Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Rotunda Online
The Rotunda
Wednesday, July 23, 2025

From Humble Beginnings

While the season hasn’t gone well so far for the Longwood men’s basketball team, the Lancers have given their fans reason to cheer over the past couple of weeks. A historic win over Winthrop on Feb. 9 saw the 14-game losing streak that was on everyone’s lips disappear in a flash. Although the past 10 seasons have had far more losses than wins, there have been moments where the Lancer Nation can hold its collective head high when it comes to men’s basketball.

10th-year head coach Mike Gillian’s office has a definite, if not unsurprising, basketball theme for a Division I coach — whether that comes in the form of a bookshelf complete with John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success,” two posters of the old Boston Garden (Gillian is from Massachusetts) or a set of a few basketballs hanging on a wall. Those basketballs represent some of the most notable wins of Gillian’s tenure as head coach — games that I asked him about a little while back.

His reign as coach began dramatically on Nov. 15, 2003 at Winston-Salem State, when Longwood was still playing a mostly DII schedule as the transition to Division I began. Charles Stephens hit a three at the buzzer to stun the Rams 71-70. Gillian recalled the it as a “back and forth” game, where newcomer Maurice Sumter was 4-for-5 from behind the arc.

“Any time you experience that stuff, it’s an awesome feeling,” Gillian said in his office back in November. “You never forget any of those, but for that to be the first win here at Longwood, that’s always going to stand out a little bit [to me].”

The first Division I game turned out to be an 82-69 loss to Columbia on Nov. 19, 2004. “When I came down here to Longwood,” Gillian said, “it was not like we were rebuilding a program and had a foundation to work with.

“There was really nothing. We had seven scholarships at the time ... We knew we had to go through these steps to get credibility, respect and all that stuff before we got to experience some success.”

A little over a month later, the Lancers almost tasted success that would have shocked the world. In the 2004-05 season, Illinois was led by such talent as Luther Head, Deron Williams and others. Coached by Bruce Weber, the Fighting Illini lost just two games in the entire year, one of which was a 75-70 loss to North Carolina in the national championship game. They started the season 29-0 and were ranked No. 1 for most of the year.

On a cold December night in 2004, the Illini almost fell to the (at the time) no-name Lancers in Assembly Hall. LU was 1-13 at the time and seemingly had no shot against the vaunted Illini. Longwood was within just eight less than midway through the second half before a 16-0 Illinois run put the game away, and the final score was 105-79. “One of the things with games like that is, your work will pay off no matter what. You’re going to have opportunities to play against the best and see how you fare ... I was proud of our effort. It was a great environment and a great atmosphere. We were the new kid on the block, and we proved that we belonged,” said Gillian

In the final season before the transition to Division I was completed (2006-07), Brandon Giles gave the Farmville faithful a reason to cheer in a huge way. A 10-point Morgan State lead was wiped out over the final 10 minutes of the game, and Giles, a junior guard, hit a floater from the free throw line in the final second to give LU a 75-73 victory as the student section emptied onto the floor.

“There are games that are going to come down to those significant moments, and you always have a plan for what’s going to happen, but what does happen could involve anyone who’s on the court at any time ... That was an awesome moment,” Gillian said.

Finally, arguably the most important win in Gillian’s tenure before the three recent victories came on Jan. 3, 2009. George Washington of the Atlantic-10 Conference came to Farmville after three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2005-07. While in the midst of their best season under Gillian, when they finished the year 17-14, the Lancers took down the Colonials 80-78. Billy Robinson scored the go- ahead three with 54 seconds left to lift Longwood to one of their biggest wins ever.

Gillian said, “That was significant. In coming out on top that day, we were able to say ‘We’ve arrived competitively. If you come in to our building, we’ve got a chance to beat you.’”

The Lancers stand little chance of making serious noise when the Big South tournament rolls around in a couple of weeks, based on their play over the course of the conference schedule to date. Having said that, though, maybe there could be another magical win or two in the offing for the Lancer Nation to enjoy this season.

*** This editorial is an opinion stated by the writer and does not represent the views of The Rotunda or Longwood University.

Trending