PEORIA, Ill. -- Boasting 31 years of college basketball coaching experience, including nine years as a NCAA Division I head coach, Jim Platt has been hired as an assistant coach on the Bradley Basketball staff, Braves head coach Jim Les announced today.
 
"We are very excited to add someone of Jim's stature to our program and staff," said Les.  "When I began the process of filling this position, I made a list of qualifications with the most important being experience, knowledge, loyalty and energy, and Jim fulfills those and then some."
 
In his 22 years as an assistant coach, Platt has helped his teams to 12 postseason tournament appearances, including 10 NCAA Tournaments and two NIT's.
 
A native of Aurora, Ill., and a 1973 graduate of Concordia (Ill.) University, Platt, 59, comes to Bradley from the United States Military Academy, where he has served as an assistant coach since 2005.  Platt was primarily responsible for the team's defensive scheme at Army and the Black Knights have ranked among the nation's top 30 in scoring defense each of the last two seasons, checking in at 26th in 2009-10 at 61.0 points allowed per game and 29th in 2008-09 at 60.8 points allowed per game.  During the 2007-08 season, Army set a program single-season record by recording 259 steals and ranked 29th nationally by averaging 8.63 steals per game.
 
Platt boasts plenty of knowledge of Bradley Basketball, having been on the sidelines for 17 games against the Braves as an assistant coach at Tulsa (1995-97), DePaul (1984-90) and Illinois State (1978-84), helping those teams to an 11-6 record against Bradley.  Notably, he was on the Illinois State staff when the Redbirds knocked off Bradley in double-overtime in the semifinals of the 1982 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in the final season at Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse and he was in his final season on the Redbirds staff when Les began his Bradley career during the 1983-84 season.  Platt also was a staff partner of former Braves head coach Jim Molinari for five seasons (1984-89) at DePaul.
 
"I am excited and appreciative of the opportunity to become a part of Jim Les' staff at Bradley University," said Platt.  "Being from the state of Illinois, I have always been aware of the quality of Bradley University and the strong tradition of Bradley Basketball.  I am enthused to be a part of this outstanding institution and basketball program.

"Personally, I am very impressed with Coach Les, the Bradley players and those closely associated with the program," added Platt.  "This is a great fit for us. To represent Bradley University, compete in the Missouri Valley Conference and return to my Midwest roots excites me.  I am thankful and look forward to the opportunity.  It is a great day to be a Bradley Brave."
 
Platt left DePaul in 1990 for his first head coaching position at Arkansas-Little Rock, where he directed the Trojans to a 56-59 record in four seasons.  He joined Steve Robinson's Tulsa staff in 1995 and helped the Golden Hurricane to consecutive NCAA Tournament  appearances, once as the Missouri Valley Conference automatic qualifier in 1996 after knocking off Bradley in the MVC Tournament championship game. 
 
After following Robinson to Florida State in 1997, where he worked for three more years as an assistant, Platt began his second stint as a NCAA Division I head coach at Charleston Southern in 2000.  The 2000-01 Big South Conference Coach of the Year, Platt finished with a 55-89 record in his five years with the Bucs.
 
A member of the Concordia University Athletics Hall of Fame as an eight-time letterwinner in basketball and baseball, Platt began his coaching career in 1973 with a five-year stint as the boys basketball head coach at Luther North High School in the Chicago area.
 
Platt and his wife of 37 years, Cheryl, have three children -- son Jeff, who joined the Army coaching staff last summer, and daughters Jessica and Jamie - and one granddaughter (Addysen).