Bill Courtney with Joe Z 1-24-22

Published: Jan. 25, 2022, 12:13 a.m.

Bill Courtney is in his third season serving as an assistant coach at the University of Miami. This is Courtney’s second stint on Jim Larrañaga’s coaching staff, as he worked under Larrañaga as an assistant from 1996-2005 at Bowling Green and George Mason.

In his first year in Coral Gables, Fla., Courtney helped Miami sign a pair of consensus top-100 recruits in the class of 2020. He followed that up by aiding the Hurricanes in their successful recruitment of three top-150 prospects in the class of 2021.

Courtney has a quarter-century of college coaching experience, both as an assistant and a head coach. Before coming to Miami, Courtney most recently worked for two years as an assistant coach at DePaul. During his time under Larrañaga at George Mason, Courtney was largely credited with recruiting the core of players that helped the Patriots to the 2006 NCAA Final Four. He spent eight seasons as an assistant and associate head coach (1997-2005) with the Patriots, aiding the program to two regular season CAA titles and four postseason bids, including trips to the NCAA Tournament in 1999 and 2001.

After working as an assistant coach from 1995-2010, Courtney served as the head coach at Cornell from 2010-16. He has been part of four conference championship teams during his coaching career, including the 2006-07 Virginia squad that won the ACC regular season title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Courtney has racked up nine postseason appearances during his coaching career, including three NCAA Tournaments, four NITs and two CBI appearances. He has served as an assistant at American (1995-96), Bowling Green (1996-97), George Mason (1997-2005), Providence (2005-06), Virginia (2006-09), Virginia Tech (2009-10) and DePaul (2017-19).
Courtney played professionally for the Philadelphia Spirit of the United States Basketball League (USBL) and for the Milwaukee Bucks’ NBA Summer League team in 1992. He then spent two years playing professional basketball in Hong Kong. He earned the league’s most valuable player award and collected the 1993 Asian All-Star Game MVP Award. Courtney also played in the Philippines for one season.

Courtney earned First Team All-Patriot League accolades during his junior and senior seasons, serving as team captain both years. As a junior in 1990-91, he totaled 619 points to set a single-season school record that stood for 22 years until NBA second-round pick Mike Muscala broke it in 2013. That mark still ranks third in Bison history, while his 1,499 career still check in at No. 12 all-time.

A native of Alexandria, Va., Courtney earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Bucknell in 1992 and was named to the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007. Courtney and his wife, Gina, have two sons, Billy and Derek.