Former Minnesota State Moorhead Associate Head Coach Spenser Bland followed former MSUM head coach Tim Bergstraser to Denver, officially accepting his role on April 24, 2025, and completing his first season with the program in 2025-26.
2025-26 (15-17, 8-8 Summit League – NET: 241):
In his first season with the program, the Pioneers won five of their final seven games to finish 15-17 and 8-8 in the Summit League to tie for fourth place in the league standings. The finish was the program’s best in the league in eight seasons. Denver’s finish to the regular season was ignited by a sweep in Denver’s final Summit League trip to the state of North Dakota, the Pioneers first away sweep of the Fighting Hawks and Bison in program history.
Denver opened the season with the 32nd most difficult non-conference schedule in the country, and went 7-8, including road wins at Montana State, Colorado State and Northern Colorado, a trio of teams that went 34-7 against other opponents at home in 2025-26. Denver’s 2-0 record against in-state foes made Denver the only unbeaten team in the state against in-state competition this season.
Under the direction of Bland as the program’s offensive coordinator, Denver produced one of its best offensive years in its entire history of top-flight basketball, finishing second in scoring (2,650 points), third in field goals made (927), second in three-pointers made (283), seventh in free-throws made (513) and breaking the school record in free-throw percentage (77.3%). Denver turned out two scoring outputs in the top-5 of Denver's scoring chart against DI opponents in the modern era, scoring 98 against both Oral Roberts and at North Dakota.
Bland helped coach fellow MSUM transfer Carson Johnson, who was named the 2025-26 Summit League Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, the first conference player of the year since 2005.
MINNESOTA STATE MOORHEAD:
Bergstraser and Bland coached together on the MSU Moorhead staff in six of the previous seven seasons, including all three years of Bergstraser’s head coaching tenure. Bland completed his second season as the associate head coach for the Dragons in 2024-25. Over the last three seasons Bergstraser and Bland helped guide the Dragons to a 75-22 record (.773%), ranking amongst the highest winning percentages over that time-span in the NCAA across all levels.
2024-25:
Bland and the Dragons went 25-9 last season, winning their second conference tournament title in three years and reaching the NCAA Round of 16 before having their 13-game winning streak snapped in the NCAA Central Regional Final.
Â
2023-24:
The Dragons were ranked as high as No. 1 in the country for the first time in program history and qualified for an at-large bid for the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Bland played an important role in the on-court growth of four student-athletes that earned All-NSIC honors in the 2023-24 campaign.
2022-23:
Bland’s offense led the entire NCAA in turnovers per game, only surrendering possession 8.2 times per contest.
BLAND’S OTHER COACHING STOPS:
Bland’s year in-between his two stints at MSU Moorhead saw the Bethel University graduate spend a season as the top assistant at the University of Sioux Falls. In his only year at USF he helped guide the Cougars to a win over the top ranked team in the country and eventual national champions, Northwest Missouri State. Bland helped coach Matt Cartwright to All-NSIC honors, who finished second in the league in scoring with 19.0 points per game.
In Bland’s first stint as the Dragons assistant from 2018-21, MSUM went 49-29 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament in the 2020-21 campaign. Bland’s focus on the Moorhead offense saw the Dragons finish with the top scoring offense in the NSIC in two of his first three seasons with the program.
Prior to arriving for his initial role at MSU Moorhead in 2018, Bland was a part of the adidas AAU program D1 Minnesota where he guided his team to the coveted adidas Gauntlet Finale in New York City in the summer of 2018. In three years with the AAU program, Bland mentored over 20 high school student-athletes that went on to earn a scholarship to play at the NCAA DI level. That group included McDonald’s All-Americans Matthew Hurt (2019) and Dawson Garcia (2020) and four future NBA players in Hurt (Houston Rockets), Jamison Battle (Toronto Raptors), Tyrell Terry (Memphis Grizzlies) and Zeke Nnaji (Denver Nuggets).
Bland and his wife Shannon have a son named Boston.
Â
He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in media communications from Bethel University in 2017, and two years later earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from MSUM.Â
Bland’s Coaching Career:
2025-Present – Associate Head Coach – University of Denver
2023-25 - Associate Head Coach - Minnesota State MoorheadÂ
2022-23 – Assistant Coach – Minnesota State Moorhead
2021-22 - Assistant Coach – University of Sioux FallsÂ
2018-21 – Assistant Coach - Minnesota State Moorhead
Postseason Accolades:
4X NCAA Tournaments (2021, 2023, 2024, 2025)
NCAA DII Sweet Sixteen (2025)
2X NSIC Tournament Championships (2023, 2025)
Â
Â
