french hired by ucr

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SoCalHoops Coaching News

UC Riverside Hires Darren French
As Men's Assistant Coach--(Aug. 7, 2001)

This one was sent to us in mid-July and it's getting so old, its on the verge of being yesterday's news, but on the off-chance that someone out there didn't read about the hiring of Darren French by UCR, we're happy to spread the word. This was actually realeased on July 18, but again, better late than never:

UC Riverside Hires Darren French as
Assistant Men's Basketball Coach

The University of California, Riverside has hired Darren French as a men's assistant basketball coach, Head Men's Basketball Coach John Masi announced Tuesday. French succeeds Rick Croy, who took an assistant coach position at Concordia University in Irvine.

"Darren is an outstanding young coach and a very hard worker," Masi said. "He will certainly compliment the talents of Coaches (Rusty) Smith and (Reggie) Howard." French, a 1998 graduate of nearby Cal State University San Bernardino, comes to UCR from Ventura College, where he was an assistant to Greg Winslow in the 2000-01 season. Prior to that he served as an assistant under Ernie Kent at the University of Oregon and helped guide the Ducks to a third place finish in the PAC-10 with an overall record of 22-8 and advanced to the 1st round of the NCAA tournament. He worked with NBA draftee Bryan Bracey, who was taken in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs.

French served as an administrative assistant to then-Coach Stan Morrison at San Jose State in the 1997-98 season, and had worked as a student-assistant at Cal State San Bernardino from 1994 through 1997.

"I am excited about joining the basketball program here at UC Riverside and having the opportunity to work with Coach Masi," French said. "He has this program headed in the right direction."