Southwest Baptist University Athletics

Niven will begin his 3rd season (2025-26) as the head coach of the Men's Basketball program. He took the reigns in 2023 after five seasons of being the assistant coach for the Bearcats.

In his second season, he led the team to one of the best Conference starts in years. This included a monster 19 point victory over the eventual GLVC tournament champions. In that same stretch, they held the GLVC reigning champs to a 19 point half and a 15 point victory. 7 of his athletes earned a GLVC Individual Academic Awards and 1 earned a Brother James Gaffney Academic Award.

During his first season he led the team to a big victory against Drury University in Springfield, 65-62. His team also led all other men's teams' at SBU in GPA throughout the 23-24 school year. 

During that time, he was a crucial part in building the program to have their second-best four-year stint from 2019-2023 in program history. The Bearcats had an impressive 90-48 record during his five years as an assistant. This included four winning seasons, three 20+ winning seasons, and qualifying for all five conference tournaments. He was big in recruiting future Hall of Famers in the likes of Quinn Nelson and Mitch Ganote. As well, he brought in other great talent such as Brady Smith, Noah Franklin and more.

Before coming to SBU Niven coached at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama where he served as the Head Men's Basketball Coach for five seasons. While at Spring Hill, Niven guided the Badgers through the past four seasons of transition from the NAIA level to NCAA Division II. Over the last three seasons, Niven helped Spring Hill improve from an 8^th place finish in the SIAC West Division during the 2015-16 season to a 2^nd place finish after the 2016-17 season and a 3^rd place finish in 2017-18.
 
Under Niven's leadership, the Men's Basketball team at Spring Hill raised their team GPA from 2.4 upon his arrival to a 3.1 heading into the current spring semester. Niven also placed two student-athletes on SIAC All-Conference rosters, including the 2016 SIAC Freshman of the Year Sawyer Glick and forward Brandon Fischer in 2018. Niven's Spring Hill squad additionally garnered recognition as the SIAC All-Academic Team Champions following the 2015-16 season.
 
Niven resides in Bolivar with his wife, Shannon, and three children, Madalyn, Will, and Boston. His daughter Madalyn joins the Bearcat family during the 2024-25 school year as a member of the women's soccer team.