David Gregory Bliss (born September 20, 1943) is an American basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at University of Oklahoma, Southern Methodist University, the University of New Mexico, Baylor University, and Southwestern Christian University, an NAIA school in Bethany, Oklahoma. Bliss resigned from Baylor in 2003 following internal and NCAA investigations into a number of circumstances surrounding the murder of Baylor player Patrick Dennehy by teammate Carlton Dotson. These included the alleged involvement of Bliss in making illicit tuition payments for players Dennehy and Corey Herring, and his attempt to frame Dennehy posthumously as a drug dealer in order to provide cover for himself; in 2005, the NCAA issued Bliss a 10-year "show-cause" notice. Education Bliss was born and raised in Binghamton, New York and graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1961. He graduated from Cornell University in 1965 where he was elected to the Sphinx Head Society. He then earned an MBA from Cornell in 1967. He was an all-Ivy League guard at Cornell, was captain of the baseball team, and was named to the first team Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League in 1965. Bliss was inducted to Cornell's athletic Hall of Fame in 1984. Coaching background Bliss began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Army under Bob Knight from 1967 to 1969. After serving as an assistant at Cornell from 1969 to 1971, Bliss rejoined Knight at Indiana University from 1971 to 1975, where he met graduate assistant coach Doug Ash. Bliss got his first head coaching position at the University of Oklahoma, where he coached from 1975 to 1980. Ash joined Bliss at Oklahoma as his top assistant, and remained with Bliss for the rest of his career. It was at Oklahoma where Bliss met his wife, Claudia. From 1980–88, Bliss was the head coach at Southern Methodist University. He led the Mustangs to three NCAA tournaments, in 1984, 1985 and 1988. His best season was the 1987–88 season, in which the Mustangs won their first outright Southwest Conference regular-season title in 21 years and won the Southwest Conference tournament. One of Bliss's most successful players while at SMU was Jon Koncak, who was the fifth overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks and gold medalist on the 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team coached by Knight. An NCAA investigation during the mid-'80s reported that Bliss was involved