Craig Doty, a three-time national champion head coach and three-time national coach of the year, enters his second year as the Ann and James Sears Bryant Head Men's Basketball Coach at Houston Christian University.
Year one of the Doty-era at HCU was marked by substantial program growth. Picked to finish last (12th) in the Southland Conference pre-season poll, the Huskies finished tied for seventh place. HCU doubled its win total from the previous season, improving from six wins to 12 wins and recording the most conference wins in eight years with nine following just four the season before.
Doty’s squad had the highest attendance in Sharp Gym since before COVID as they moved the program from an inherited 357 NET ranking to a season-high 252 NET on January 31, 2025. HCU earned a trip to the SLC tournament while Bryson Dawkins was named First Team All-Southland Conference, only the second player in HCU men’s basketball history to earn first-team honors.
Off the court, the Huskies led multiple community service events including a drive to help eradicate blood cancer, “High-Five Friday” which included reading and playing with elementary school kids, and the “signing” and mentoring of a 10-year old after he received a double kidney transplant. In the classroom, HCU men’s basketball earned a 3.22 team GPA.
Doty arrived to HCU with 12 years of head college coaching experience and a 259-126 career record, including a 31-10 mark in postseason play.
A family man, Doty and his wife, Alexys, reside in the greater Houston area with their four children: Braylon, Amery, Sienna, and Calvin.
Prior to his arrival in Houston, Doty spent six seasons as head men’s basketball coach at Emporia State University in Kansas. Known as a program-builder, Doty improved the Emporia State program from an inherited 9-19 record (4-15 MIAA) to a 23-9 record (15-7 MIAA) in 2022-23. In each of his final three seasons at ESU, Doty’s teams appeared in the NABC Division II national polls while being ranked in the top 25 for six weeks in 2022-23 and as high as #15 in 2023-24.
In six seasons leading Emporia State, Doty coached 16 All-Conference selections and Emporia State's first All-American since 2003, Tray Buchanan. Doty's team broke the school-record for MIAA conference wins in a season with 15 in 2021-22 and then matched the mark again in 2022-23 while breaking ESU's NCAA-era program record for wins in a season with 23. 16 of Doty's ESU players inked pro contracts.
Off the floor, the Emporia State men’s basketball program was just as impressive. Doty’s Hornets won the Community Service National Championship in both 2022 and 2023 finishing first in the NCAA Division II Helper-Helper standings among nearly 300 member schools. Doty changed the academic profile of the program moving the team GPA up an entire grade point average during his tenure. In the fall of 2023, the Hornets boasted the best men’s basketball academic semester since ESU began recording team GPA’s with a 3.23 team GPA.
Prior to his arrival in Emporia, Doty led Graceland University to national prominence. In just two seasons at Graceland, Doty’s program had a 49-22 record and won the 2018 NAIA Division I National Championship in the school's first trip to the national tournament. Along the way, Doty earned NAIA National Coach of the Year and the 2018 Don Meyer Award. Upon winning the 2018 national championship, Doty had led his teams to the National Championship game four out of the previous five seasons.
Doty began his head coaching career as the head men's basketball coach at Rock Valley College. In his four years he built a national powerhouse. When Doty took over the program in 2012, Rock Valley was ranked last in Region IV preseason poll. Over the next four years, Doty would lead the Golden Eagles to four consecutive national tournaments including three straight national title games. Rock Valley was crowed National Champions in 2014 and in 2016, the first and second national championships in the 50-year program history.
Doty compiled a 113-28 record (.801) at Rock Valley. Doty's program shattered the school record for wins in 2013-14 posting a 30-5 record while re-breaking that record the next two seasons going 31-4 and 33-3, respectively. Doty led the Golden Eagles to the #1 ranking in the country for the first time in program history on October 27th, 2014 and his program held on to the #1 ranking for the rest of Doty’s tenure at RVC which included 24 consecutive national polls over 729 consecutive days.
Prior to his head coaching, Doty served as an assistant at the University of Sioux Falls (SD), Riverland Community College (MN), and Central Wyoming College. Doty was a volunteer assistant for one season at his alam mater, Morningside University (IA), and served one season as a head high school coach at Akron-Westfield (IA).
Doty is a proud native of Alcester, South Dakota and a graduate of Alcester-Hudson High School. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in 2010 from Morningside University majoring in English with a Business Administration minor.
