Roger Reid

Weber State ‘68
First Year At Southern Utah
1990, 1992 WAC and District Coach of the Year
2007 Scenic West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year

Roger Reid is entering his first campaign as SUU’s head basketball coach after taking over the Thunderbird program this past spring.

A 34-year veteran of the coaching ranks, Coach Reid came to Southern Utah from Snow College, where he spent the last two seasons as head coach. Last year he led the Badgers to a 23-8 record and a Scenic West Athletic Conference regular-season championship as well as  No. 18 national ranking.

During his two seasons at Snow, Coach Reid oversaw the ascent of the program from a middle-of-the-pack contender to its league championship last year. He also coached a handful of all-Scenic West Athletic Conference performers, including 2006 SWAC Player of the Year Geoff Payne, who joined the Thunderbirds this fall after finishing the 2007 season ranked seventh in the country in scoring.

Coach Reid’s teams at Snow excelled on the defensive end, twice finishing second in the SWAC and among the country’s leaders in scoring defense.

Prior to taking over the Snow College program in the spring of 2005, Coach Reid spent seven seasons coaching in the professional ranks, including five as an assistant for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (helping the Suns to a pair of NBA playoff appearances), and two as head coach of the Hangzhou Horses in the Chinese Basketball Association, China’s professional league. At Hangzhou he took over a team with six straight losing seasons and quickly guided them to the CBA playoffs.

Coach Reid is probably best known for his success as head coach at Brigham Young University. While at BYU he guided the Cougars to a 152-76 record and three Western Athletic Conference championships during his seven full seasons at the program’s helm. Under Reid’s watch the Cougars earned five NCAA tournament berths as well as an NIT appearance. Reid was named WAC and district coach of the year twice and his career winning percentage of .667 is the highest of any coach with more than two years in the position in the school’s NCAA-era history. Reid also spent 11 seasons as an assistant at BYU, working under both Frank Arnold and Ladell Anderson.

While at BYU Coach Reid mentored 11 players who went on to be drafted into the National Basketball Association as well as 13 more who joined the professional ranks overseas. Included among that group are NBA standouts Danny Ainge and Fred Roberts, who each have sons currently affiliated with the current SUU squad: Thunderbird assistant Austin Ainge, and sophomore forward Rick Roberts.

In seven-plus years coaching at BYU Reid had 13 different players named all-conference and he had three in two years at Snow College. Coach Reid also coached players to 28 academic all-WAC awards, had two WAC freshmen of the year, two players named to the WAC’s all-defensive team and five all-WAC tournament selections.

Four of Coach Reid’s teams led the WAC in scoring average and in field goal percentage, and his teams led the conference in 3-point percentage three times. He also had one squad which led the league in free throw percentage, one which led in rebounding margin, one which led in scoring margin and one which led in field goal percentage defense.

Coach Reid is justifiably proud of his players’ graduation rate. Fully 97 percent of the players who have completed their careers on his squad have received their degrees, an outstanding figure by any comparison.

Coach Reid’s teams at Brigham Young averaged 22 wins per year and during his tenure he guided the squad to six straight seasons with 21 wins or more.

Reid carries a career winning percentage of 69.8 in Western Athletic Conference games after winning 83 of 120 conference games during his career, and he has a home mark of 91-14, giving him wins in 87 percent of his home contests. 

His first team at BYU was picked to finish sixth but won the WAC regular-season title after going 11-5 in league games and 15-0 at home as he earned his first coach of the year award. He won his first WAC tournament title the following season when his team upset No. 8 Utah and in 1992 he earned his second district and conference coach of the year awards after the team went 25-7 (12-4 in the WAC) and won both the regular-season and WAC tournament titles.

In 1993 he guided the team to its second straight 25-win campaign. That team won 12 straight games en route to repeating as WAC champions and also played Duke for the championship of the Maui Invitational. In the next two seasons the team won 22 and 21 games and in 1996 Coach Reid picked up his 150th win in just seven seasons.

A graduate of Weber State University, where he lettered in both basketball and baseball, Coach Reid’s first head coaching job was at Payson High School, giving him experience at virtually every level of the coaching spectrum. He is also a graduate of the College of Eastern Utah, where he earned all-American honors in baseball and is enshrined in the school’s athletic hall of fame.

Coach Reid also spent time as head coach at Utah’s Clearfield High School before he moved to the collegiate ranks under Arnold at BYU.

“We’re excited to announce Roger Reid as the new men’s basketball coach at Southern Utah University,” SUU President Michael Benson said upon Reid’s hiring in March, 2007. “He has a long history of success as a coach as well as a mentor of young people and I’m happy to turn the program over to him.”

Reid and his wife Diane are the parents of five children: Randy, who is in business in New York City; Robbie, who is attending Harvard Business School following a professional basketball career in Europe and South America; David, who passed away in 1980; Darren, who is attending law school at Ohio State; and Kelli, a recent graduate of the University of Utah.