Al Bruehl
Head Coach

2008-2009 will mark Coach Bruehl's twelfth season as the head coach at RMU.  He holds an impressive overall record of 387-118 in fourteen seasons, including 245-72 at Robert Morris.  His Eagle teams have won seven Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championships, compiling a 63-8 won-loss record over the last five seasons while making six national tournament appearances.  The 2001-2002 squad reached the final four and were eventual national championship runners-up.  Bruehl has had 35 players named All-Conference. Last year marks the fifteenth consecutive season that teams under Bruehl's leadership have attained 20 or more wins.  The 2003-2004 Eagles finished the CCAC with a perfect 16-0 record and then swept through the conference tournament, becoming the first undefeated champions in the conference's fifty-four year history.  That achievement was capped by an appearance in the Sweet 16 of the NAIA National Championship Tournament in Kansas City. 

In 2004-2005, Robert Morris repeated as regular season and tournament champions of the CCAC and entered the NAIA National Tournament as the Number 4 seed.  The lightning-quick Eagles thrilled the crowds at Kansas City with an awesome display of three-point shooting and pressure defense that swept Robert Morris into the tournament's final four for the second time in Coach Bruehl's career.  This achievement--and the team's final record of thirty wins against only five losses--was recognized by the Illinois Coaches Association when they honored him with his ninth Coach of the Year award.

Over the past two seasons, the Eagles have earned bids to the NAIA National Tournament.  This past season, the Eagles were once again spectacular.  Despite having no returning players, RMU won both the regular season and CCAC tournament before failing to reach the NAIA Final Four for the first time in three years.  They still advanced to the quarterfinals, giving Coach Bruehl the enviable record of having failed to advance in the Elite Eight of the national tournament but once in six appearances.  Although blessed with great athletes and a talented roster, Coach Bruehl's steadfast commitment to excellence on and off the court sets a tone of high expectations for the RMU Men's Basketball team.  

As a coach, he is dedicated to his players' success on and off the court. Stressing hard work and discipline in the classroom first, Bruehl is determined to lay a solid foundation for the RMU athletic program and the athletes’ futures. "Our players are getting a top-notch education," Coach Bruehl says.  "Everyone at the College, from the folks in admissions to the President himself, is dedicated to the student, first and foremost.  The faculty are ready to do whatever it takes to help get the job done."  Bruehl's dedication to education is not just lip service: During his years as head coach, his basketball team has posted a graduation rate far in excess of the national average for intercollegiate men's basketball.

Bruehl has coached sixteen NAIA All-Americans, three Great Lakes Region MVP's, eight Conference Players of the Year, and the 2001-2002 NAIA National Player of the Year, Bobby Smith. Othyus Jeffers was named Sporting News NAIA Player of the Year in 2008.  Seventeen of his former players are scattered across the globe in various professional leagues, and a number of his former players have begun coaching careers of their own.

A native of Oklahoma, he was recruited by Coach Joe Ramsey--a former Robert Morris coach--to play at the University of Oklahoma.  Just before the tip-off of the 2005-2006 season, Coach Bruehl was inducted into the CCAC Hall of Fame.