Jeff Tungate enters his fourth season as associate head coach for the Oakland University men's basketball team, and his fifth season with the Golden Grizzlies overall. He primarily works with the forwards and centers for OU. Tungate, an honorable mention honoree on CollegeInsider.com Top 25 Mid-Major Assistants, molded Oakland's big men into one of the more intimidating front lines in The Summit League. Keith Benson has improved each season he has been at Oakland and holds numerous school records in blocked shots and rebounds. He was named Mid-Major Player of the Year and became just the second OU player to garner Associated Press All-America honorable mention honors. Benson is projected as an NBA draft pick in 2011 and will be one of the top big men in the country in 2010-11. Will Hudson is another byproduct of Tungate's tutelage in the paint. Hudson has led the league in field goal percentage and has become a true scoring threat for the Golden Grizzlies. Prior to returning to Oakland, Tungate spent two seasons as an associate head coach at IPFW under head coach Dane Fife in 2005-07. There he helped lead the Mastodons to their best season in program history with 12 wins and set a home attendance record in a tough two-point loss to Notre Dame. Before going to IPFW, Tungate worked with OU for one season as an assistant coach in 2004-05. He was part of the magical season for the Golden Grizzlies, as Oakland won The Summit League Tournament title as the No. 6 seed and advanced to its first ever NCAA Tournament since becoming Division I in 1998-99. The Grizzlies then won the opening round game over Alabama A&M, 79-69, and fell to top-seeded and eventual national champion North Carolina, 96-68. Before Oakland, Tungate was the head coach of Lincoln Memorial University, an NCAA Division II member in Harrogate, Tenn., from 1999-2004. There he tutored two Gulf South Conference Players of the Year, and had a player make first team all-conference honors in four of his five seasons at the helm. In 2002-03, he led the Railsplitters to a 19-10 overall record and advanced to the conference semifinals of the tournament. It was the furthest any LMU team had gone and the 19 wins matched a school record since becoming Div. II. That team finished ninth in the nation in field goal percent defense and 28th in points allowed per game. Previously, Tungate was an assistant coach at Lincoln Memorial for one season in 1998-99, helping the Railsplitters to the Eastern Division Championship, first time in school history, and finished with a record of 17-10. He also spent three seasons at Rochester College as an assistant coach and led the Warriors to a pair of top-five finishes while competing in the National Small College Athletic Association. A 1993 Oakland graduate with a degree in English, Tungate is a native of Clarkston, Mich. In his school days at Oakland he was a member of the baseball team where he earned preseason All-America honors in 1992 and continues to hold the school record with a 20-game hitting streak. A graduate of Clarkston High School, Tungate was an all-state baseball player and an all-conference basketball player for the Wolves. Jeff is married to the former Kelley Kleinhans. They both reside in Rochester, Mich., with their nine-year-old son Jordan. |
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