Gib Arnold

Gibson Kirk Arnold (born October 19, 1968) is an American college basketball player and coach. He currently works in the NBA in the front office of the Boston Celtics.

Sports career

Arnold played collegiately at Arizona State University, Dixie State College in Utah, and at the University of California, San Diego.^[1]

While an assistant coach, Arnold was named as one of the top 25 recruiters in the country by Rivals.com, and one of the top 10 assistant coaches in the country by Athlon Sports Magazine.^[1] Arnold served as the head coach at the College of Southern Idaho, where he posted a 57-14 record (2003–2005).^[2] He left Southern Idaho to take an assistants job at the Univ of Southern California under newly appointed Head Coach Tim Floyd and was held over by newly appointed Head Coach Kevin O'neill (2009) when Floyd was forced to resign. [Wikipedia/past USC coaches]

He was named the 19th head men's basketball coach at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa on March 20, 2010.^[2] ~ Arnold took over a UH program with 3 consecutive losing seasons and with the help of his 7th ranked recruiting class by HoopScoop turned the program immediately around. In his four seasons Arnold is the fastest UH coach to reach 50 wins. In 4 seasons he took The Warriors to the post season 2 times while directing them to their first 20 win season in over a decade. Up to that point Arnold's coaching era produced the winningest 4 year span in UH basketball history. Arnold teams also excelled in the classroom earning the highest team GPA on record. [Wikipedia/UH rainbow warriors basketball]

On March 6, 2014, an angry fan confronted Gibson on the court. The fan made it all the way onto the court and back to the crowd before being subsequently arrested. It was the first time in 20 years of coaching Arnold had seen this.

On October 28, 2014 Arnold and Assistant Coach Bradyn Akana were removed as coaches at Hawaii during the initial stages of an NCAA investigation.^[3] In 2015, the University of Hawaii announced self-imposed penalties as a result of seven alleged Level I or Level II NCAA violations. The University vacated 36 wins in which back up center Davis Rozitis competed from the 2012-2013 season after finding Rozitis borrowed a 10 year old SUV from the girlfriend of a friend to move his items into his dorm. The owner of the vehicle was later deemed a "booster" after the NCAA investigation found he bought two dinner tickets to a basketball banquet years earlier of which $35 went towards the UH Foundation. The University under the direction of its former Athletic Director Ben Jay and the a newly appointed interim Chancellor also reduced scholarships and practice time, and placed itself on one-year probation. UH also agreed to pay a $10,000 fine.^[4] The sanctions were contained in a 64-page reply to the NCAA that UH filed on May 15, 2015.^[5] On December 23 of that year, the NCAA announced the results of its investigation. Arnold was cleared of any Level I violations. Every allegation was reduced or dropped. Assistant Coach Brandyn Akana was found to have altered an I20 Visa document for an incoming international student. Records show Arnold had no knowledge of Akana's actions and when he found out reported it immediately to the UH Athletic Director. As a result Arnold was found to have "not properly promoted an atmosphere of compliance", and received a 9 game suspension from any coaching within the next three years. The NCAA banned the Rainbow Warriors from postseason play in 2016–17, increased UH's self-imposed scholarship reduction from one to two in both 2016–17 and 2017–18, and extended the self-imposed probation to three years. At the time the NCAA sanctions were announced, Arnold was a scout with the Boston Celtics.^[6]

In February 2015, shortly after being fired, Arnold announced that he was seeking the remainder of his contract—an amount that totaled over one million dollars—from the University of Hawaii.^[7] During the initial stages of the NCAA investigation UH had elected to fire Arnold "without cause." Because he was fired without cause Arnold claimed that he should be paid the amount owed to him in the remainder of his contract. Rather then using its own in house attorneys UH paid $250,000 for a local law firm in the despute. UH eventually settled with Arnold, paying him close to $1,000,000.^[8]

Personal life

Arnold graduated from Punahou School—the same high school as President Barack Obama—and was a prep All-American and Hawai‘i’s high school Gatorade Player of the Year. Arnold's father, Frank, also served as the head basketball coach at UH from 1985 to 1987 ~ Prior to coaching at UH his father Frank served as head coach at BYU (1975-1983) after having served as an assistant coach to the legendary John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins (1971-1974). Frank Arnold worked alongside assistants Denny Crum and Gary Cunningham during the early 70's glory years winning multiple NCAA championships under the guidance of the Wizard of Westwood. [Wikipedia/Frank Arnold/UCLA Past Coaches]

Gib and his wife, Lisa, have five children.^[2]

Notable players coached

• DeMar DeRozan, NBA player and former USC player^[2]
• Taj Gibson, NBA player and former USC player.^[2]
• OJ Mayo, NBA player and former USC player.^[2]
• Nikola Vucevic, NBA player and former USC player.
• Nick Young, NBA player and former USC Player.
• Dan Langhi, NBA player and former Vandebilt Player.
• Brandon Armstrong, NBA player and former Pepperdine Player.
• Alex Acker, NBA player and former Pepperdine Player.
• Yakuba Diawarra, NBA player and former Pepperdine Player.
• Nick Sheppard, NBA player and former Pepperdine player.
• Peter Cornell, NBA player and Actor, former LMU Player.
• Romeo Miller, Actor and Rapper, former USC Player.
• Stefan Jankovic, NBA Player and former Hawaii Player.

Head coaching record

Junior college

College

*Hawaii vacated all 37 wins from the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons due to participation of ineligible player Davis Rozitis.^[11]

References

External links

• Hawaii athletic department bio