for admission, Douglass said.

Durham, a 6-foot-7 forward, averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game at Central Kitsap High in Silverdale, Wash.

“He was someone we were hoping could add depth at that position,” said Douglass, who noted that it would be difficult to find someone for the upcoming season to fill the scholarship vacated by Durham.