Despite leading the Iwate Big Bulls to 12 victories in 26 games to close out the season, head coach Shinji Tomiyama's contract has expired and he will not be retained, the bj-league club announced Saturday afternoon.
The 31-year-old Tomiyama guided the first-year franchise after original head coach Vlasios Vlaikidis' resignation in January.
The Big Bulls were 7-19 under Vlaikidis. They rattled off five straight wins to end the season and finished with the second-best record (19-33) of the league's four expansion teams behind the Yokohama B-Corsairs (31-21).
Tomiyama previously served as an assistant coach for the Tokyo Apache under Motofumi Aoki during the 2009-10 season.
In the past 10 days, two other bj-league bench bosses have officially departed their former clubs: Ryan Blackwell (Osaka Evessa) and Dai Oketani, who led the Ryukyu Golden Kings to a pair of championships.