Brian Newhall, the winningest coach in school history, enters his 24th season in 2012-13 with a career record of 340-252 and a 100% team graduation rate. During his tenure, the Tigers have earned regional and national rankings, produced the only perfect 14-0 record in SCIAC history and triumphed in two NCAA playoff games to reach the NCAA III Elite 8.

Newhall, a 1983 Occidental graduate, endorses the scholar-athlete experience.  "I was raised on equal parts Socrates and basketball. My parents were fans of the sound mind-sound body philosophy." True to the tradition, Newhall played point guard for four seasons, garnering a degree in American Studies. "It was a formative experience for me. Some of my lifelong friends were teammates." Team MVP twice and SCIAC Player of the Year, Newhall captained the Tigers to a SCIAC championship his senior year. "Varsity athletes get double-teamed," he laughs. "The coaches and professors both challenge you. The Occidental athlete gets a complete education---on the court, in the residence halls and in the classroom."

As a player-coach in Europe, Newhall added a global outlook to his winning strategy. After two successful seasons in southern France, he returned to Occidental as an assistant coach for Bill Westphal. "Inclination and opportunity converged. It was an ideal scenario---an NBA coach to learn from and the junior-varsity team to coach." Newhall maintains strong international ties, placing numerous players on European Basketball Club Teams.

Continuity and community are benchmarks of Newhall's success. Alumni support is at an all time high. "Staying in touch with my own players and meeting those of earlier generations is one of the rewards of my career." Newhall has reached out to scholar-athletes across six decades of Tiger Basketball. "Their collective achievements are the best recommendation for Occidental." Newhall credits Oxy legend, Coach Grant Dunlap, with "inspiration and guidance" in energizing the alumni network. "It embodies the heart and history of our program." Newhall has expanded Oxy's Hall of Fame to include 29 honorees, dating back to 1935. And the flourishing Alumni Basketball Association Sunday Night League keeps team-mates connected and involved with the current program. "Their best shots, now, are e-mails to critique my coaching." What's the coach's lament? "If they care when you win, they care when you lose!"

Newhall, who has an MA in Education, also developed and directs Occidental's acclaimed Youth Basketball Camps. In addition, Newhall lends his coaching talent to the YMCA and AYSO youth sports programs and is an active volunteer with the South Pasadena School District.

Newhall and his wife, Amy, Oxy alum and Vice President of Academic Affairs/Dean of Faculty at Scripps College , have a 15-year old daughter, Rachel, and nine-year old twins, Emily and David.

Will Morris joins the Occidental staff this year as Associate Head Coach.  No stranger to the SCIAC, he has been the head women's coach at Whittier College and associate head men's coach at the University of LaVerne.

"I am very excited about being at Occidental.  I think Occidental represents the best combination of athletics and academics in the country.  It is a premier institution academically and athletically.  I have known Brian Newhall for over 20 years and am excited about being a member of a staff at a great school.  Occidental has gone further in the NCAA Tournament than any SCIAC team in history.  I look at Occidental as an Ivy League type of institution in one of the great cities in the world with terrific year 'round weather.  There is a great commitment here to a world class education and a high level athletic experience as well."

Morris is an expert in developing players.  He is known as a great teacher of fundamentals.  He works closely with his athletes both on and off the court and in the weightroom to reach the maximum of their potential.  He has tutored a number of highly rated players and has helped them to go on to play professionally.  He has assisted former players in landing offers after graduation to play in countries including Denmark, Italy, Australia, Taiwan, Mexico and Canada.  While coaching women, he had players who were recruited to play both internationally and in the WNBA.

While at LaVerne, Morris coached the only team in the history of the Institution which qualified for the NCAA Tournament.  They were the number 1 rated team in the Western region and went on to make the NCAA Sweet 16.  While at Hayward, he was part of a staff that took the team from 4 wins to be co-conference champions in 2 years.  He coordinated a defense that ranked 2nd nationally.  While at Whittier, he had 20 a win season and is the winningest coach in Whitter College Women's Basketball history.

Will's is married to Janet and has two boys, Mo (11) and Michael (7), and they reside in Pasadena.

Morris is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and the University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Law with Honors.  He practiced law for a number of years in the areas of Real Estate, Probate, Estate Planning and Business.  He has been on the Board of Directors of the San Gabriel Valley Bar Association and Alhambra Chamber of Commerce.  However, he gave up the full-time practice of law to pursue his true passion, basketball.  He has taught college courses in a number of areas including Sports Law and Recreational and Sports Management.  He also served as the Head Golf Coach and Head Women's LaCrosse Coach at Whittier.

Morris is actively involved in education and serves as The Chair of the Annual Fund and School Site Council at his childrens' school, Don Benito Elementary in Pasadena.  He is also an active AYSO and Little League coach and volunteer. 

Ryan Moore enters his first year as an assistant coach on the Oxy men's basketball coaching staff in 2012-13.

Moore was most recently the Director of Player Development at NCAA Division I University of San Francisco. He served as the recruiting coordinator for the associate head coach, arranged and coordinated team nutrition on game days and on road trips, evaluated game film, recruited Southern California prospects and coached and evaluated prospects at the Elite College Prospect Camp.

"Ryan brings toughness, energy and a thorough knowledge of basketball at all levels to our staff," Newhall said. "He's a proven recruiter and just the type of personality we need to help us get back to the Elite Eight."

Moore joining the Oxy staff is a homecoming of sorts. He spent more than a decade coaching high school basketball in Southern California.

Before his time with the Dons, Moore was the Associate Head Coach at Simi Valley HS from 2005-11 under head coach Christian Aurand, the program's all-time wins leader. The team ranked as high as No. 17 nationally in 2008 and was 124-47 during Moore's tenure. He coached a number of college players including; Lorne Jackson, Pepperdine; Mike Meza, UC San Diego; Jonathan Davis, George Washington; Tyler Trapani, UCLA; Brad Lewis, UC Santa Barbara; Mike Hornbuckle, Pepperdine; and former Oxy forward CJ Faulwell.

"I'm excited to be back in Southern California, working with head coach Brian Newhall, at a school with great academic standards and driven student-athletes," Moore said. 

Moore was the head coach at Oaks Christian from 2003-05. In 2003-04, the team went 24-5 and Moore was 13-2 as the interim head coach.

Moore began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Calabasas HS in 2000 where he coached Drew Housman, Harvard, and Johnny Wilson, Westmont.

In 2008-09, Moore scouted and recruited players to play for Pump N Run, one of the premier AAU programs in the country.

Michael Wells is entering his second year as the Occidental College sports information director.

In July, 2012, Wells was promoted to assistant athletic director, adding the annual Roy Dennis Senior Scholar-Athlete Banquet, the Occidental College Athletics Hall of Fame, search committees and external relations under his umbrella. He will also play a limited role as an assistant with the men's basketball team.

Wells, 25, took over in August 2011 as the person charged with covering, writing and disseminating news and statistics for the liberal arts institution's 21 intercollegiate athletic teams, participating in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Wells, whose mother Jodie Burton and father David Wells were longtime basketball coaches for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, graduated from Dominican University of California with a bachelor of arts in communications in May 2011 and had been working as a sports reporter for the Marin Independent Journal in Northern California, where he covered college, prep and youth sports and designed pages, before arriving on campus in Eagle Rock.

In his first season at Oxy, Wells incorporated multimedia components into Oxy's athletic coverage, including highlight packages of sporting events and one-on-one interviews with athletes and coaches. He became the Chair of the SCIAC Sports Information Directors Committee less than one month after taking the job and served on the Occidental College Athletics Hall of Fame steering and voting committees. He hosted Oxy's annual Senior Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet and served as an outside contractor for multimedia at the 2012 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championships.

Wells is a regular contributor to the Occidental College Alumni Magazine, writing feature stories on current and former Oxy athletes and coaches.

His college experience at Dominican was a well-rounded one.

As a four-year letter winner on the men's basketball team, Wells was named the Cal Pac Conference Freshman of the Year Award in 2007-08 and the Penguins' captain during his senior season in 2010-11.

Off of the court he wore several journalism and leadership hats.

He helped pioneer an effort to start ducnews.com, a student run news website, and served as the site's managing editor while holding a position as the managing editor for the campus newspaper, The Habit. He also hosted sports talk radio shows on the school's campus radio station, worked in Dominican's sports information office and broadcasted women's basketball, women's volleyball and men's and women's soccer games.

When the San Rafael university hosted one of the 2010 California Gubernatorial Debates, Wells worked for NBC Universal as an assistant to the executive producer.

Wells served as the chair of both the PacWest Conference and Dominican Student-Athlete Advisory Committees. In 2010, he led the Penguins student-athletes to a PacWest Conference Community Engagement Award after spearheading several successful fundraisers that rallied enthusiasm in the campus and Marin communities while raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Wells is an active member of College Sports Information Directors of America and the Society of Professional Journalists.

He lives in Burbank with his older brother John.

Jason Weatherall is a native of Gardena, CA, where he still resides. He attended Westchester and Wilmington Banning high schools and graduated from Banning in 2002. While in high school, Jason was a three-sport athlete competing in basketball, football, and track & field. He accepted a track scholarship to California State University at Los Angeles. He received his B.A. in Television, Film and Media Studies from Cal State LA in 2008. As an athlete, Jason received numerous awards and recognitions and was part of an exceptional group of track athletes that had the opportunity to compete for an NCAA title and later take their chance at making push to make the Olympic trials.

As a student-athlete, Jason became part of Cal State LA's Student Athletic Advisory Committee, in which, he was given the opportunity to give back to the campus and surrounding communities through programs geared toward education, health, and sports awareness. While still attending Cal State LA, Jason was bitten by the "coaching bug" and began coaching and working summer sports programs at Cal State for the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP). He worked with NYSP for 3 years from 2004-2007. He later coached a middle school team at Lou Costello Park in East LA for 2 years from 2007-2008. Following coaching at Lou Costello Park, Jason decided to take on the challenge of coaching in high school.

In 2008, Jason was hired as Maranatha High School’s Head Boys Freshmen Basketball coach. Following a successful season, Jason took an opportunity to become Head JV coach at Maranatha. Three league championships and a single second place finish later, he currently holds the same position.

Jason currently is employed as a teacher aide at Health Services Academy, a Charter High School in South LA. He comes to Occidental having worked as a counselor under Occidental Head Basketball Coaches Brian Newhall and Anahit Aladzhanyan over the last four years and demonstrating detail-oriented organizational skills.