By Stretch Jenkinson
3/14/2024
Rice Vice President and Director of Athletics Tommy McClelland announced on Thursday that Scott Pera will not return as the men’s basketball head coach.
“I appreciate the efforts of Scott and his staff and their dedication to their student-athletes, but over the course of this season, it became apparent to me that a change in the leadership of our men’s basketball team was needed for it to become a championship-caliber program. President DesRoches and the Board of Trustees have shown a great desire for this program to take its place among the best in the AAC and agreed with my assessment that a coaching change was the appropriate step towards reaching that goal.”
Pera posted a 96-127 record in seven seasons on South Main, including an 11-21 overall and 5-13 in the Owls’ first season in the American Athletic Conference. He took the Owls to back-to-back postseason appearances for just the third time in school history and the first since 2004-05 when he led them to the CBI tournament in 2022 and 2023.
Before taking over the program, Pera served three years as the Owls’ Associate Head Coach. After a successful run as a high school coach, Pera began his collegiate career at Arizona State in 2006 and also coached two seasons at Penn before coming to Rice in 2014-15 as part of Mike Rhoades’s first staff.
Rice will immediately initiate a national search for its next men’s basketball head coach. McClelland announced that Owls’ assistant coach Van Green will serve as interim head coach during the transition period.
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