Tim Cluess

Tim Cluess

Biographical details
Born	(1959-03-09) March 9, 1959 (age 65) Queens, New York, U.S.
Playing career
1979–1981	St. John's
1982–1983	Hofstra
Position(s)	Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1991–2005	Saint Mary's HS
2005–2006	Suffolk CC
2006–2010	LIU Post
2010–2019	Iona
Head coaching record
Overall	297–131 (college) 22–10 (junior college) 265–78 (high school)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
3× ECC regular season champion (2008–2010) 2× ECC Tournament champion (2008, 2009) 4× MAAC regular season champion (2012, 2014, 2015, 2019) 5× MAAC tournament (2013, 2016–2019)
Awards
2× MAAC Coach of the Year (2014, 2019)

Timothy Michael Cluess (born March 9, 1959) is an American college basketball coach who most recently was the head men's basketball coach at Iona College. He is also a former head coach of Long Island University–C.W. Post.

Born in Queens, New York, Cluess played college basketball at St. John's (1979–81)^[1][2] and Hofstra (1982–83).^[3]

Cluess played professionally in Europe and Australia.^{[citation needed]}

Cluess was the head coach of Saint Mary's High School in Manhasset, New York for 14 seasons (1991–2005).^{[citation needed]} Cluess's Gaels won four Class A New York State Catholic High School Athletic Association (NYSCHSAA) championships^{[citation needed]} and two New York State Federation of Secondary Schools Athletic Associations (NYSFSSA) championships.^{[citation needed]} However, St. Mary's played in the Class A Division, and failed to advance past the New York City representative of much stronger Class AA Division each time they attempted to advance for the right to play in the New York State Class AA Federation Tournament.

In 2004–05, Saint Mary's posted a 25–1 overall record. The lone loss came against a New York City team, Xaverian, from the class AA Division as St. Mary's once again failed to advance past New York City in the Class AA Division.^{[citation needed]}

Cluess’ first college coaching job was the 2005–06 Suffolk County Community College team that finished with a regular season record of 20–9. They appeared in their first NJCAA Division III tournament that year, winning their first two games before being eliminated in their third game and finishing the season at 22–10.^[4]

After one year at the junior college level, Cluess became the head coach for the Long Island University C.W. Post Campus Pioneers. He led the team to three straight first-place finishes in the East Coast Conference, including two conference tournament titles in 2007–08 and 2008–09. In four seasons at LIU-Post, Cluess led the team to two NCAA Division II men's basketball tournaments in 2008 and 2009. The 2008–09 squad finished the regular season with a record of 24–0, in route to an NCAA Division II Elite Eight tournament appearance and a 30–1 final record.^[5]

In April 2010 Cluess replaced Kevin Willard as the head men's basketball coach at Iona College.^[6] Cluess' record in nine seasons at Iona was 199–108.

Just before the 2019–20 pre-season, Cluess took a leave of absence to deal with personal health issues. Associate head coach Tra Arnold took over head coaching duties for the remainder of the season.^[7]

On March 13, 2020, Cluess stepped down from Iona due to his health issues.^[8] Rick Pitino was named to replace Cluess as head coach the next day.^[9]

• Iona profile