Boise State director of basketball operations John Rillie has been promoted to the position of assistant coach, the school will announce later Wednesday.

Rillie replaces Shaun Vandiver, who left earlier this year to become the head coach at Emporia State in Kansas.

Coach Leon Rice also has hired Chris Cobbina as the program's new director of basketball operations. Cobbina spent two seasons as a graduate assistant on the staff at Ohio University and coached at a Maryland high school last season.

Rice was happy to finalize his coaching staff as it headed out for the July evaluation period.

"John did a terrific job for us last year and we were fortunate to be able to move him up," Rice said. "And Chris has been a Division I director of operations and he's got a great future in college basketball."

Before joining the Boise State staff in 2010, Rillie was playing and coaching basketball in Australia, his native country. He began his coaching career in 2009, working in the Townsville Junior Basketball Association. In 2010 he was an assistant coach for both the Townsville Heat/Lightning U16 and North Queensland U16 teams. Rillie played collegiate basketball for Gonzaga for three seasons, where he helped lead the Bulldogs to the first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history in 1995 and a National Invitation Tournament berth in 1994. His playing career began at Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Wash., where he played one season (1991-92) before transferring to Gonzaga. Following the completion of his collegiate career, Rillie spent 16 years playing professional basketball internationally. From 1997-2004 Rillie was also a member of the Australian National Team, which he represented in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

For more on this story, read Thursday's Idaho Statesman.