Joe Golding, who spent 10 years building Abilene Christian into a Southland Conference basketball power, is expected to fill the Miners' coaching vacancy as the 20th coach in program history. The news was first tweeted out by Coaching Changes on Twitter. Jeff Goodman of Stadium later confirmed the news.

Per BCH Sports in Abilene Christian, the program is making a last-ditch effort to match UTEP's offer. Either way, the Miners will be in a situation where they will need to buyout Golding from ACU for $250,000, according to KTSM's Colin Deaver.

Golding was among the five finalists for the UTEP head coaching job, along with NM State head coach Chris Jans, Baylor assistant coach Jerome Tang, Arkansas associate head coach David Patrick and Nebraska Special to the Assistant coach Doc Sadler. Director of Athletics Jim Senter, University President Heather Wilson and the internal committee interviewed the finalists in Dallas on Sunday and Monday, sources told 600 ESPN El Paso.

When the Texas Tech opening came up after Chris Beard left for Texas, Golding was a finalist for the Red Raiders coaching position. He's a rising coach among the mid-major ranks.

His roots run deep in West Texas and he was successful at Abilene Christian as both a player and a head coach. He has posted a 158-144 (.523) overall record as a head coach and he is 1-2 in the NCAA Tournament.

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Golding, 45, first started as the head coach at ACU in 2011 when Abilene Christian was playing in the Lone Star Conference at the Division II level. Amid their transition from Division II to Division I, which included a four-year NCAA postseason ban, Golding was tasked to build the program from the ground up. From 2011-17, Golding's teams definitely struggled, posting a 71-105 overall record and finished seventh or worse in their conference.

The turnaround job that Golding did was the most exceptional part of his coaching career thus far. ACU went 87-39 over the course of the following four seasons, including three 20-plus winning seasons, two trips to the NCAA Tournament and a CIT appearance.

Most recently, Golding and the Wildcats are coming off a huge upset victory over the Texas Longhorns in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Off the court, the WIldcats were great in the classroom and the community, having a 3.0 cumulative GPA in the classroom since 2013-14 and having done countless community service activities.

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Joe Golding Division I Coaching Record

Season	School	Conf	G	W	L	W-L%	SRS	SOS	Notes
2013-14	Abilene Christian	Southland	31	11	20	.355	-19.60	-4.12
2014-15	Abilene Christian	Southland	31	10	21	.323	-17.20	-6.34
2015-16	Abilene Christian	Southland	31	13	18	.419	-13.93	-7.53
2016-17	Abilene Christian	Southland	29	13	16	.448	-11.86	-7.10
2017-18	Abilene Christian	Southland	32	16	16	.500	-9.14	-6.82
2018-19	Abilene Christian	Southland	34	27	7	.794	-1.91	-7.34	Conf. Tournament Champion; NCAA Tournament
2019-20	Abilene Christian	Southland	31	20	11	.645	-2.87	-6.87
2020-21	Abilene Christian	Southland	29	24	5	.828	6.27	-6.37	Conf. Tournament Champion; NCAA Tournament
Career	Abilene Christian		248	134	114	.540	-8.78	-6.56

Prior to returning to his alma mater, Golding was apart of Steve Shields' staff at Arkansas-Little Rock, and helped the Trojans reach the NCAA Tournament. He was a top recruiting coach for Shields' staff.

As a player for ACU from 1994-98, Golding played in all 108 games for his college career and was a point guard. He shot 46 percent from the floor and averaged 4.3 points and 4.2 assists per game. Golding and his wife, Amanda, have two sons—Cason and Chase.

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