The Athletic: What is 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 yr waited alongside together with his crew to discover out who, when and the place the Sharks can be enjoying in the NCAA Tournament.

It did not take too lengthy for LIU’s title to seem, at the high of the West Region bracket, paired with No. 1 Arizona. Players jumped from their seats to celebrate a trip to San Diego —not a foul draw if you’ve spent a protracted winter in Brooklyn. The cheers have been shortly 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 crew’s pleasure.

Yes, that Rod Strickland, the member of New York City’s Point God fraternity who went on to turn out to be an All-American at DePaul and a first-round draft choose by the Knicks, enjoying 17 seasons in the NBA.

“I was just looking for LIU on that board,” the 59-year-old Strickland mentioned after LIU’s temporary 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 leap 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 funds 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 sort 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 a protracted, good distance from the large 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 mentioned 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 faculties have been frequently pumping future All-America level guards into high school applications. 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 just about a technology has handed since he retired in 2005. Greg Gordon, who arrived at LIU this season after stints with UAB and Iona, wasn’t aware of 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 mentioned.

When he came upon Strickland performed in the NBA, he figured the coach will need to have been “mediocre.” Gordon advised Strickland by no means bragged or boasted about his enjoying days however did encourage Gordon to do some analysis.

“I found, like, a 30-minute clip of him on YouTube,” Gordon mentioned. “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, mentioned 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 mentioned of Strickland’s message.

Better than a journeyman however by no means an All-Star, Strickland put collectively a protracted and productive skilled profession. Seven instances, he ranked in the high 10 in the NBA in assists per sport. He additionally had three DUI arrests late in his enjoying 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 crew was the No. 4 seed in the West Region. “I known as Rod and mentioned, ‘Do you’ve any concepts?’ He mentioned, ‘He can keep at my place, I nonetheless have my place there,’ And I mentioned, ‘Rod, I’m all the time gonna be right here for you.’ If you maintain considered one of mine, I’ll make it easier to in any means 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 really feel for the sport and for gamers as “off the charts.”

Strickland adopted Calipari to Kentucky in the same position after which spent 4 seasons as an assistant coach at South Florida below Orlando Antigua, one other Calipari disciple with Bronx roots.

“Us being the places that we’ve been, we know everyone’s journey is a little different,” mentioned 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, the place he was a part of a bunch that launched Ignite, a crew designed to present highschool gamers an expert path to the NBA instead to school basketball. Among the Ignite gamers who went on to turn out to be lottery picks have been 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,” mentioned America East commissioner Brad Walker, who labored in the G League with Strickland. “They listen to him. It resonates with them.”

The introduction of title, picture and likeness compensation for school athletes undercut the objective of Ignite, and it was discontinued after the 2023-24 season.

Strickland began in search of different alternatives sooner than that. LIU’s head coaching job got here open after the 2021-22 season at a time when the college and the athletic division have been going by means of a rebrand. LIU’s Brooklyn and suburban Brookville campuses merged in 2019. Most of the athletic division is nonetheless positioned and competes in Brooklyn, though the FCS soccer crew is stationed on Long Island. The Blackbirds are actually the Sharks, and the “Fins Up!” cheer is now all the rage at the Steinberg Wellness Center, the place Strickland’s crew performs simply off of famed Flatbush Avenue, a number of blocks away from the Brooklyn Nets’ residence area.

“It’s New York City, and it’s opportunity,” Strickland mentioned.

LIU males’s basketball has a well known previous, though not all of it constructive. Hall of Fame coach Claire Bee received 81.8 p.c of her video games from 1931 to ’51, successful two NIT titles at a time when that was extra prestigious than the NCAA Tournament. But a point-shaving scandal in the Fifties introduced on the program’s fall from grace.

LIU males’s basketball’s modern-day excessive level 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 look in 2018, the program has been largely mediocre for greater than a decade.

“I think I move humbly, but I don’t think it’s about humbling myself. It’s a job, and it’s opportunity,” Strickland mentioned. “I would never walk into something thinking it’s beneath me. LIU was a great opportunity, and it was an opportunity to show that I can change the environment. I can help young people get better.”

Strickland went 3-26 upon arrival, then 7-22. Last yr, issues began to flip behind Fuller, fellow Canadian Malachi Davis, Shadrak Lasu and Strickland’s son, Terrell. The Sharks went 17-16 and misplaced in the NEC event semifinals.

After Terrell Strickland graduated, Gordon and Jomo Goings, one other Division II switch, have been the key additions to a crew 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 misplaced a four-point sport at Mississippi State of the SEC. They received the NEC by three video games, going 15-3, and capped it with a convention event title.

Next up, mighty Arizona, as the LIU tries to pull the rarest of upsets as a No. 16 seed.

“When we won the conference championship, I went over to my mother, and I kissed my mother. And the first thing she said was, ‘I’m so glad you had this job, so glad you’re here,'” Strickland mentioned. “This has been amazing for me. Personally, professionally. And then, you know, now to come out of it and turn this thing around in four years and get where we’re at. So I’m blessed, honored to be in this position.”

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Ralph Russo is a Senior Writer for The Athletic, overlaying school soccer. Before becoming a member of The Athletic, he spent 20 years as the lead nationwide school soccer author for The Associated Press. He additionally beforehand labored as the AP’s Mississippi-based sports activities author and did a stint with The Denver Post. Ralph is a local New Yorker and a graduate of Fordham University. Follow Ralph on Twitter @ralphDrussoATH