Cameron Dollar

Cameron Dollar ((1975-12-09)December 9, 1975^[1]) is an American college basketball coach, currently head coach for the Seattle University Redhawks men's basketball team.^[2] Dollar was previously an assistant coach under Lorenzo Romar at the University of Washington. Dollar attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and was a member of the 1995 UCLA Bruins national championship team. In the championship game against Arkansas, he replaced injured starter Tyus Edney^[3] as the Bruins won 89–78.^[4] Dollar was born in Atlanta,^[4] Georgia.

UCLA

Dollar was recruited to UCLA while playing at a prep school in Maryland by then-Bruins assistant coach Mark Gottfried. Dollar attended UCLA in the fall of 1993.^[5] Leading up to the final game against Arkansas in the 1995 NCAA tournament, the team was uncertain of the status of Tyus Edney, their starting point guard, who had injured his wrist in the semifinals against Oklahoma State.^[5] After Edney did not return after leaving less than three minutes into the Arkansas game, Dollar played 36 minutes and contributed eight assists and four steals as UCLA won the championship game, 89–78.^[6] Asked if UCLA would have won without Dollar's performance, then-UCLA coach Jim Harrick said, "Absolutely not."^[5] Earlier in the tournament against Missouri, Dollar inbounded the ball with 4.8 seconds left in the game to Edney, who drove the length of the court and hit a bank shot as time expired to win 75–74 in the second round.^[7]

Dollar started in his last two seasons, and the Bruins won three Pacific-10 Conference championships. During his four-year career, Dollar averaged 5.0 points, 3.7 assists and 2.3 rebounds. "His leadership qualities were off the charts," Harrick said. "He was always an extension of the coach on the floor."^[5]

Coaching

At age 22, Dollar was the country's youngest college coach when he was first hired as a head coach at Southern California College,^[2][4] an National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school (now known as Vanguard University). He served ten years (1999–2009) as an assistant to current Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar^[2][4] (including the last three years (1999–2002) of Romar's tenure at Saint Louis), who was himself an assistant on Jim Harrick's UCLA staff during Dollar's career.^[4][5] Dollar's time in Washington was marred by an incident in 2002 when he was suspended without pay for one month and had his pay reduced by 20 percent until April, 2003 (all up costing him over $13,000) because of a series of recruiting violations he made.^[8][9]

Dollar was hired in the spring of 2009 as head coach at Seattle University, which was transitioning to compete in Division I after dropping out in 1980.^[5][10]

Head coaching record

Personal

Dollar has three children. His father, Donald, was a longtime high school basketball coach in Georgia who won three state championships and more than 600 games. Dollar hired Donald as an assistant at Seattle.^[4] Dollar's mother was slain in Atlanta when Cameron was 4 years old.^[5] His brother Chad served as an assistant coach at Arkansas State.^[16] Dollar is a Christian.^[4]

References

External links

• Cameron Dollar Bio - Seattle University Redhawks Athletics
• Cameron Dollar Profile - University of Washington Official Athletic Site