It has been a busy week for the Boise state broncos on Friday guard Paris Austin was granted a release from the program, and now today Boise State assistant coach John Rillie has accepted to become an assistant coach at the University of Santa Barbara to join Joe Pasternack's staff.
Rillie has been with Head Coach Leon Rice since 2011 and even played for Coach Rice while he was at Gonzaga.
He was a strong recruiter for the program and helped bring in several of Boise State's players including guard Paris Austin.
There have been several movements for the basketball program in the past 14 months. Danny Henderson left the program in April to be an assistant at Oklahoma State, and former associate Head Coach Jeff Linder left in may become the head coach of Northern Colorado.
Rillie will also be the second Idaho connection to join Santa Barbara. He joins former C of I assistant and Boise native Ben Tucker on the staff. Coach Rice had this to say about Rillie leaving the program.
"I'm so grateful for the seven years that john has to give to the Boise state basketball program and this community. he and his family, Heidi, Jaron, Kael, Halle, and Keen, have been a huge part of building this program. He has been very instrumental in all of our successes. this will be a great step in building his resume," said Head Coach Leon Rice.
Rillie was also instrumental landing several Australian players to play for Boise State. He once was a former professional basketball player in Australia. He helped land Nick Duncan, Anthony Drmic, and Igor Hadziomerovic. Duncan finished his senior season with Boise State this past year.
As of now, there are no Australian players on the roster which will be the first time since 2011 when Rillie became an assistant coach.
Paris Austin had this to say about Rillie's move to Santa Barbara on his twitter account "One of the best recruiters in the country! reason why I came to Boise. Gotta love that dude.
Austin could go play for Rillie at Santa Barbara but would have to sit out a year due to NCAA rules. Last season the Gauchos struggled finishing 6-22 overall and just 4 and 12 in in the big west conference.
