Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- william.grier@colorado.edu
Bill Grier is in his 10th season as an assistant coach for the University of Colorado's men's basketball team.
Grier has helped coach the Buffaloes to 182 wins over his first nine seasons which has included five 20-win campaigns in the last seven seasons. Colorado has advanced to four Postseason NIT events during his tenure and two NCAA Tournaments, which would have been three if not for the 2020 event being canceled due to COVID-19.
Twelve Buffaloes earned All-Pac-12 Conference honors in Grier’s first eight seasons. He helped mentor McKinley Wright IV to three of those honors from 2018-21. Tyler Bey was the 2019-20 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year while earning a pair of all-conference honors. KJ Simpson (2023-24), Tristan da Silva (2022-23), Jabari Walker (2021-22) and Derrick White (2016-17) were First Team picks while da Silva (2023-24), Simpson (2022-23), Evan Battey (2021-22) and George King (2017-18) were Second Team selections.
In his first season, Grier helped the Buffaloes to a 19-15 overall record and a spot in the 2017 Postseason NIT. It was Colorado's seventh-straight postseason appearance; a school record. The Buffaloes' regular season was highlighted by wins over three ranked teams, including No. 13/14 Xavier and No. 10/10 Oregon, who would eventually advance to the 2017 NCAA Elite Eight and Final Four respectively.
In his second season, he helped guide a young Buffaloes' team to 17 wins. Despite suiting up nine players who had never played a minute in a Colorado uniform prior to the season, the Buffaloes earned their seventh winning season in the last eight years which included back-to-back wins over ranked teams for the first time in team history.
That core group returned in 2018-19 finishing with a 23-13 record, advancing to the NIT Quarterfinals. The 23 wins tied for the third most in team history and just one off the school record.
In 2020-21, Grier helped the Buffaloes to a 21-11 mark, and what would have certainly been an NCAA Tournament appearance before the postseason was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Colorado was ranked for a school-record 13 weeks in 2019-20, peaking at No. 16 in mid February.
The bulk of that team returned in 2020-21, and while navagating the continuing effects of the pandemic, put together one of the best seasons in modern CU history. Colorado was 23-9, finished as the Pac-12 Tournament runner-up and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Buffaloes won a school-record 14 conference games and were ranked in both the final AP and Coaches polls for the first time since 1996-97.
With a young team in 2021-22, Grier helped guide the Buffaloes to their fourth-straight 20-win season, finishing at 21-12, a fourth place finish in the Pac-12 and an appearance in the Postseason NIT. The 2021-22 campaign capped off a four-year run with 88 wins, second in program history (92 from 2010-14).
“We’re fortunate to have a guy like Bill Grier to our coaching staff because he brings a wealth of experience,” Boyle said. “Most importantly he has recruiting contacts on the west coast, and internationally. He’s one of those guys that I knew if I ever had an opening on our staff, he was a guy that I wanted to go after…we’re lucky to have him.”
Colorado has been represented in five of the last seven NBA Drafts with Derrick White in 2017 (San Antonio), George King in 2018 (Phoenix), Tyler Bey in 2020 (Philadelphia, traded to Dallas) and Jabari Walker in 2022 (Portland). Three Buffaloes were taken in the 2024 NBA Draft in Cody Williams (Utah), Tristan da Silva (Orlando) and KJ Simpson (Charlotte).
Grier gives Colorado an extra asset in West Coast recruiting. An Oregon native, Grier is in his 31st season as a collegiate coach, with 24 years spent in Washington and Southern California. That expertise was noted in the fall of 2017 as Colorado was able to secure a Top 25 recruiting class according to Rivals and Scout.
Grier won 117 games in eight seasons as the head coach at San Diego (2007-15) and played an integral role in Gonzaga’s rise to prominence in 15 years as an assistant with the Bulldogs (1992-2007). Most recently, Grier spent the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State.
The span of his experience, from serving as an assistant on a top-level program, to being head coach, to spending a year in the Big 12 Conference, enhances the abilities of the Colorado coaching staff.
“Anytime you have the opportunity to hire a former head coach it’s a plus,” Boyle said. “It’s not a requirement to be a good assistant, but I think when guys have been head coaches and then they become assistant coaches they’re better assistant coaches because they understand what the head coach is going through; they understand the issues, they understand the decisions that have to be made.”
Now residing in Colorado, it gives his family a sense of home being back in the west. He grew up in Oregon and met his wife, Nicole, in Spokane where they lived before moving to San Diego. Colorado is a place the Grier’s are thrilled about to raise their two daughters, Giselle and Ashley.
“My wife is from Montana, we met in Spokane,” Grier said. “We like that Colorado, Boulder, is that type of setting that we’ve become so accustomed to. I’m really excited for our children to be in that environment.”
Grier led the Toreros to the 2008 West Coast Conference Tournament championship, and rode that momentum into the NCAA Tournament with a first-round upset of No. 4 seed Connecticut - the only NCAA Tournament win in school history.
He led San Diego to six wins over top 25 teams, took down Kentucky in Rupp Arena and racked up eight All-West Coast Conference selections and nine WCC All-Academic Team nods during his tenure. In 2014, the Toreros advanced to the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Grier finished his time in San Diego with a 117-144 record, including 51 WCC wins, which ranks 24th in the conference’s history.
During his time at Gonzaga as the program’s defensive coordinator, the Bulldogs led the WCC in field goal percentage defense six times, including the third best mark in the nation in 2004.
Grier served as the recruiting director for his last 10 years with the Zags, and his 2007 class was the program’s best to that point. That class ranked 11th in the nation by Rivals, and boasted four recruits among the top-100 in the country.
“He was extremely well prepared and you could tell that in his practice and game preparations,” said Dan Dickau, former WCC Player of the Year at Gonzaga and current Pac-12 Network analyst. “He’s a guy that knows how to relate to coaches and players; parents during the recruiting process…a great hire by Boyle.”
Grier also successfully developed both post players (1997-2003) and perimeter players (2003-2007). Post players Bakari Hendrix (1998) and Casey Calvary (2001) were both WCC Players of the Year. Perimeter players he worked with included Derek Raivio (2007), the WCC Player of the Year; Adam Morrison (2006), a First Team All-American and WCC Player of the Year; and Blake Stepp (2004), a Second Team All-American and two-time WCC Player of the Year.
“He is one heck of a basketball mind,” said Gonzaga head coach Mark Few, prior to Grier’s appointment to Oklahoma State. “Bill is hard working and loyal, and he played a huge part in building Gonzaga basketball to where it is now. I leaned on him heavily up here at Gonzaga, especially on the defensive side of the floor. When he went to San Diego he really evolved on the offensive side, and did some special things with those teams. Bill is an unbelievable student of the game who is always looking to learn and get better.”
Grier started his coaching career at his alma mater, Cottage Grove High School in 1986. After serving two years as a freshman coach, Grier was elevated to junior varsity coach and varsity assistant. Grier left Cottage Grove to be the head coach at Creswell High School during the 1990-91 season.
He played two years in junior college (Central Oregon and Southwestern Oregon), then transferred to Oregon where he received a B.S. degree in Leisure Studies and Services in 1990.
