Sometimes, things just have a way of working themselves out.

They did in the case of former North Idaho College men’s basketball coach Jared Phay.

After interviewing for the then-vacant Idaho State men’s basketball job recently, he was told they were going in another direction.

“They wanted someone with a little more NCAA experience, which is totally understandable,” Phay told The Press.

Ryan Looney, also a former NIC assistant, was named Bengals’ head coach last month, shortly after he led Point Loma Nazarene of San Diego to a runner-up finish at the NCAA Division II tournament. On Wednesday, Looney named Phay associate men’s basketball coach at Idaho State, as one of his four assistant coaches.

“Ryan’s a really good friend of mine from way back,” said Phay, 42. “He offered me a job, and I’m kind of glad it worked out this way.”

Prior to coming to CSI in 2014, Phay was the head coach at North Idaho for 10 years, going 221-94 in that span. He was named Region 18 Coach of the Year three times at NIC, and won Scenic West Athletic Conference championships in 2006, 2009 and 2010. The last seven years as head coach at North Idaho he posted 20 wins or more. In 2010-11, Phay led the Cardinals to their first No. 1 national ranking in school history, from Nov. 23, 2010 to Jan. 4, 2011.

“I’m really excited,” Phay said. “It’s a new challenge for me. I’ve been a coach for 15 years and there’s not a ton more that I feel like I can do (at the junior college level). I’m at the point now where I want to enter the Division I world.”

Phay, who started his coaching career at his alma mater, Falls Christian Academy in Post Falls, replaced Looney on Hugh Watson’s staff at NIC.

“I was actually down in Tennessee coaching and got to know him,” Phay said of Looney. “I was up here in the summer and Ryan was going to help me get a job, then he left NIC and told me Hugh would be interested in me. He helped me back then and helped me again.”

Idaho State went 11-19 last season. The Bengals last made the NCAA tournament in 1987. ISU has had just six winning seasons since then.

“It will be a fun and new challenge,” Phay said. “There’s a lot of good coaches in that league. It will be fun and a change of scenery will be great.”

In five seasons at CSI, Phay posted a 136-33 record, including 24-8 this past season. He guided the Golden Eagles to the NJCAA Tournament three times, including a second-place finish in 2018, and two ninth-place finishes. CSI won two Region 18 championships. Phay coached four All-Americans and helped 34 players move on to the next level.

“Jared was able to carry on the CSI traditions of winning and moving players on to higher level programs while he was here,” CSI athletic director Joel Bate said in a news release. “He kept the bar held high in terms of his expectations of play and academics with our student athletes. We want to wish him well in his new position at Idaho State.”