CLU’s Dunlap to Coach in Australian Pro League

Mike Dunlap, men’s basketball coach at Cal Lutheran for the past four seasons, will resign after the upcoming season to become coach of the Adelaide 36ers of the National Basketball League in Australia.

Dunlap, 36, agreed to a five-year contract with the 36ers, one of 14 professional teams in the NBL. The NBL season lasts from April to November and competes under international basketball rules. Dunlap spent the past five years as a consultant to several NBL teams, including the Melbourne Magic and North Melbourne Giants.

“It’s an opportunity to coach at the next level,” Dunlap said. “It’s an upper Division I (college) level of play. That sport is really blowing up down there. (Australians) are really taking to it and all that goes along with it.”

Dunlap led Cal Lutheran to a 55-52 record, including a 20-7 mark last season and a share of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship. Cal Lutheran finished the season ranked ninth in NCAA Division III.

In 1991-92, Dunlap led the Kingsmen to an SCIAC championship with an 11-3 record (16-12 overall). Cal Lutheran was 5-21 in Dunlap’s first season, 1989-90.

“Mike Dunlap did an outstanding job in building the basketball program into a championship program,” said Robert Doering, Cal Lutheran’s director of athletics. “Mike is very knowledgeable, an excellent recruiter and has a strong work ethic. . . . He will be successful as a professional basketball coach in Australia.”

Before joining Cal Lutheran, Dunlap served for three years as an assistant to USC men’s Coach George Raveling. Dunlap graduated from Loyola Marymount in 1979--he played two seasons at guard for the Lions--then served as an assistant at LMU for five years. Dunlap played two years at Pierce College before transferring to Loyola.

A replacement is not expected to be selected until March, the athletic department said.

Dunlap, a native of Fairbanks, Alaska, where he was an all-state guard for Lathrop High, said he is excited by the prospect of living in Australia.

“I think it’s a place my family will enjoy,” he said. “It’s not like I’m going over there cold. I’ve spent five years learning the culture.”