Larry Eustachy
Head Coach
Eighth Season
at Southern Miss ( 117-104)
19th Season Overall (377-249)
Throughout the years, there have been several dates that have become important to the history of the men’s basketball
program at Southern Miss.
While many of those dates may deal with
milestone victories, national championships
and other record-breaking moments, other
dates in Southern Miss basketball history are
just as important.
One of the most important dates was a
recent one — March 25, 2004. For on that
date, Southern Miss basketball turned the
corner in its quest to become one of the top
programs in Conference USA, if not one of
the top programs in the nation.
It was on that date that one of the top
coaches in the collegiate game began his
relationship with the Golden Eagles. On that
date, the Larry Eustachy era officially began.
In an introductory news conference
that captured national attention, Southern
Miss Director of Athletics Richard Giannini
announced that Eustachy had become the
school’s 18th head men’s basketball coach,
and with that, the new era had begun.
Nationally renowned and recognized
for his coaching success, Eustachy took the
reins of a struggling basketball program at
Southern Miss and gave hope to a contingency of Golden Eagle faithful of returning
the team to the prominence it once had
enjoyed.
For Eustachy, coaching at Southern Miss
is an opportunity to give back to the sport
he so loves. For Southern Miss, having a
coach like Eustachy is just the step that the
administration, fans and players know that
it needs to be able to compete in the ever-
competitive world of college basketball.
The Eustachy Philosophy
Eustachy’s philosophy is a unique mixture of several coaches who had great influence on him during his years as a player
and as an assistant coach.
Eustachy’s teams put a premium on
defending and rebounding, combining
that with peak physical conditioning and
strength, all the while incorporating an
offense that best utilizes the talents of the
respective members of the team.
It’s a philosophy that contains the contribution of a number of coaches, including
his influential junior college coach Neil
Edwards, former USC and Mississippi State
Coach Bob Boyd — Eustachy’s mentor —
former NBA and current UTEP Head Coach
Tim Floyd, whose own philosophy had bits
of Don Haskins and his father, Lee Floyd, a
former coach during the 1950s and 1960s at
Southern Miss.
Eustachy not only instills physical toughness in his players, but he also strives to
make his players value the mental part of
the game, an aspect that is created through
stressful practice. It’s during those practices
that Eustachy knows he and his staff need to
be at their best, for that is where the battles
on the court are often times won and lost.
Eustachy The Coach
A life in basketball always seemed to be
in the stars for Eustachy, who had a standout prep career at Arcadia High School and
played two seasons at Citrus (Calif.) College
under Edwards.
Following graduation from Long Beach
State in 1979, Eustachy began his coaching
career at the ripe age of 21, serving as the
assistant for Edwards at Citrus from 1979-
81. Through Edwards’ direction, Eustachy
then landed his first NCAA coaching position on Boyd’s Mississippi State squad,
staying there from 1981-86. From there,
Eustachy joined Tim Floyd’s staff at Idaho
from 1986-87, before moving on to assistant
coaching stints at Utah (1987-89) and Ball
State (1989-90).
But it wasn’t until he landed his first
head coaching job at Idaho that Eustachy
began making a name as one of the nation’s
brightest head coaches. While at Idaho, he
led the Vandals to three-consecutive winning seasons, a 61-33 overall record and
the 1993 Big Sky Conference regular-season
championship.
Eustachy then took his success to Utah
State, where he compiled a 98-53 overall
record. While at Utah State, he led the
Aggies to three Big West regular-season
titles (1995, 1997, and 1998) and the 1998
conference tournament title. The Aggies
advanced to the postseason twice, the 1998
NCAA Tournament and the 1995 NIT, and
nearly made a third postseason appearance in 1996, when the Aggies narrowly
lost a championship game that would have
punched a ticket for the NCAA Tournament.
The successes at Idaho and Utah State
laid the groundwork for his eventual run as
the head coach at Iowa State. At Iowa State,
Eustachy became more than a household
name for his on-court accomplishments and
received the nation’s highest honor for a
