Anthony Beane Sr. begins his second season as an assistant coach with the NIU men’s basketball program in 2020-21. Beane came to NIU following seven seasons as an assistant coach at Southern Illinois and brought over 20 years of Division I coaching experience, including 14 in the State of Illinois, with him to DeKalb.
In his first season at NIU, Beane helped the Huskies capture a share of the MAC West Division title, as well as a top-four seed in the conference tournament, giving NIU a first-round tournament bye for the first time since 2006. The Huskies were on target for just their fifth postseason appearance in school history before the year was prematurely ended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
NIU won 11 conference games during the 2019-20 season, its most in 14 seasons, and Huskie senior Eugene German led the MAC in scoring, became NIU’s all-time leading scorer with 2,203 points and became just the eighth player in program history to earn All-America recognition when he was named to the Lou Henson All-America Team. German also earned First Team All-MAC and First Team NABC All-District honors.
Before arriving at NIU, Beane helped Southern Illinois post winning seasons in each of his final four seasons on staff, including a 22-win campaign in 2015-16 and a 20-win season in 2017-18, while also finishing in the top-four in the Missouri Valley Conference in each of those four years.
SIU had nine all-conference honorees during Beane’s seven seasons, along with a pair of players selected to the Missouri Valley Conference’s All-Newcomer Team.
Beane’s first Division I coaching opportunity came at Southeast Missouri State, where he spent three seasons from 1997-2000. During that time, Beane helped SEMO to a pair of 20-win seasons, including a 24-7 mark in 1999-2000 which included Ohio Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships as well as a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Following his time at Southeast Missouri State, Beane had the first of two stints at Illinois State, working under Tom Richardson for a pair of seasons (2000-02), helping the Redbirds reach the NIT during the 2000-01 campaign.
A four-year stretch at Saint Louis followed those two seasons in Bloomington as Beane worked on the staff of Brad Soderberg with the Billikens from 2002-06. Saint Louis appeared in the NIT during both the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.
Beane then returned to Illinois State in 2007, spending five seasons under Tim Jankovich (2007-12) as the Redbirds made four trips to the NIT (2008, ’09, ’10, ’12).
A native of Bernie, Mo., Beane started his collegiate playing career at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo., where he earned All-America honors and led the team to the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship in 1991. Beane finished his collegiate career at Kansas State, playing for current Oregon head coach Dana Altman, where he was named the 1992 Big Eight Conference Newcomer of the Year and was twice an All-Big Eight honoree.
Beane began his coaching career in 1995-96 as an assistant at Allen County Community College in Iola, Kan., and spent the following season at West Plains Community College (now Missouri State-West Plains), helping both teams to 20-win seasons before moving into the Division I ranks at Southeast Missouri State in 1997-98.
Beane and his wife, Katina, have two sons, Anthony Jr., who ranks third all-time in scoring at Southern Illinois, and Darius, a junior on the NIU men's basketball team in 2020-21.
