The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vice President and Director of Athletics
Chasse Conque announced the hiring of
Kahil Fennell (pronounced kuh-HILL fuh-NELL), who spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at BYU, as the new head men’s basketball coach on April 5, 2024.
Fennell raised the bar in his second season guiding the program a 19-win season giving him 35 wins through his first two seasons, which is tied for the second most in program history. The 18 regular season wins is tied for most for the program since 2002 as he was named a Ben Jobe Award Finalist.
Fennell led the program to a program record 14 conference wins, including a program record eight-game conference winning streak, en route to earning the No. 3 seed in the Southland Conference Tournament.
Fennell guided Koree Cotton to First Team All-Conference and All-Defensive Team honors while also guiding Filip Brankovic to Second Team All-Conference honors.
Fennell saw the program reach a 115 KenPom ranking, the highest in program history. Fennell also saw the program record a 3.19 team GPA, which is the highest for the program in over 10 years.
In his first season with UTRGV, Fennell led the program to their first winning season since 2018, tying the program’s record for most wins in a coach’s first season. The 16 wins was a 10-win improvement from 2023-24, which was tied for the 10
th best improvement in the NCAA.
Fennell was a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award, which is awarded to the top first-time head coach in Division I college basketball, as the Vaqueros led the Southland Conference in scoring (76.7), three-pointers made (10.6 per game), defensive rebounds (25.8 per game), and assists (17.2 per game).
Fennell saw the Vaqueros set a program record with 328 three-pointers made while seeing a program single game record 24 three-pointers made against College of Biblical Studies.
Fennell helped lead BYU to 23 wins this past season, their first in the Big 12, including four wins over ranked teams. BYU made the NCAA Tournament this season after being ranked in 14 of 15 AP polls, which is the most for the Cougars since 2010-11, and the program ranked No. 16 in the KenPom rankings with the No. 9 ranked offense.
In his first season with BYU, Fennell helped lead the program to 19 wins and a spot in the West Coast Conference Tournament Championship Game. Throughout his tenure, Fennell was the player development and defensive coordinators while working with the wing position group.
Prior to his tenure at BYU, Fennell spent four seasons at Louisville (2018-22), where he started as the Cardinals’ Director of Basketball Operations before being promoted to assistant coach in 2021-22.
Fennell was part of a staff that went 70-47, including a 24-7 record to finish second in the ACC in 2019-20, and a 20-14 season that was capped by an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018-19.
Prior to joining the staff at Louisville, Fennell spent one season (2017-18) as an assistant coach at Portland State, where he helped the Vikings to a 20-14 record, their most in 10 years and third most in 22 years in the Big Sky Conference. Fennell helped guide the Vikings to a program record 10 road wins en route to a CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament berth.
Fennell started his collegiate coaching career at UT Permian Basin (UTPB) serving as an assistant coach in 2015-16 before being promoted to associate head coach in 2016-17.
Fennell helped guide the Falcons to conference regular season and tournament championships in 2016-17, setting a program record with 26 wins. Fennell also helped UTPB lead the nation in rebounding while ranking 12
th in scoring.
Fennell started his coaching career as a junior varsity coach and an assistant varsity coach at Alameda (Ca.) High School in 2014-15.
Fennell’s playing career started at Thousand Oaks (Ca.) High School, where he earned all-league honors and served as team captain. Fennell played one season at Penn State New Kensington, where he earned Academic All-State honors. He then transferred to the University of the Redlands for his final three seasons, serving as team captain as a senior.
Fennell earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Redlands in 2004.
Fennell and his wife, Sarah, who played basketball at Dayton, have two sons, Ezra (10) and Koa (9).
