After just one season in the Big South, Longwood is now in need of a new men’s basketball coach.
Mike Gillian, the longest-tenured coach in school history at 10 years, resigned last Thursday. Gillian led the Lancers to a 93-214 record in his decade at the helm, including an 8-25 record in 2012- 13. The team beat UNC-Asheville before losing to VMI in the Big South Tournament this season and had a 14-game losing streak that stretched from Dec. 17 to Feb. 9.
“I’ll say, in general, Coach [Gil- lian] and I met and ... this was a product of that discussion – that he decided to resign. It was a mutual decision,” Director of Athletics Troy Austin said. “He was an important part of Longwood athletics and its history and his efforts in reaching out to people in the town; he was a public face of one of our highest-priority sports. That’s an important role in and of itself.
Our situation’s one in which we don’t have un- limited resources, we’re not in a major metropolitan area, we’re not a nationally well-known Division I school, so it’d be one thing to say, ‘That’s a tough situation, and you’re never going to win there,’ but I want somebody to see that as an opportunity and understand, as I do, the positives about Longwood and why we should have a consistently successful program.”
Gillian's best season was in 2008-09, when Dana Smith and Ryan Bogan led the team to a 17-14 record. The worst was in 2004-05, when the Lancers went 1-30 in the second year of the Division I transition.
Gillian became the longest-tenured coach in program 37-year history this season, breaking a three-way tie with Cal Luther (1981-90) and Ron Carr (1990-99). He was hired on May 2, 2003 to replace current Georgia Southwestern State Head Coach Mike Leeder, who coached at Longwood from 1999-2003.
Gillian declined to comment on this article.
“On top of that, he’s a good person, and I really appreciate every thing he’s done.”
While news of the resignation first broke early Thursday morning and was confirmed by the university a short time later, The Rotunda has learned that players were told the news on Wednesday night.
“[Without] speaking on their be- half, they found out before the release went out. As you can imag- ine, some of them were surprised. We all think a lot of Coach Gillian as a person, so the sentiment was that they’re going to miss him and what he did for them,” Austin said.
When asked what the plan was with Assistant Coaches Doug Thibault, Tim Fudd and Ricky Yahn and Director of Basketball Operations Johnny Coleman, Austin said, “I stay away from anybody’s personal circumstances,” declining to comment on the future of the rest of Gillian’s staff.
Considering the leaps and bounds that the program, and indeed the university as a whole, has grown by in the decade that has passed since Gillian’s hiring on May 2, 2003, the current search will almost certainly be different from the previous one.
“It [the search process] is intense in the scrutiny that I look at each candidate with. I’m utilizing a search firm [Collegiate Sports Associates] to help and assist in the process,” Austin elaborated. “They’ll assist me in not just finding candidates who would be interested, but who would be a good fit and move the program in the direction I’d like ... They look at the institution, they look at rising candidates in the coaching ranks and they also help me with what to think about in the long term, what questions to ask and what facts to present to potential candidates.
“It’s been, as you can expect, a pretty intense past few days, but I think we’re going to yield some good candidates to look at.”
Although the process is only (roughly) six days in, the goal is to move it along as fast as possible; although, Austin doesn’t wish to publicly set a target date. “I haven’t outlined interview dates yet, but we’re reviewing candidates. We’ll review candidates, and then there will be two rounds of interviews.
“I have an idea of when we could possibly bring somebody in, but the reality is that we could go through the list of names and it doesn’t work for one reason or another, and it takes me a little longer than I expected, so that’s why I stay away from giving due dates on these things. But we’re expediting the process, so to speak.
“The search firm’s been good in getting me names, and I feel like, through my own research and contacts, I’ve brought some good names to look at ... when we formally start interviewing these candidates, we’ll know better and of course there’ll be a lot of people on campus to give their input, including the team ... [I look for] intelligence, integ- rity and demonstrating an ability to communicate clearly and in a fashion that motivates people.
Men's basketball coach Mike Gillian argues with a referee at a recent Longwood game.
