Dennis Cutts joined the UC Riverside men’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant coach in May of 2007, rejoining Head Coach Jim Wooldridge, with whom he worked at Kansas State as the team’s director of basketball operations. Cutts brings over 15 years of coaching experience to the Highlander bench.
As the director of basketball operations with the Wildcats, Cutts assisted in coordinating recruiting activities for the program, running the Jim Wooldridge Basketball Camp, organizing K-State coaching clinics and overseeing the Wildcat Faculty/Staff Club. In addition, he coordinated all team travel and oversaw special projects for the basketball office.
Cutts was an associate head coach and recruiting coordinator for Phil Johnson at San Jose State from 2002 to 2005. He assisted in the development and recruitment of several all-conference players, including Marquin Chandler, a Second-Team All-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) forward. In addition to his on-the-floor coaching duties, Cutts was in charge of the team’s scheduling of opponents and facilities as well as academic monitoring.
Cutts was a four-year letter winner at State University of New York at Albany, helping his team to four consecutive winning seasons, including three 20-win campaigns. As a senior, Cutts was team captain and most valuable player of a Great Dane squad that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in business administration in 1990.
Following graduation, the Massapequa, NY native began his coaching career in Killarney, Ireland in 1990 as a player-coach for the St. Paul’s Basketball Club senior men’s “A” team. He also coached the men’s “B” team, the senior women’s “A” team and boys’ teams ranging in ages up to 19-years-old. In addition, he was an instructor at the Institute for International Sport in Killarney.
He returned to the United States in 1991 and spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Pima Community College (1991-94) in Tucson, AZ and two as an assistant coach at Northland Pioneer College (1994-96) in Holbrook, AZ.
Cutts reached the Division I level in 1996 when he joined the staff at Stephen F. Austin, spending three years as the program’s recruiting coordinator and overseeing the development of the Lumberjacks’ offense. He then moved on to Northern Arizona and worked under Mike Adras, where he was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 1999 through 2002. In 2000 he helped the Lumberjacks to a 20-11 mark, the Big Sky Tournament Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. He coordinated the team’s offensive schemes and worked in the development of the perimeter players. Cutts also had duties in scouting opponents and academic supervision.
Cutts is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He and his wife Evon reside in Riverside.
