Boudreau named WIU interim basketball coach with Jeter leaving for Southern Utah

MACOMB, Ill. — Chad Boudreau is getting the chance to prove he deserves an NCAA Division I head coaching position with a live audition.

After news broke Friday that Western Illinois University coach Rob Jeter was finalizing a deal to take over at Southern Utah, Leathernecks athletic director Paul Bubb named Boudreau as the interim head coach. Boudreau spent the past three seasons serving as the associate head coach on Jeter’s staff.

Hired in 2020 to revitalize the WIU program, Jeter led the Leathernecks to a 39-45 record over three seasons with a 21-29 mark in Summit League play. Last season, coming off a postseason appearance in the 2022 TBC, WIU went 16-14 and 9-9 in the Summit.

A veteran coach who was an assistant on five D-I staffs, Jeter owns a 223-215 career record between head coaching stops at Milwaukee and WIU. He will take over a Southern Utah program coming off a 24-13 season in which it reached the semifinals of the CBI.

Former Southern Utah coach Todd Simon left to take over at Bowling Green State University.

A 1995 graduate of Hannibal-LaGrange University, where he played two seasons for the Trojans after transferring from Southeastern Community College, Boudreau has been a lifelong coach. He began his career as a graduate assistant with the women’s basketball program at HLGU.

He joined the staff at Indian Hills Community College in 1995 and helped the Warriors reach the NJCAA Final Four during his six seasons on the bench. Boudreau served on the staff at the University of Milwaukee from 2005-2016, helping lead the Panthers to Horizon League championships in 2006, 2011 and 2014.

Boudreau left Milwaukee to become the head coach at Highland College in Freeport, Ill.

He led the Cougars to three consecutive Arrowhead Conference titles with undefeated conference marks in 2019 and 2020. He earned Arrowhead Conference Coach of the Year honors three times and was named NJCAA Region IV Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2020.