Craig Doty completed his sixth season as head men’s basketball coach at Emporia State University in 2023-24. Doty led the Hornets to their best season in NCAA program history in 2022-23 highlighted by an NCAA tournament selection and a first round NCAA tournament win, the first in program history.

Doty, a three-time National Champion and three-time National Coach of the Year, led Emporia State to their first back-to-back 20+ win seasons in 32 years and their only since moving NCAA Division II in 1990. In 2023-24, the Hornets won 19 games which included a 14-3 record at White Auditorium and a sweep of Washburn in the Turnpike Tussle, which is Emporia State’s fourth consecutive win over their rival school. Doty’s Hornets were ranked as high as #15 in the NABC NCAA Division II National Poll after starting the season with a 9-1 record.

Doty was introduced as the head men’s basketball coach at Emporia State University on April 27, 2018. Through twelve seasons as a college head coach, Doty has won two NJCAA National Championships and one NAIA National Championship. Doty has a 259-126 head coaching record while his teams are 31-10 in post-season play.

In six seasons leading Emporia State, Doty has coached 16 All-MIAA selections and Emporia State’s first All-American since 2003, Tray Buchanan. Doty’s team broke the school-record for MIAA wins in a season with 15 in 2021-22 and then matched the mark again in 2022-23 while breaking ESU’s NCAA program-record for wins with 23. Along the way, eleven of Doty’s ESU players have inked pro contracts.

Known as a program-builder, Doty improved the Emporia State program from an inherited 9-19 record (4-15 MIAA) to a 23-9 record (15-7 MIAA) in 2022-23. In each of the past four seasons, Doty’s teams have appeared in the national polls receiving votes for multiple weeks each season while being ranked in the top 25 for six weeks in 2022-23 and as high as #15 in 2023-24. Under Doty’s tutelage, the Hornets have defeated six nationally ranked opponents:
• March 11, 2023 NCAA Tournament: Emporia State 72, #18 Northern State 51 (Neutral Site)
• December 17, 2022 at home: Emporia State 74, #1 Northwest Missouri State 65
• February 8, 2022 at home: Emporia State 75, #2 Northwest Missouri State 56 
• February 21, 2022 on road: Emporia State 76, #7 Northwest Missouri State 75 
• January 23, 2021 at home: Emporia State 91, #7 Washburn 74 
• November 9, 2018 on road: Emporia State 83, #20 Southwest Minnesota State 74   

Off the floor, the men’s basketball program has been just as impressive. Doty’s Hornets won the Community Service National Championship in 2022 finishing first in the NCAA Division II Helper-Helper standings among the nearly 300 member schools. Doty has changed the academic profile of the program moving the team GPA up an entire grade point average since his arrival. In the fall of 2023, the Hornets boasted the best men’s basketball academic semester since ESU began recording team GPA’s with a 3.23 team GPA. The program has been consistently at or above the 3.0 mark on a semester-by-semester basis.

Prior to his arrival in Emporia, Doty led Graceland University to national prominence. In just two seasons at Graceland, Doty’s program had a 49-22 record and won the 2018 NAIA Division I National Championship in the school's first trip to the national tournament at Kansas City's historic Municipal Auditorium. Along the way Doty earned NAIA National Coach of the Year, HoopDirt.com NAIA National Coach of the Year, and the 2018 Don Meyer Award. Upon winning the 2018 national championship, Doty had led his teams to the National Championship game four out of the previous five seasons.

Doty began his head coaching career as the head men's basketball coach at Rock Valley College. In his four years he built a national powerhouse. When Doty took over the program in 2012, Rock Valley was ranked last in Region IV preseason poll.  Over the next four years, Doty would lead the Golden Eagles to four consecutive national tournaments including three straight national title games. Rock Valley was crowed National Champions in 2014 and in 2016, the first and second national championships in the 50-year program history.

Doty compiled a 113-28 record (.801) at Rock Valley. Doty's program shattered the school record for wins in 2013-14 posting a 30-5 record while re-breaking that record the next two seasons going 31-4 and 33-3, respectively. Doty led the Golden Eagles to the #1 ranking in the country for the first time in program history on October 27th, 2014 and his program held on to the #1 ranking for the rest of Doty’s tenure at RVC which included 24 consecutive national polls over 729 consecutive days.

Prior to Rock Valley College, Doty served as an Assistant Men's Basketball Coach at University of Sioux Falls (NCAA Division II) in South Dakota.  In 2011-12, Doty was an Assistant Men's Basketball Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Riverland Community College (NJCAA Division III) in Minnesota.

In the summer of 2010, Doty was hired as the full-time Assistant Men's Basketball Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at Central Wyoming College (NJCAA Division I). Following the season, Doty served as Interim Head Men's Basketball Coach for two months at CWC. Doty received nine commitments and recruited a roster that would go on to achieve a 20-11 record the following season.

A native of Alcester, South Dakota, Doty came to Central Wyoming after serving as a volunteer Assistant Coach at his Alma Mater Morningside College (NAIA) in Sioux City, Iowa. During Doty's tenure with the program as a player and a coach, the Mustangs had a 56-37 record, made the Sweet Sixteen of the NAIA DII National Tournament, held a National Ranking of #10 in the country, and won a Great Plains Athletic Conference title.

Doty is a graduate of Alcester-Hudson High School. In his senior season, Doty set the school record for points per game in a season with an average of 25.5. His junior season, Doty led his squad to a 17-4 record and a number four ranking in the state of South Dakota.

Doty and his wife, Alexys, reside in Emporia with their four children – sons Braylon and Calvin and daughters Amery and Sienna. Doty graduated from Morningside University with a Bachelor's Degree in English and a minor in Business Administration. 

Doty Highlights
              Selected to speak at the NABC convention at the 2019 NCAA Division I Final Four in Minneapolis, MN
              3-time National Champion head coach (2014, 2016, 2018)
              3-time National Coach of the Year (2014, 2016, 2018)
              Don Meyer Award Winner (2018)
              HoopDirt.com National Coach of the Year (2016, 2018)
              Paul Maaske Memorial Iowa Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year (2018)
              NJCAA DIII National Runner-up (2015)
              NABC National Coach of the Year for all levels of junior college (2016)
              2-time NJCAA Coaches Association National Coach of the Year (2014, 2016)
              Selected to speak at the NABC convention at the 2017 NCAA Division I Final Four in Phoenix, AZ
              Led Rock Valley to a #1 national ranking for 729 consecutive days
              4x Don Klaas NJCAA Region IV Coach of the Year
              4x Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year
              4x NJCAA District 2 Coach of the Year
              2x Gary S. Cole Coach of the NJCAA DIII National Tournament (2014)
              2x NJCAA Allstar game coach in Las Vegas, NV (2014, 2016)

At Graceland    Overall    HAAC
2017-18    29-10    14-5    
Heart of America Tournament Champion
NAIA D-I National Champion        
2016-17    20-12    16-10
Heart of America Tournament Runner-up    
Total at GU    49-22    30-15    

At Rock Valley College    Overall    N4C
2015-16    33-3    11-3
NJCAA D-III National Champion        
2014-15    31-4    13-1
NJCAA D-III National Runner-Up        
2013-14    30-5    10-5
NJCAA D-III National Champion        
2012-13    19-16    7-7
NJCAA D-III National Elite Eight        
Total at RVC    113-28    41-16    

Overall    259-126    Conference 136-92