Bobby Braswell

His final recruiting class at Oregon was ranked 35th in the nation.

Bobby Frederick Braswell (born October 5, 1962) is an American college basketball coach.

He is an assistant coach for the men's basketball program at California State University, Long Beach.

After graduating from Cal State Northridge in 1985 (with a bachelor's degree in English), Braswell became a teacher and head basketball coach at Cleveland High School in Reseda, Los Angeles.

During his four years there, Cleveland won two league titles, and reached the Los Angeles City Section title game in 1986 and 1987.

Former NBA player Lucious Harris was a member of Braswell's teams at Cleveland.

Braswell's success on the high school level elevated him to a position as assistant coach at Long Beach State.

He served there for three years, first under Joe Harrington and then Seth Greenberg.

In this period, Long Beach reached the National Invitation Tournament twice.

The 49ers would reach the NCAA tournament the season after Braswell's departure, led by Harris and Bryon Russell, players he had recruited.

Braswell's work at Long Beach State led to him being hired as the top assistant to Jerry Green at the University of Oregon.

He would also handle the duties of the Ducks' recruiting coordinator during his four seasons in Eugene.

The Matadors' 14–15 record was their best record since moving to Division I in 1990.

Despite a sixth-place finish, Braswell's team made a run to the finals of the Big Sky Conference tournament.

They would narrowly miss out on an NCAA berth, suffering an 82–79 defeat to Montana in the championship game.

The following season, CSUN again finished near the bottom of the Big Sky conference, but performed well in the tournament, upsetting Eastern Washington in the quarterfinals before losing to host and eventual champion Northern Arizona the next day.

Braswell continued to build the Northridge program over the next several years.

With Braswell on the staff, Oregon would reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in 34 years in 1995.

Braswell previously served as the men's head coach for his alma mater Cal State Northridge, being named the fourth head coach in Northridge's history on April 30, 1996, succeeding the retired Pete Cassidy.

In 1996, Braswell made his return to his alma mater, Cal State Northridge, as their new head coach.

He had immediate success in the 1996–97 season.

In 1998–99, the team went 17–12.

The next year, the record improved to 20–10, and Braswell's team again made a run to the Big Sky championship game, losing in overtime to Northern Arizona.

Braswell would finally break through in the 2000–01 season.

Led by six seniors, Northridge would upset UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, finish atop the Big Sky standings, and win the Big Sky tournament at home to reach the NCAA tournament.

They would lose to Kansas in the first round to finish 22–10, Braswell's best season to date.

He became a sought-after coaching commodity following the season, but instead signed a six-year extension to stay in Northridge.

After 2001, Northridge moved to the Big West Conference.

In the 2004 Big West tournament, his team made an improbable run to finals, winning three games in three nights.

They narrowly lost to Pacific, after coming back from a 19-point deficit to tie the game.

Braswell has had three winning seasons since joining the Big West, finishing 18–13 in 2004–05, 20–10 in 2007–08 and a tie for first place in the conference and 17–13 in 2008–09 and winning the conference and automatic berth to the NCAA Division I tournament.

UCLA did not play Northridge again until the 2008–09 season after the Matadors' win at Pauley.

The Matador men's basketball team, faced with adversity both on-and-off the court in 2008–09, played like champions.

In one of the most dramatic, high-energized games in school history, Cal State Northridge recorded a 71–66 overtime victory over Pacific in the title game of the Big West Conference tournament on at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Matadors defeated a Tiger team that has given them persistent headaches.

In 21 previous meetings, Pacific had won 17 games, including two games earlier in the year.

Despite the fact the Matadors raced to what seemed to be an insurmountable 21–3 lead in the first half, the Tigers gradually sliced the Matador lead and tied the game at 42–42 with 11:01 left in the game.

Pacific fought back to within one point, 54–53, with 3:04 to play.

However, Cal State Northridge refused to let Pacific take the lead.

On March 14, 2009 the Matadors beat University of Pacific in the Big West tournament Championship game to make their second appearance in the NCAA Division I tournament.