New head coach makes transition easy

After a hectic first week on the job, UNC men’s basketball head coach B.J. Hill is beginning to settle into his new role.

The University of Northern Colorado athletic department hosted an informal press conference and meet-and-greet Wednesday in the High Plains Room at Nottingham Field that introduced Hill to boosters and members of the media. Members of the team were also present.

 “I couldn’t be stepping into a better situation,” Hill said.

Hill is taking over a UNC team that went 25-8 last season and is only losing two seniors; the success allowed former head coach Tad Boyle to take the same position at the University of Colorado.

“That was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up, going to the Big 12,” senior forward Neal Kingman said of Boyle’s departure.

UNC director of athletics Jay Hinrichs said he knew Boyle’s eventual departure from the program was inevitable and that a plan was in place to install Hill as his replacement.

“That’s why he was the associate head coach,” Hinrichs said. “For two years now, he’s been taking on responsibilities that are more like head coaching while still being our head recruiter.”

Hinrichs said Hill will have a multiyear contract as the Bears’ head coach, the terms of which cannot be released until they are approved by UNC’s Board of Trustees.

After being named head coach on April 19, Hill traveled to Texas the next day to meet with incoming freshman guards Paul Garnica and Tevin Svihovec, who both re-affirmed their commitments to UNC.

“It’s been a crazy week, but a fun week,” Hill said. “When I got back into town, it hit me like a tidal wave.”

Also staying at UNC is assistant coach Shawn Ellis, who has worked with Hill the past four seasons as an assistant at UNC and coached against him in Kansas at the junior college level.

“He’s known me longer than she has,” Hill said, referring to Ellis and his wife, Eliza.

Ellis said he thought about going with Boyle to CU but Greeley was the place for him.

“A chance to go to the Big 12 is awesome,” Ellis said. “But a chance to work with one of your best friends at a place you really know and a place you really love; it was pretty easy.”

Thanks to the fact that Hill and Ellis are staying with the program, the players said the transition has been easy.

“Coach Hill is somebody we believe in,” junior forward Mike Proctor said. “It really couldn’t have been any easier."