B.J. Porter is entering his second season as an assistant with the Denver men's basketball program in 2024-25.
AT DENVER:
2023-24 Season
Denver continued to trend up, earning two more wins than the previous season to get to 17-17, all while making a deep March run to the program’s first Summit League Championship Game. The 17 victories were the most by the program since going 22-10 in the 2012-13 Western Athletic Conference regular season championship campaign.
Denver’s March spurt began with an upset of Kansas City in the 7/2 quarterfinal. Isaiah Addo-Ankrah hit a triple with six seconds left and Pedro Lopez Sanvicente delivered the game-saving block as time expired to lead Denver to a 61-60 victory.
A couple of days later, Denver held on to a free-throw shooting contest down the stretch to earn a 66-63 win over sixth-seeded Omaha to reach the program’s first conference final overall since the Sun Belt Conference days of 2005.
Tommy Bruner, who became the first Summit League First Team selection since Joe Rosga in 2018, led the nation in scoring for a majority of the season before finishing second overall with 24.0 points per game. In addition to his postseason Summit League honor, Bruner was a five-time Summit League Peak Performer of the Week and a three-time Summit League Male Athlete of the Month. At the regional level, Bruner earned NABC First Team All-District 12 honors, and was named to both the Oscar Robertson Trophy and All-America Watch List, and the Lou Henson Award Mid-Season Watch List.
Denver broke a couple of losing streaks against Summit League opposition in the campaign, sweeping NDSU in the regular season for the first time since 2018 and defeating South Dakota State for the first time since January of 2017 (11 games).
The Pioneers excelled on the offensive end, averaging 81.0 points per game, which ranked in the top-30 nationally. Denver recorded 16 80+ points games, the program’s most since 1996-97. Denver also had 10 90+ point games (top-10 nationally) while scoring 99 in its South Dakota State win on January 13, Denver’s most in a regulation game against a DI opponent since February 10, 2001 against North Texas.
BEFORE DENVER:
Porter coached four seasons as an assistant coach at Azusa Pacific, the program he played his final two seasons of college basketball for before graduating in 2013. In his first season with the Cougars, APU finished 25-4 and 20-2 in the PacWest, a stretch that included a 20-game winning streak to close out the regular season. In his four years, the Cougars had three 20-win seasons and finished with a 73-29 overall record, including 55-16 in conference play. In his collegiate coaching career as a whole, Porter is 127-94 and 86-43 in league contests.
Before returning to Azusa Pacific, Porter spent the previous two seasons as a women's basketball assistant at Utah Valley (2018-19) and Pepperdine (2017-18).
During the 2016-17 season, Porter was the head men's basketball coach at the University of Antelope Valley (Lancaster, Calif.). In his season in-charge at UAV, he led the Marauder's to their first ever Cal Pac Conference postseason birth. He helped develop an NAIA All-American, a conference defensive player of the year, two first team all-conference selections and one second team all-conference pick. Porter was also at UAV the season before as an assistant.
Porter began his coaching career in 2014-15 as the head girls basketball coach at Layton Christian Academy, a private high school located in Layton, Utah. Porter lead LCA to a regional championship, despite the program only winning two games over the two years prior to his arrival.
Porter played his first two collegiate seasons at the University of Portland and Weber State before transferring to Azusa Pacific for his final two seasons of eligibility. In just two seasons at APU, Porter made 151 three-pointers, which places him seventh all-time in career three-pointers. In his senior season, he averaged 14.7 points per game, leading the Cougars in minutes played and three-pointers made, while also receiving All-PacWest and all-region honors. After his collegiate career, he spent one season playing professionally in Mexico, with the Mineros de Parral.
Porter is married to Katrina (Oviedo), who played four years of softball at Azusa Pacific, and the couple has one daughter, Tatum, and a son, RJ.
