Men's Basketball
- Title:
- Director of Basketball Operations
- Email:
- steelet@xavier.edu
- Phone:
- 513.745.3417
STEELE TENURE ENDS FOR XAVIER MEN’S BASKETBALL
Xavier University Athletics and Head Men’s Basketball Coach Coach Travis Steele mutually agreed to part ways on March 16, 2022. Steele finished 70-50 overall in four seasons as the head coach, including two NIT berths. Steele spent 14 seasons on the basketball staff at Xavier.
In his debut season, Steele led XU to the second round of the 2019 National Invitation Tournament where it lost in overtime at Texas, the eventual NIT Champion. Steele was a finalist for the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top first-year head coach in Division I. Steele, who finished 19-16 in his first season as the Xavier head coach, led XU to eight wins in its last 11 games. All of the opponents for those 11 games were in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT fields, including seven road and neutral site games.
AT XAVIER
Steele was named the Sedler Family Men’s Head Basketball Coach at Xavier on Saturday, March 31, 2018. Steele spent the previous 10 seasons at Xavier, including nine on the staff of his predecessor, Chris Mack. Steele was the 18th head coach in Xavier basketball history.
Steele was a part of nine NCAA Tournament teams at Xavier, including five teams that reached at least the Sweet 16. The 2017-18 team won XU’s first BIG EAST Regular Season Championship, a school-record final AP ranking of No. 3 and the first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed in school history.
Then-Xavier head coach Sean Miller hired Steele prior to the 2008-09 season as Xavier’s Director of Basketball Operations. Mack promoted Steele to assistant coach after he took over the program prior to the 2009-10 season. Steele was promoted to Associate Head Coach following the 2015-16 season.
BEFORE COMING TO XAVIER
Prior to Xavier, Steele worked on the staff at Indiana. He joined the Hoosiers in August of 2006, taking on the duties of the video coordinator. After serving as the video coordinator for a season and a half while at IU, he was promoted to the position of assistant coach in February of 2008.
Prior to his time with the Hoosiers, Steele served as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Wabash Valley College (2005-06) and spent a year with the Ohio State basketball program as a graduate manager (2004-05) under former XU head coach Thad Matta.
From 2001-06, Steele was a coach for the Spiece/Indiana Adidas Elite AAU Basketball program. Steele also was an assistant varsity coach at Ben Davis High School while attending Butler University from 2001-04.
FAMILY
Steele, the brother of former XU assistant and current Akron head coach John Groce, was born Nov. 12, 1981 in Danville, Indiana. He and his wife Amanda reside in Cincinnati with their six-year-old son, Winston, and their son Anderson Michael, who arrived on September 30, 2019.
Steele graduated cum laude from Butler in May of 2004, earning a bachelor of science degree in marketing.
