Head Coach
Matthew Bowen (Indiana, 1995)
•Second season at BSU
•5-23 (.179) overall - Second Season
[mbowen@bemidjistate.edu]
Phone #: (218) 755-2774

Matt Bowen became the 19th head men’s basketball coach at Bemidji State June 30, 2006. In his first season at BSU he was met with the challenge of repairing a team that went 15-13 overall and 9-5 in the NSIC that was dismantled at the conclusion of the 2005-06 season. With just three players carried over from a team that finished third in the NSIC, Bowen assembled a team that was focused toward rebuilding the program. In the process of rebuilding there are bumps along the road, last season the Beavers hit those bumps as they won just five games. The Beavers’ ended the season with a 5-23 mark overall and a 5-13 mark in the NSIC good for an eighth place finish. In the process of rebuilding, Bowen and his staff has recruited and brought in some of the best talent from around the state of Minnesota to help put the pieces of the BSU men’s basketball program back together.

Bowen, comes to BSU after spending the past 15 years molding his coaching style after some of NCAA Division I men’s basketball’s greatest coaching legends. He was a student manager for Bob Knight at Indiana University and served as an assistant coach under both Gene Bartow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and most recently, Homer Drew at Valparaiso University. Bowen’s trio of mentors have combined for nearly 2,100 career wins and 105 years of head coaching experience.

Although the BSU head coaching assignment is the first of its kind for Bowen, he welcomes the opportunity to take the reigns and guide a program for himself.

During his four years under Drew at Valpo, Bowen helped to lead the Crusaders to an overall record of 70-52 (.574) with a 41-21 (.661) mark versus Mid-Continent Conference competition. In 2003, his first season at the university, the team was 20-11 overall and 12-2 in the league as it grabbed the front end of back-to-back conference titles. The Valpo men capped the year off with a trip to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). The following season, the Crusaders went 18-13 overall with an 11-5 mark versus the league to earn their second league crown and a berth into the NCAA Tournament.

In addition to game day and practice duties, Bowen was responsible for organizing all recruiting efforts, summer youth camps, game preparation and scouting and being the team’s academic coordinator.

As a recruiter, Bowen was responsible for signing the No. 1 incoming class in the Mid-Continent Conference and one of the Top-100 nationally according to last spring’s HoopScoop and Dave Telep recruiting publications. Bowen’s ties to the Midwest, specifically Minnesota, were evident in the class as it was headlined by Mr. Basketball Minnesota Finalist and Tartan High School graduate Urule Igbavboa.

Bowen began his collegiate coaching ventures in 1995 when he was hired as an assistant coach at Alabama-Birmingham. In seven seasons at UAB, the Blazers captured a Conference USA National Division Championship (1999), went to the NCAA Tournament (1999) and were twice invited to participate in the NIT (1997, 1998).

The River Falls, Wis. native and son of long-time NCAA Division IIl head men’s basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Bowen has been around basketball all of his life. But he first acquired a taste of his own for collegiate basketball as the student manager for Knight’s
Indiana Hoosiers (1990-1995). While serving under coach Knight, Bowen was a part of two Big Ten titles (1991, 1993) and four NCAA Tournament appearances, twice advancing to the Elite Eight (1992-1993) and earning a spot in the Final Four in 1992.

He joins a long list of former Indiana managers who have gone off to make a name for themselves in coaching, most notably New Jersey Nets Head Coach Lawrence Frank, a manager at IU from 1989 to 1992. While at Indiana, Bowen also worked directly with George David, now the Director of Scouting for the Detroit Pistons and Ryan Carr, a scout for the Indiana Pacers. In addition, Bowen’s father, Rick, got his feet wet as a Hoosier student manager at under Branch McCracken in the 1960s.
Bowen is a 1995 graduate of Indiana with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER). He picked up a Master of Arts degree in education during his time at UAB, graduating in 1999.

Bowen and his wife Ashli have a five-year-old daughter McKenzi and a one-month old daughter Addison who was born on Sept. 19, 2007.

Matt Bowen - COACHING RESUME
1990-1995 - Student Manager Indiana University
1995-2002 - Assistant Coach - University of Alabama at Birmingham
2002-2006 - Assistant Coach - Valparaiso University
2006-SA - Head Coach - Bemidji State University

Assistant Coach Jeremy Tiers
Lakehead University
Second Season at Bemidji State
[jtiers@bemidjistate.edu]
phone #: 218-755-2323

Jeremy Tiers enters his second season as an assistant coach on the Bemidji State University men’s basketball staff.

Tiers’ responsibilities include recruiting, compliance, coordinating summer camps and working primarily with the Beavers’ frontcourt players. In his first year at Bemidji State. Tiers was instrumental in helping recruit the Beavers’ 2007 class. Included in that first class were three players who earned all-state honors. Additionally, one of those three players (Brady Fairbanks) was a McDonald’s All-American nominee.

Tiers came to Bemidji State after spending two seasons (2004-2006) as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn.

During Tiers’ two-year debut stop in the collegiate coaching ranks, Hamline increased its win total each season. In 2005-06, the team made the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference post-season tournament for the first time in 12 years and won its first playoff game in 21 years.

In addition to recruiting coordinator while at Hamline, he also spent six years working for well-known recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons and his All-Start Report scouting service. Through this position, Tiers was a regular at camps, clinics and tournaments honing a keen sense of evaluation for high school talent and establishing connections around the country.

Tiers’ recruiting prowess was evident at the conclusion of the 2005-06 season when a pair of freshman topped the Pipers’ scoring list earning All-MIAC honors along the way.

Prior to his jump to college basketball, Tiers was an assistant coach at Park Center High School (1999-2004). During his time there, he helped the team string together back-to-back 20-win seasons and capture the schools’ first Northwest Suburban West championship.

Tiers began his coaching career in 1998 as an assistant at his alma mater, Nelson High School, in his native Ontario. While at NHS, the team was ranked nationally and represented its region in the provincial tournament.

A native of Burlington, Ont., Tiers is a graduate of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., where he earned an honors bachelor’s degree in history in 1998.

He and his wife, Jenni, were married in January 2000.

Assistant Coach Scott Sorenson
University of Minnesota
Second Season at Bemidji State
[ssorenson@bemidjistate.edu]
phone #: 218-755-4621

Sorenson enters his second season on the Bemidji State University men’s basketball coachng staff. A native of Crystal, Minn., Sorenson comes to BSU after a two-year assistant coaching stint at NCAA Division III Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wis.
Prior to Lakeland College, Sorenson spent one season as the head coach of the Niagara (Ont.) Gamblers of the Ontario Professional Basketball Association and two seasons at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis, Minn.

During his coaching career, Sorenson has also served as a coach for numerous high school, amateur, and professional teams, and also served as an office assistant for the University of Minnesota men’s basketball program from 1998 to 2000.

Sorenson also played a big role in brining in the first class under head coach Matt Bowen.

In addition to his basketball coaching duties, Sorenson is also in his second season as the head women’s tennis coach at Bemidji State.