USA Basketball names CU Buffs’ Tad Boyle as head coach of U18 national team
Once again, Tad Boyle’s coaching career is taking a notable national team detour.
This time, it’s as a leading man.
On Friday, USA Basketball announced that Boyle, who this year finished his 12th season leading the Colorado men’s team, will be the head coach of the US U18 national team this summer at the FIBA Americas Men’s Championship.
It will be Boyle’s fourth stint as a member of a national team coaching staff, but his first as a head coach. The FIBA Americas tournament includes teams from North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean. The specific dates and location of the tournament will be announced at a later date.
Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton and Leon Rice of Boise State (a possible foe of the Buffaloes in November at the Myrtle Beach Invitational) will serve as Boyle’s assistants. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, SMU coach Rob Lanier, and Colgate coach Matt Langel will work as court coaches during a pre-tournament training camp in Houston. All staff decisions are made through USA Basketball’s Junior National Team Committee.
The U.S. has won nine of the 11 FIBA Americas championships since the tournament’s inception in 1990.
“I’m honored and humbled to have the opportunity to coach the 18-and-under national team,” Boyle said in a statement released by CU. “Anytime you have the opportunity to represent your country, it’s a responsibility that needs to be taken very seriously, and I’m looking forward to doing that and working with a bunch of great young men and being back with USA Basketball.
“Working with this coaching staff is an opportunity for me to grow professionally, and for us to grow professionally together.”
In 12 seasons at CU, Boyle has led the Buffs to five NCAA Tournament appearances, a total that would be six if the 2020 tourney had not been canceled at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Boyle also has led CU to four NIT appearances and two berths in the Pac-12 Conference tournament championship game, winning the title in 2012.
Boyle’s teams have claimed the top five single-season win totals in program history, as well as nine of CU’s 13 20-win seasons. Boyle will go into his 13th season in Boulder with a CU career mark of 254-155, putting him in line to soon topple Sox Walseth’s 46-year old team record of 261 wins.
Boyle’s most recent USA Basketball national team experience was as an assistant on the 2017 U19 World Cup team that finished third in Egypt. Kentucky coach John Calipari was the head coach of that squad, and alongside Boyle as an assistant was then-Wake Forest coach Danny Manning, a former collegiate teammate of Boyle’s at Kansas. That U19 team featured, among others, former Oregon star Payton Pritchard, Immanuel Quickley, PJ Washington and Hamidou Diallo.
Boyle also previously served as an assistant on the US team at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, working under Gonzaga coach Mark Few and alongside fellow assistant and veteran NBA coach Mike Brown. In 2013, Boyle worked as a court coach during the training camp ahead of the Men’s World University Games.
“That’s what is great about these kinds of experiences. I’ve had two of them previously with John Calipari and Danny Manning and Mark Few and Mike Brown,” Boyle said. “So having the opportunity to learn and grow with Leon and Mike is something that I look forward to as well.”
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