August 27, 2008 — Successful Bellevue University men’s basketball coach and Creighton alum Todd Eisner replaces departing Mike Maker on Dana Altman’s bench as an assistant coach at CU.
A Bluejay during one White & Blue Review writer’s formative Creighton basketball years (1986-1991), Eisner twice played on NCAA Tournament qualifiers for Tony Barone. After graduating from Creighton, Eisner spent some time on Rick Johnson’s bench as a coach until Johnson’s tenure as CU head coach ended after the 93-94 season.
From there, Eisner started the arduous ascent through college hoops’ coaching crunch. A year assisting at Eastern Illinois. A few more as the head guy at Viterbo College. But then he came back to the Omaha metro to take over the Bellevue basketball program. It was a perfect fit.
Eisner’s teams won 80% of his games while at BU, including six conference championships and two national runner-up designations (2004 and 2008). According to an article by Steve Pivovar in the Omaha World-Herald, he was willing to give up that successful stint for a job at his alma mater.
“I’ve always said that if I ever got a chance to go back to Creighton,” Eisner said, “I’d crawl back to Creighton.”
When asked about working for Altman, he added:
“I’m excited Coach is giving me this opportunity. I look forward to learning from him and working with the other coaches. I’m really having a hard time constraining my excitement. This is a tremendous opportunity.”