Scott Thompson, former head basketball coach at Wichita State and Rice University, has been named head men's basketball coach at Cornell.
Thompson replaces Al Walker, who stepped down from the position in April.
"We're delighted to have Scott Thompson join our athletic staff," said Athletic Director Charles H. Moore. "We conducted a national search and he is the right fit for our men's program. Scott has an impressive background as both a student-athlete and a coach, and we look forward to his immediate leadership of our men's team."
Associate Athletic Director M. Dianne Murphy headed the national search for the new coach, and she introduced Thompson to the community and the media at a June 14 press conference in Schoellkopf Hall.
"I am thrilled that Scott has decided to become a member of our athletic department at Cornell," Murphy said. "He has outstanding coaching credentials and, most importantly, he is a person of great integrity, as well as a quality individual. I am confident our men's basketball program will enjoy tremendous success under Scott's direction."
"It's a great pleasure for me to be here at Cornell University," Thompson said. "I'm proud to be part of Cornell University, proud to be part of the family here and proud to be part of the Ivy League. And I'm excited about getting things going.
"We're going to try as hard as we can to build a strong basketball tradition here and keep this program going up in the right direction," he added.
A 1976 graduate of the University of lowa, with a B.A. degree in political science, Thompson was an All-Big 10 player and academic-team member. His coaches at Iowa were Dick Schultz, who later served as Cornell athletic director and executive director of the NCAA, and Lute Olson, now head coach at the University of Arizona.
Thompson was drafted by the Detroit Pistons of the NBA and served as an assistant on Digger Phelps' staff at the University of Notre Dame from 1977 to 1980, at a time when the team was in the 1978 NCAA Final Four and the 1979 Final Eight.
In 1980, Thompson returned to the University of lowa as an assistant to Olson, and he followed the head coach to Arizona from 1983 to 1987, when the Wildcats won the 1986 Pac-10 championship and participated in the NCAA tournament for three seasons.
Thompson coached the men's team at Wichita State during a transitional period from 1992 to 1996. In 1994-95, the team was one game under .500, a level it hadn't reached in six years. Prior to Wichita State, Thompson was men's head coach at Rice University from 1987 to 1992. In five years, he brought the team from a 6-21 record to 20-11 in his final season -- the team's first 20-win season in 39 years. In 1991, he was named Southwest Conference Coach of the Year and Rice participated in the National Invitational Tournament.
During his tenure at Rice, Thompson was a consultant to the USA Olympic basketball team and a member of the USA Junior National basketball team staff.
In 1986, he was the head coach of the USA National team trials and was training camp coordinator and staff mentor in charge of scouting and game preparation. That year, the USA defeated Russia for the gold medal in Madrid, Spain. In 1990, Thompson was an assistant for the USA team that won the gold medal at the COPABA Tournament of Americas.
An Illinois native, Thompson graduated in 1972 from Moline High School, where he played basketball, football, baseball and track. He was an all-state basketball player and was inducted into the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
Thompson and his wife, Rebecca, have a son, Christian, and a daughter, Aubrey Ann.