Broncos announce new head coach

June 16, 2008 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
Nashville Broncs News Release


Nashville, TN. The ABA Nashville Broncs are proud to announce the hiring of their new head basketball coach. Jan van Breda Kolff is a well-known name to basketball fans and Nashvillians having spent almost 15 years as a resident of Nashville. Broncs owner, Scott Lumley, believes that "van Breda Kokff is not only a perfect fit for the Broncs organization but his hiring is definite proof of our commitment to bring a quality, professional team to the Nashville community."

Jan van Breda Kolff first arrived in Nashville in 1970 as a 6'8" point guard out of California. He went on to star at Vanderbilt and culminated his career by leading the Commodores to a Sweet 16 appearance in 1974 and being named SEC Player of the Year. Upon graduation, van Breda Kolff went on to play nine years in the NBA, seven of those years with New Jersey Nets. During that time he was exposed to some of the best teachers in the game such as Larry Brown, Hubie Brown and Phil Jackson.

In 1983, VBK continued his basketball career overseas in Bologna, Italy while leading his team to the Italian Championship in his first season against perennial power Milan led by present New York Knick coach Mike D'Antoni, who was a star point guard for Italy for over a decade. After playing for two seasons in Italy, VBK returned to the States to begin his coaching career in 1985. He had the good fortune to work for legendary Hall of Fame Coach, Pete Carril for five seasons ending with three straight NCAA appearances highlighted by a one point loss in the NCAA to then No. 1 Georgetown.

1991 was the start of VBK's head coaching career at Cornell University of the Ivy League. After two years at Cornell, van Breda Kolff returned home to Nashville to become Head Coach at his alma mater, Vanderbilt. VBK coached the Commodores from 1993-99 and helped the team advance to post season in four of those campaigns and won 104 games.

In 1999, VBK went to Pepperdine and had his best two back-to-back seasons of his coaching career. He led the Waves to an NCAA appearance in his first season and a 20-point victory over a Bob Knight led Indiana squad in the first round of the tournament. The next season Pepperdine advanced to the second round of the NIT. The two years in Malibu, CA VBK was able to record a 47-18 record. In March of 2001, VBK's father-in-law passed away and he decided to move back East so his wife could be near her mother and accepted the head basketball position at St. Bonaventure University. VBK spent two years at St. Bonaventure before moving back to the NBA. Tim Floyd hired Jan to help run the Princeton offense for the New Orleans Hornets. The Hornets lost in seven games to the Dwayne Wade-led Miami Heat and following the season VBK moved back to Nashville once again.

Over the past three years, van Breda Kolff has been running camps and clinics for the youth of Nashville and has had over 4,000 participants. Additionally, he did color commentating this past season doing games in the Conferences USA, ACC and SEC.

For more information, please contact Jeremy Cooke at 615 823 1086 or via email at jcooke@nashvillebroncs.com or visit www.nashvillebroncs.com or www.abalive.com.

Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.



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