Scott Waterman joined the Lobo basketball staff in August of 2025 as Special Assistant to the Head Coach. He came to UNM after six seasons as the head coach of Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he is the school’s all-time winningest coach.
Waterman built Academy of Art into a Division II power over the past six seasons, winning at least 19 games in each of the past four seasons, including the school’s first two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2022 and 2023. The Urban Knights won the 2022 PacWest Tournament and the 2024 PacWest regular season title, as Waterman was the conference’s 2024 Coach of the Year. In 2021-22, Art U posted a 79-60 win at UC Davis for the program’s first victory over a Division I opponent. He posted a 96-71 record over his six-year tenure before the school discontinued intercollegiate athletics after the 2024-25 season.
Prior to becoming the head coach at Academy of Art, Waterman was the Associate Head Coach at Division II Dominican University of California for two seasons from 2017-19. He served as Director of Operations at Dartmouth in 2016-17 after three seasons as Associate Head Coach at Division III Pomona-Pitzer College. From 2007-13, Waterman was on the staff as Cal State Fullerton, first as Director of Operations before five seasons as an assistant coach. He started his coaching career in 2002-03 as a graduate assistant at Long Beach State before working his way up to an assistant coach with the 49ers in 2006-07.
A native of Lake Forest. Calif., Waterman earned a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from Occidental College in 2002, where he played for the Tigers. He earned a master’s degree in Kinesiology from Long Beach State in 2004.