Joe Golding/ Brette Tanner - ACU Pressure Defense

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Joe Golding

Former Abilene Christian letterman and assistant basketball coach Joe Golding is in his tenth season as the head men’s basketball coach at his alma mater. 
Golding followed up a historic 2018-19 campaign with another outstanding season in 2019-20. The Wildcats struggled to start the season, falling to 2-5, before turning it around and finishing with a 20-11 record including a 15-5 mark in Southland play. The team once again earned a two-seed and a double-bye at the conference tournament before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team earned back-to-back 20-win regular seasons for the first time in program history. It was just the second time in program history that the team put together back-to-back 20-win seasons including the postseason, the first came during coach Golding's playing days. 

2018-19 was a historic season for the Wildcats under Golding as he led his team to a 27-7 record and their first Southland Conference Tournament Championship. ACU earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament for the first time at the Division I level, earning a 15-seed and a first-round matchup with the University of Kentucky. ACU went 14-4 in Southland play to earn the two-seed in the SLC Championship and battled a tough Southeastern Louisiana team in the semifinal to earn a place in the championship. The Wildcats went on to earn a 77-60 win over New Orleans in the title game to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

The 2017-18 season was a historic one for ACU as the team had the highest win total (16) since the 2007-08 squad won 20 games. The Wildcats earned a berth in the collegeinsider.com (CIT) Tournament, the program’s first national postseason tournament at the NCAA Division I level, and its first national tournament appearance of any kind since reaching the 1998-99 NCAA Division II national tournament.
 

Golding was a four-year letterwinner at ACU from 1994-98, playing in all 108 games, and was given the Teague Point Guard Award as a senior. He shot 46 percent from the floor over his four-year career, and averaged 4.3 points and 4.2 assists per game. Upon graduating from ACU with a bachelor's degree in exercise and sport science in May of 1999, Golding got his first coaching job as a varsity assistant at South Garland High School, where he helped the team to back-to-back Class 5A playoff appearances.

Brette Tanner enters his eighth season in 2020-21 at Abilene Christian University and sixth as the associate head coach. Tanner joined the ACU program in May of 2013 following a seven-year stay at Stephen F. Austin.

Tanner’s seven years at ACU has seen the program improve each year as it successfully transitioned from NCAA Division II affiliation to NCAA Division I status. Each year of the transition the program added to its Division I win total, and the hard work paid off greatly in 2017-18 and 2018-19. The 2017-18 season was a historic one for ACU as the team earned a berth in the CollegeInsider.com (CIT) Tournament, the program’s first national postseason tournament at the NCAA Division I level, and its first national tournament appearance of any kind since the reaching the 1998-99 NCAA Division II national tournament.

2019-20 was another successful season for the Wildcats and once again it was Coach Tanner's defense that helped anchor the team's success. The team led the Southland in scoring defense, holding opponents to 65.3 ppg and helping them to another 20-win season. The team posted their first back-to-back 20-win regular seasons in program history and earned the two-seed in the Southland Conference tournament. Tanner's defense also ranked 25th in the NCAA for 3-pt field gol percentage (29.8 %), fifth in steals (9.5), and second for turnover margin (+5.8). The team was unable to defend their title as the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In 2018-19, in only their second season as a full Division I member, Tanner helped lead the Wildcats to a record-setting campaign that featured 27 wins, a new program record. ACU would finish 27-7, made its first trip to Katy, Texas for the Southland Conference Tournament, and ran through the tournament to claim its first NCAA Tournament bid and a Division I conference championship. The win over New Orleans clinched a spot in The Dance, as ACU heard its name on Selection Sunday for the first time in history. The 15-seeded Wildcats traveled to Jacksonville, Fla. to meet up with perennial college basketball powerhouse Kentucky. ACU boasted the top scoring defense in the Southland Conference in 2018-19 as well.

Before ACU, Tanner helped the Lumberjacks of SFA to an overall mark of 153-65, three regular season Southland Conference championships and three appearances in the SLC Postseason Tournament championship game. During his last six seasons at SFA, the Lumberjacks had the best winning percentage of all 21 NCAA Division I programs in the state of Texas (138-49, .738 winning percentage).  In addition, SFA led the country in scoring defense in 2010-11 and 2011-12. 

Prior to his arrival on staff in Nacogdoches, SFA had not won a conference championship or reached the NCAA Tournament in 21 seasons as an NCAA Division I program.  But Tanner helped lead the Lumberjacks to a Southland Conference title in 2007-08, and SFA won two more giving the Lumberjacks three league championships in six years.  SFA also participated in the NIT in 2008 as well as 2012 and competed in the NCAA Tournament in 2009.

As the program's recruiting coordinator, Tanner landed several nationally ranked classes in six years. The success in recruiting translated to winning basketball ad Stephen F. Austin enjoyed five 20-win campaigns in those six seasons. Prior to Tanner's arrival, the program had amassed only three 20-­win campaigns in more than two decades at the NCAA Division I level.

Before coaching at South Plains, Tanner was the head coach at Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College for four seasons. By the time he left, he ranked fourth on the all-time wins list. In addition, three out of the four years as head coach his teams posted the highest team GPA in Region VI.  Before being named head coach, Tanner assisted the program for two seasons and worked for current Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard.

Before beginning his coaching career, Tanner played for Allen County (Kan.) Community College for two years, earning his associate of science degree along the way. Following his stint at ACCC he transferred to Emporia State (Kan.) University. There he earned his bachelor’s degree and played for head coach Ron Slaymaker. Tanner completed his education at Pittsburg State University (Kan.) where he earned his Master’s in Kinesiology.

Tanner and his wife, Lindsey, have two sons, Colby and Carson.