Rob Lanier

Biography

Rob Lanier was named the 26th head men’s basketball coach at Rice on March 24, 2024. Lanier brings more than 30 years of experience as a collegiate coach, including nine seasons as a head coach at Siena, Georgia State, and SMU. In his coaching career, he has been on staff for 12 NCAA Tournaments and 20 total postseason bids. Those teams combined for five conference titles, three regular season championships and two tournament crowns, plus five more trips to a league tournament final. This past season at SMU, he led the Mustangs to a 20-13 record, including an 11-7 in the American Athletic Conference and the second seed in the AAC Championship. SMU saw a 10-game improvement in its overall record and more than doubled its win total in the conference this past season. One of those conference wins was a 95-69 win over Rice at Tudor Fieldhouse on February 4. Lanier came to SMU after posting a 53-30 record in three seasons at Georgia State, capped by a Sun Belt tournament championship in 2022 and a berth in the NCAA Championship. He led the Panthers to the SBC tournament championship game in each of his last two years. Before he arrived at Georgia State, Lanier spent eight seasons as associate head coach to Rick Barnes, four at Tennessee (2015-19) preceded by four at Texas (2011-15). The Volunteers went 26-9 in 2017-18, sharing the SEC title and making the second round of the NCAA Tournament. They followed with a 31-6 campaign that saw Tennessee rise to No. 1 in the national polls