Sport(s) | Basketball |
---|---|
Current position | |
Title | Head coach |
Team | Coastal Carolina |
Conference | Sun Belt |
Record | 199–128 (.609) |
Biographical details | |
Born |
Marianna, Florida |
December 5, 1945
Alma mater |
Florida State University Middle Tennessee State University |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
1968–1969 | Ruckel JHS (assistant) |
1969–1971 | Niceville HS |
1971–1972 | Vanguard HS |
1972–1975 | Cumberland |
1975–1984 | South Alabama |
1984–1994 | Clemson |
1994–2004 | Auburn |
2007–present | Coastal Carolina |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 811–477 (.630) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
Awards | |
|
Robert Clifford Ellis (born December 5, 1945) is an American college basketball coach, currently the head coach at Coastal Carolina University. Going into the 2016-2017 season, Coach Ellis's 713 NCAA Division I victories rank him 20th on the list of all-time career coaching victories in Division I basketball. With a victory over UNC Asheville on Feb. 3, 2015, Eliis became the only coach in NCAA Division I history to tally 150-plus wins at four institutions. He was national coach of the year in 1999 at Auburn, when his Tigers won 29 games and captured the school’s first SEC championship in 40 years. In 1990, he coached Clemson to its only ACC regular-season first-place finish. His South Alabama teams won Sun Belt Conference regular-season championships in 1979, 1980 and 1981. At both Clemson and South Alabama he holds school records for coaching victories and he is the second-winningest coach in Auburn history.
Ellis was born in Marianna, Florida. He graduated from Florida State University in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in physical education and has a master's degree (1972) in the same subject from Middle Tennessee State University.
While at Coastal Carolina, Ellis has amassed a pair of Big South regular season championships and two conference tournament tiles, making him one of only two coaches in NCAA history to win conference titles at four different institutions. Furthermore, Ellis is also one of two coaches to win championships in both the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference.
Ellis is a member of three Halls of Fame after entering Clemson's in 2013. He was already part of the Mobile Sports and Cumberland College Halls of Fame.
Ellis has compiled a Division I record of 713-447 (.614) and 791-459 (.632) overall and ranks third in NCAA Division I wins among active coaches. He is also just one of four coaches in NCAA Division I history to make multiple NCAA Tournament appearances with four separate schools and has been named conference Coach of the Year six times in his career.