Dr. Dave Holmquist - Men's Basketball Coach (2024)

Dr. Dave Holmquist is one of five four-year college men's basketball coaches to ever win 1,000 career games. He earned his 1,000th win against Concordia Irvine on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021. In 47 years of coaching, 44 of them at Biola, he's amassed an overall record of 1,058-439 (.707). He surpassed 1,000 wins at Biola with a win over Chaminade at home on Jan. 27, 2023.

This past season was Dr. Holmquist's 44th season as the Biola men's basketball head coach. He is a college basketball coaching legend, ranking fourth all-time in victories among men's college basketball coaches.In addition to his incredible coaching record, Dr. Holmquist spent 27 years as Biola's Athletic Director before handing that role off to Dr. Bethany Miller in advance of the Eagles' transition to NCAA Division II.

Holmquist inherited a program that had not won more than 25 games in a season nor advanced to a national tournament in 18 years prior to his arrival. However, since becoming the head coach at Biola, the Eagles averaged 23 wins a year. Upon the program's departure from the NAIA, Biola's 21 trips to the NAIA championship were the sixth-most among all NAIA programs.

Holmquist is one of fewer than 50 coaches to have ever coached 1,000 games. Through 44 years of coaching he's led his teams in over 1,497 games, including 1,420 games on the sideline for Biola. He will coach his 1,500th game in 2024-25.

He coached Biola to 21 appearances at the NAIA National Championship tournament and has reached postseason play in every year eligible since he began coaching at Biola. He's earned two NAIA National Coach of the Year awards, eight conference/district Coach of the Year awards and, of course, is a NAIA Hall of Fame member (2002).

He earned his 900th career coaching victory with a 79-60 victory over Bethesda on Nov. 24, 2015. That win made him just the eighth coach in the history of all levels of college basketball to reach the 900-win mark.

During his tenure at Biola, he's helped players to 32 NAIA All-American honors and 40 All-GSAC honors, including three GSAC Players of the Year: Matt Garrison (1996-97), Nate Strong (2001-02) and Dakari Archer (2015-16). Biola players also experienced success right away in the PacWest Conference, winning five All-PacWest honors in the first three years, including one conference Freshman of the Year in 2017-18. The Eagles' have had a total of 17 All-PacWest selections.

Holmquist was the longest-tenured coach in the Golden State Athletic Conference, known since its inception as a “coaches conference.” During their time in the GSAC (1994-95 through 2016-17), Holmquist guided the Eagles to a 250-150 record (.625 win percentage). Over that stretch, his teams finished in the top-4 in 14 of 23 seasons including conference championships in 2001-02 and 2015-16.

Holmquist earned GSAC Coach of the Year honors four times times (1996-97, 2001-02, 2003-04 and 2015-16).

Biola men's basketball collected 21 wins in the 2021-22 campaign, reaching the 20-win threshold for the first time in five years. BU logged an eight-game win streak from January 22 through February 12, defeating a PacWest foe in each contest. In postseason play, Biola picked up a win against Concordia in the opening round of the PacWest Championships, before being eliminated in the semifinals for a third place finish.

Two Eagles reached the 1,000 point milestone in 2021-22 at Biola, including Chris Rossow and Alex Wright. The duo plus Michael Bagatourian each made the All-PacWest team at the conclusion of the season.

The 2019-20 season was one worth the wait for Holmquist's Biola side. He led the team to a repeat fifth-place finish in league play, ending with a program-best PacWest Conference record of 13-9. It was a two-win improvement from 18-19 and eight-win improvement over the team's inaugural PacWest Conference season in 2017-18.

The highlight was that 19-20 was the team's first year eligible to play in the PacWest Conference tournament and NCAA Division II postseason. Despite losing their starting point guard with five games left in the season, Biola entered the tournament as the No. 5 seed and earned upset wins over No. 4 seeded, Concordia Irvine, the team picked to win the conference in the preseason poll, and also the No. 1 seed and outright regular season champions, Azusa Pacific.

The Cougars entered the semifinal matchup with Biola riding a winning streak of 20 games. The storyline going in was all about APU looking to tie its program record with 21st win in a row and also continue their journey towards being the first tournament host to win the PacWest Men's Basketball tournament. Holmquist's squad, despite a scoring margin of -16 in its two regular season losses to APU, shocked the Cougars with a Michael Bagatourian game-winning shot leading to an 82-79 BU victory and a spot in the PacWest Tournament Championship vs. 2018-19 conference champions and national runners-up Point Loma.

Biola gave the Sea Lions everything they had in a thrilling championship game that saw 19 lead changes throughout and took an overtime, buzzer-beater, NBA-distance three-point shot from PLNU to win the game, 98-95. This closed out Biola's season just one win short of earning a berth in the NCAA Division II tournament during its first season eligible. As it turns out, that PacWest Championship game was the last men's basketball game played for any PacWest Conference school in 2019-20, with the season being cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Prior to joining the PacWest, Holmquist's Eagles left an impact during their final season in the NAIA in 2016-17. Winning its final eight home games during the regular season propelled Biola to Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament and NAIA National Championship appearances. Seniors Dakari Archer and Caelan Tiongson garnered All-GSAC honors and averaged 15.1 and 13.2 points, respectively. The Eagles finished out their NAIA tenure with a nail-biting 78-76 loss to Langston (Okla.) in the opening round of the NAIA Nationals.

The 2015-16 season was easily one of the most enjoyable of the long, accomplished and outstanding career of coach Holmquist. His team finished ranked inside of the top-10 in the NAIA and ended the year with a 30-4 overall record. The team swept the Golden State Athletic Conference championships by winning the regular season with a 14-2 record and earning the tournament championship over Hope International in a game regionally televised on FOX Sports Prime Ticket.

Holmquist was honored by the National Association of Basketball Coaches with their NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Coach of the Year honor. He also took home GSAC Coach of the Year honors.

During the 2001-02 season, Holmquist became the youngest coach to reach the 600-win plateau and was among the youngest when he went over 700 wins in 2005-06. He won his 800th career game on Dec. 29 in victory over University of the Fraser Valley, needing just 1,095 games to reach that plateau.

He guided the Eagles to their first GSAC title in 2001-02 in what proved to be one of the most successful seasons in program history. Biola wore the conference crown with a 17-3 record and wrapped up the year at 29-5, reaching the second round of the NAIA tournament. The title in 2015-16 was the second GSAC title in program history, seeing the Eagles finish with very similar season numbers to the 01-02 team.

Holmquist’s most successful season came in 1981-82 when Biola finished with a 39-1 overall record and advanced to the NAIA championship game. He was named the NAIA co-Head Coach of the Year. That team was the first team ever inducted into the Biola Athletics Hall of Fame, going in during the spring 2019 induction.

In addition, the Eagles have reached the postseason in each of his seasons of coaching (when postseason eligible), advancing to the NAIA Championship game in 1981-82. He recently guided Biola to the tournament four straight seasons (2008-12), including NAIA Quarterfinal berths in three of those, making for eight NAIA quarterfinal appearances during Holmquist’s tenure.

Holmquist played two seasons at Biola (1972-74), being named team captain his senior season after transferring from nearby Cypress College.

After his graduation from Biola in 1974, Holmquist became head coach at Fresno Pacific College (now University) at just 24 years of age. He coached three seasons at Fresno Pacific, amassing a record of 36-43 before returning to his alma mater at the start of the 1978-79 season to become Co-Head Coach with Howard Lyon.

College Men's Basketball Winningest Coaches (NCAA I, II, III & NAIA)

*Active Coach
Updated through 2022-23 season