Joe O'Brien enters his second season at the helm of the Idaho State University basketball program, and it took him just one season to put his stamp on the program, guiding the Bengals to an 8-8 conference finish and their first conference tournament berth since the 2003-04 season.

O'Brien, one of only three coaches to ever win three Junior College National Championships was named the 20th head coach in Idaho State's rich basketball history at a press conference in the Little Wood River Room of the Pond Student Union Building on March 22, 2006.

In his first season, his fiery on-court presence inspired a short-handed team to battle eight NCAA Tournament teams on the way to a deceiving 13-17 record. The Bengals faced the likes of Oregon, Texas A&M, and others, including road overtime losses to #13 Marquette and Brigham Young. At one point, Idaho State's RPI was a lofty 82 as the Bengals had the country's seventh toughest non-conference schedule.

Idaho State also won their first five conference games before several heartbreaking setbacks hurt their title chances. Still, O'Brien presided over a pair of All-Big Sky selections in David Schroeder (First Team) and Akbar Abdul-Ahad (Honorable Mention), and he led the Bengals to a tie for fifth place, where the Bengals eventually lost in overtime at Montana in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

A veteran of 22 seasons of collegiate basketball, including 13 as the head coach at a pair of NJCAA institutions, O'Brien carries with him a tremendous background to Idaho State. One of the JC ranks' most successful coaches, O'Brien owns a career head JC coaching mark of 313-117, a .728 winning percentage.

He earned his first collegiate head coaching job at Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois, where he led the Lynx to four straight 20-win seasons, including a 25-6 mark in 1993-94. While at Lincoln, O'Brien amassed a 100-53 record over his five seasons, before taking over at Southeastern Community College in 1996, where he led the BlackHawks to unprecendented success. During his eight seasons at SCC, O'Brien had eight winning seasons, including four 20-win seasons, and three other 30-win seasons.

In 1999-2000, the BlackHawks went 32-4 in winning their first NJCAA national championship. The following two seasons saw the BlackHawks go 25-8 and 25-10 with a Region XI Championship. In 2002-03 and 2003-04, the BlackHawks won back-to-back national titles, going 37-1 in 02-03, and 32-4 in 03-04. In his eight seasons with SCC, the BlackHawks went 213-64. With his third title, O'Brien joined Ronnie Arrow and Allen Bradfield as the only coaches with three national titles at that level. Overall, O'Brien is one of only 11 people to have three national titles either at the JC or the NCAA level.

O'Brien, 52, got his start in coaching at the collegiate level in 1982-83, when he spent the first of two seasons at Southeastern Louisiana University. He then served as an assistant coach at Central Missouri State for five years, helping CMS to three 20-win seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances before moving on to Lincoln College. O'Brien spent the 2004-05 season as an assistant at Florida International, helping the Golden Panthers to go from 13-43 over the previous two seasons to a 13-17 mark, FIU's best record in the previous six seasons.

O'Brien has earned six national Coach of the Year honors, two each in 2000, 2003, and 2004, plus three District XI Coach of the Year honors. Joe has also spent time in the prep ranks as an assistant coach at Jonesboro-Hodge and Natchitoches High Schools in Louisiana, and as the head coach at Episcopal High School for one season, 1981-82.

O'Brien was a four-year letterman at Monmouth College in Illinois, where he served as a captain as a senior, and helped Monmouth make the NCAA tournament as a freshman. He graduated in 1977 from Monmouth with a B.A. in Physical Education/Biology, and he earned his Master's from Northwestern State in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation.

Joe and his wife Amy have been married for 23 years, and they have three children, Erik, Cory, and Kellie.