Buena Vista University Men's Basketball

Jeff Horner was hired on May 6, 2025 as the new head men's basketball coach at Buena Vista University. Horner arrives at Buena Vista after having served as head coach at DII Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., for the last seven seasons. During that time, he compiled an overall record of 121-78 which included an 86-50 mark within the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC). He captured a pair of regular season conference titles (2019-20 & 2020-21), won the GLVC Tournament in 2019-20, and was named GLVC Coach of the Year in both 2021 and 2024. Horner also led the Bulldogs to the NCAA DII National Tournament three times, advancing to the Elite 8 in 2020-21, and was named the NABC District Coach of the Year in 2021. A native of Mason City, Iowa, Horner returns to the state of Iowa where he was named the state’s Mr. Basketball in 2002 before he went on to shine as the starting point guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes (2002-06). With the Hawkeyes, he was named team MVP from 2004-06, was a two-time All-Big Ten Third Team selection and named the MVP of the BIG Ten Tournament in 2006. Following a brief professional career, Horner then got into the coaching ranks as an assistant coach in 2009-10 at Grand View University in Des Moines. In his lone season with the Vikings, he was part of a program that went 25-9 and won the Midwest Collegiate Conference crown while also qualifying for the DII NAIA National Tournament. For the next four years, Horner was the head boys’ basketball coach at West Des Moines Valley and chalked up a 70-27 record, won two conference titles, made a pair of state tournament appearances and finished as state runner-up in 2013-14. He was also a two-time CIML Coach of the Year and coached Peter Jok, who was named Mr. Basketball in 2013. Horner moved onto the collegiate ranks in 2014-15 when he became the director of basketball operations at the University of North Dakota. A year later, he took over as an assistant coach within the program and remained on staff from 2015-18. During his tenure, the Fighting Hawks won a conference regular season and tournament title in 2016-17 and qualified into the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament.

Paul Loos returns for his 12th season at the collegiate ranks in 2025-26 as a member of the BVU men's basketball coaching staff. During his tenure, Loos has been instrumental in working with the post players. Since Loos joined the bench in 2014-15, BVU has captured 147 wins and has five top-three regular season conference finishes.  The team captured a regular season conference title in his first season, going 18-8 overall and 11-3 within conference play. The team has also made a pair of conference tournament championship game appearances in the last four seasons.  Loos arrived on campus after serving as head coach for the Newell-Fonda High School boys basketball team for 24 years.  Prior to his tenure with the Mustangs, he also spent two years as the Fonda boys coach for two years before the schools merged. During his tenure at Newell-Fonda, Loos compiled a career record of 434-192, guided teams to nine state tournaments and captured four state titles (1991, 1997, 1999, 2000). Only three other coaches in the state’s history have won more state titles than Loos – Jim Eekhoff (Hull-Western Christian) and Paul Moon (Davenport) have each won seven while Iowa City West coach Steve Bergman has five. The Mustangs carried a 25-0 mark and a #1 state ranking in Class 1A into the 2014 Iowa State Tournament before suffering their only loss of the year to eventual state champion West Lyon in the first round.   Loos was inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2017.

Ben Clark began as an assistant coach for the Buena Vista men’s basketball team in 2018-19. In addition to his coaching role, he also serves as the Senior Assistant Director of Admissions on campus. Clark is a native of Rockwell City, Iowa, and graduated from Rockwell City-Lytton/South Central Calhoun in 2013 (started whole-grade sharing when he was in high school). Ben's father, Clive Clark, is the longtime head boys’ basketball coach at South Central Calhoun, and entering the 2025-26 season, he has 567 career wins, which is believed to put him top 23rd all-time in the state of Iowa. A 2018 graduate of Simpson College, Clark studied History and Secondary Education. From 2016 to 2018 while he was at Simpson, he was believed to have been the youngest high school varsity head boys’ basketball coach in the state of Iowa at Southeast Warren High School.  

Vince Grier begins his first season as an assistant coach for the Buena Vista men's basketball team.  Grier followed head coach Jeff Horner to campus after serving as an assistant coach for Horner at Truman state in 2024-25. Prior to that, he was a graduate assistant coach at Western Carolina in 2021-22 and also had a stint as an assistant coach at the University of Illinois-Springfield (2017-18). A native of Charlotte, N.C., Grier began his collegiate basketball career at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (2002-03) and Dixie State Junior College (2003-04) before closing out his career at the University of Minnesota (2004-06). For the Golden Gophers, Grier scored over 1,100 points, led the team in scoring twice and also made an NCAA Tournament berth. He was a 2005 All-Big Ten First Team selection by the Coaches and a Second Team selection by the Media. Following his collegiate career, Grier signed with the Miami Heat in 2006 as an undrafted free agent. He would go on to spend the majority of his professional career (2006-14) playing overseas.