Coaches
Jeff Linder Assistant Coach Second Season
Jeff Linder is entering his second season at Boise State after joining the Broncos and head coach Leon Rice as an assistant coach, April 8, 2010. In his first year with the Broncos, Linder helped Rice steer Boise State to one of its most successful seasons in school history, one that culminated in an appearance in the conference tournament championship game and just the fourth postseason appearance in the last 17 years. Boise State went 22-13 (.629) and reached both the conference tournament championship game and the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational. The 22 victories are tied for the fifth-most in school history, and signified the fifth-largest turnaround in school history. Linder joined the Boise State coaching staff after working at San Francisco under head coach Rex Walters from 2008-10. He was promoted to associate head coach prior to the start of the 2009-10 season. “We were able to get the associate head coach from another program, which tells you he has had a lot of responsibilities placed on him,” Rice said when announcing the hiring of Linder. “They did a great job of starting to turn their program around [at USF]. He’s built programs before. He’s been involved in situations where guys took over programs, so he has done this before. His experience in that is huge as a head coach, especially being my first time taking over a program. I’ve got some guys that have done that.”
Linder got his start in collegiate coaching as the assistant director of men’s basketball operations at Colorado under head coach Ricardo Patton. After one season at CU, Linder was hired as an assistant coach on David Moe’s staff at Emporia State, where he spent three seasons. Emporia State went 22-5 during his final campaign and earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Division II Tournament. Linder moved from Emporia State to Midland Junior College in Midland, Texas, where he spent two seasons as an assistant coach to Grant McCasland. Linder helped coach Midland to a 53-16 record during his tenure, and in 2005-06 the team finished 26-10 and made an appearance in the “Elite Eight” at the national junior college tournament. He played his high school basketball at Centaurus HS in Lafayette, Colo., and went on to play one season at Mesa State. After his freshman year, Linder transferred to Western State where he played three seasons under coach Bob Hofman. At Western State, Linder earned All-Rocky Mountain Conference honors, both on the court and in the classroom, three times. Linder and his wife, Kelli, have three kids: a daughter, Adison, and two sons, Jordan Jeffrey and Devon.
In 2009-10 the Dons posted a 12-18 record, including a 9-4 record at home. USF was able to record a memorable highlight on Jan. 30, as the Dons knocked off No. 8 Gonzaga in an 81-77 overtime thriller, which snapped the Bulldogs’ West Coast Conference regular-season winning streak of 27 games. Prior to joining USF, Linder spent two seasons as part of Randy Rahe’s staff at Weber State. During his stint Linder helped the Wildcats to a 36-26 overall record, and in 2006-07 the Wildcats won the Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament titles and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
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