What is 17-year NBA veteran Rod Strickland doing coaching LIU? Trying to shock the world
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NEW YORK — Sitting at the finish of the fourth row of a small lecture corridor in Long Island University’s Health Sciences Center, the Northeast Conference coach of the 12 months waited alongside together with his workforce to discover out who, when and the place the Sharks could be taking part in in the NCAA Tournament.
It did not take too lengthy for LIU’s title to seem, at the prime of the West Region bracket, paired with No. 1 Arizona. Players jumped from their seats to celebrate a trip to San Diego —not a nasty draw once you’ve spent an extended winter in Brooklyn. The cheers have been rapidly drowned out by brass horns and drums from the band that had been squeezed into the room.
Coach Rod Strickland clapped his palms, a broad smile on his face, as he soaked in his workforce’s pleasure.
Yes, that Rod Strickland, the member of New York City’s Point God fraternity who went on to develop into an All-American at DePaul and a first-round draft decide by the Knicks, taking part in 17 seasons in the NBA.
“I was just looking for LIU on that board,” the 59-year-old Strickland stated after LIU’s transient watch get together broke up. “So no matter where we played at, I was fine with that. This journey and to see that blue, yellow and white LIU up there is rewarding.”
Strickland took over at LIU 4 seasons in the past as a first-time head coach. Before the Bronx native arrived in Brooklyn, Strickland had spent most of his post-playing days as an NBA G League govt and a member of John Calipari’s employees at Memphis and Kentucky, roles that had him working with younger gamers who aspired to get to the place he had been.
The solely earlier job he held with “coach” in the title got here throughout a four-year stint as an assistant with South Florida from 2014 to 2017. Still, it is common for somebody with Strickland’s credentials to bounce into head coaching at a much bigger job than LIU, the place the basketball program has some historical past of success however with a modest athletics price range of about $17 million. Think Patrick Ewing touchdown the head job at Georgetown after years as an NBA assistant, former St. John’s star Chris Mullin touchdown his first coaching gig of any form together with his alma mater and Memphis making the same transfer with former Tigers star Penny Hardaway.
Strickland was not the Hall of Fame-level participant that these three have been — though he did have his quantity 10 retired by DePaul this season. LIU is an extended, great distance from the massive phases on which he is accustomed to performing, however he is embracing a brand new sense of accomplishment.
“I think it’s different probably because as a player, that was a comfort level,” Strickland stated Thursday. “I’ve been playing basketball all my life. I think being a coach, that coach bug kind of hit me at the end of my career, after my career. So it feels good to be able to lead a group of young men and get them to a point where they’re somewhere where they’ve never been before. And I can see it every day, like, since we got the bid. You can see the excitement.”
Strickland was a highschool star at a time when New York City excessive colleges have been repeatedly pumping future All-America level guards into prime school packages. His contemporaries embody Kenny Smith (North Carolina), Dwayne “Pearl” Washington (Syracuse), Kenny Anderson (Georgia Tech) and Mark Jackson (St. John’s), a part of a bunch featured in the 2022 documentary “NYC Point Gods.”
Strickland and Anderson have been inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame collectively in 2008.
Strickland led DePaul to the NCAA Tournament 3 times, together with consecutive Sweet 16 appearances in 1986 and ’87, earlier than being drafted in 1988 by the Knicks, the place he performed behind Jackson.
His gamers function a reminder that almost a era has handed since he retired in 2005. Greg Gordon, who arrived at LIU this season after stints with UAB and Iona, wasn’t conversant in Strickland’s background till after he transferred in.
“When I first got here, they were asking me, like, ‘Do you know ‘Who is your coach?’ And I was like, not really,” Gordon stated.
When he came upon Strickland performed in the NBA, he figured the coach will need to have been “mediocre.” Gordon informed Strickland by no means bragged or boasted about his taking part in days however did encourage Gordon to perform a little analysis.
“I found, like, a 30-minute clip of him on YouTube,” Gordon stated. “First three minutes, I was like, I could do this. Then it started getting a little tricky. And I was, like, ‘Oh, OK. He’s legit.'”
Jamal Fuller, the Sharks’ main scorer, stated he was up to velocity on Strickland’s background when he transferred in from Division II in 2024, however not often, if ever, does it come up.
“Yes, I played in the NBA, but that doesn’t matter. We’re here right now. We’re doing the work we need to do,” Fuller stated of Strickland’s message.
Better than a journeyman however by no means an All-Star, Strickland put collectively an extended and productive skilled profession. Seven occasions, he ranked in the prime 10 in the NBA in assists per recreation. He additionally had three DUI arrests late in his taking part in profession, the third leading to a 10-day stint in jail.
Calipari gave Strickland his first job post-playing profession as director of basketball operations at Memphis.
As Calipari explains it, he was simply reciprocating Strickland’s generosity.
“I had a player of mine moving to DC to work for FedEx who needed a place to stay,” Calipari recounted Wednesday from Portland, Ore., the place his Arkansas workforce was the No. 4 seed in the West Region. “I called Rod and said, ‘Do you have any ideas?’ He said, ‘He can stay at my place, I still have my place there,’ And I said, ‘Rod, I’m always gonna be here for you.’ If you take care of one of mine, I will help you in any way I can.
“Well, he calls me a year or two later and says, ‘I want to get into coaching.’ I said, ‘You’re with me. Let’s go.’”
At Memphis, Strickland helped develop star guards Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans. Calipari described Strickland’s feel for the game and for players as “off the charts.”
Strickland followed Calipari to Kentucky in a similar role and then spent four seasons as an assistant coach at South Florida under Orlando Antigua, another Calipari disciple with Bronx roots.
“Us being the places that we’ve been, we know everyone’s journey is a little different,” said Antigua, who is now an assistant with Illinois. “There’s highs and lows, but he’s doing the most of it, and I’m happy for him.”
Eventually, Strickland landed in the G League, where he was part of a group that launched Ignite, a team designed to provide high school players a professional path to the NBA as an alternative to college basketball. Among the Ignite players who went on to become lottery picks were Jalen Green of Houston, Scoot Henderson of Portland and Jonathan Kuminga, now with Atlanta.
“His ability to have an impact on young people who are tied to a high level of basketball talent, it was evident,” said America East commissioner Brad Walker, who worked in the G League with Strickland. “They pay attention to him. It resonates with them.”
The advent of name, image and likeness compensation for college athletes undercut the purpose of Ignite, and it was discontinued after the 2023-24 season.
Strickland started looking for other opportunities earlier than that. LIU’s head coaching job came open after the 2021-22 season at a time when the school and the athletic department were going through a rebrand. LIU’s Brooklyn and suburban Brookville campuses merged in 2019. Most of the athletic department is still located and competes in Brooklyn, although the FCS football team is stationed on Long Island. The Blackbirds are now the Sharks, and the “Fins Up!” cheer is now all the rage at the Steinberg Wellness Centerwhere Strickland’s team plays just off of famed Flatbush Avenue, a few blocks away from the Brooklyn Nets’ home arena.
“It’s New York City, and it’s opportunity,” Strickland said.
LIU men’s basketball has a well-known past, although not all of it positive. Hall of Fame coach Claire Bee won 81.8 percent of her games from 1931 to ’51, winning two NIT titles at a time when that was more prestigious than the NCAA Tournament. But a point-shaving scandal in the 1950s brought on the program’s fall from grace.
LIU men’s basketball’s modern-day high point was three straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2010 to ’13, with an up-tempo squad coached by Jim Ferry.
With the exception of a pop-up NCAA appearance in 2018, the program has been mostly mediocre for more than a decade.
“I feel I transfer humbly, however I do not assume it is about humbling myself. It’s a job, and it is alternative,” Strickland said. “I’d by no means stroll into one thing considering it is beneath me. LIU was an ideal alternative, and it was a possibility to present that I can change the setting. I might help younger individuals get higher.”
Strickland went 3-26 upon arrival, then 7-22. Last year, things started to turn behind Fuller, fellow Canadian Malachi Davis, Shadrak Lasu and Strickland’s son, Terrell. The Sharks went 17-16 and lost in the NEC tournament semifinals.
After Terrell Strickland graduated, Gordon and Jomo Goings, another Division II transfer, were the key additions to a team that took off. The Sharks beat Patriot League champion Lehigh, Big South contender Winthrop and James Madison from the Sun Belt in the nonconference and lost a four-point game at Mississippi State of the SEC. They won the NEC by three games, going 15-3, and capped it with a conference tournament title.
Next up, mighty Arizona, as the LIU tries to pull the rarest of upsets as a No. 16 seed.
“When we received the convention championship, I went over to my mom, and I kissed my mom. And the very first thing she stated was, ‘I’m so glad you had this job, so glad you are right here,'” Strickland said. “This has been superb for me. Personally, professionally. And then, you realize, now to come out of it and switch this factor round in 4 years and get the place we’re at. So I’m blessed, honored to be on this place.”
