Former Pac-10 Player of the Year and NBA Rookie of the Year Damon Stoudamire has accepted the head coaching position at Pacific. It was reported yesterday that Stoudamire had been offered the position and was likely to accept, but word of the actual deal did not come until today.
Stoudamire has been in coaching since 2008, when he was hired by Rice head coach Ben Braun to be the Owls’ Director of Player Development. After two seasons as an assistant in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies, Stoudamire returned to college as an assistant to Josh Pastner at Memphis. Sean Miller was able to pull Stoudamire away to Arizona (his alma mater) for two seasons before a return to Memphis this past off-season.
This will be the first head coaching position for Stoudamire, who spent 13 seasons in the NBA with four different franchises – most notably the Portland Trail Blazers from 1998-2005.
The Portland, OR native had a very decorated collegiate career with the Arizona Wildcats, being named First Team All-Pac-10 three times and a consensus first-team All-American after his 1995 senior year.
