Men’s basketball head coach Mike Lonergan announced Thursday that Pete Strickland and Kevin Sutton will join his staff as assistant coaches.
Strickland spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach at North Carolina State University. He has 21 years of Division I coaching experience, including seven years as the head coach at Coastal Carolina University from 1999- to 2005. Strickland left CCU with the second-most career victories in school history and was named the Big South Coach of the Year for the 1999-2000 season.
“It is a pleasure to join Mike Lonergan and his staff at GW,” Strickland. “I’ve admired the GW basketball program going back to my days in the A-10 at Dayton and as a player in the Eastern Eight at Pitt. With the staff Mike is assembling here, I’m very excited to be a part of what promises to be a bright future for Colonials Basketball.”
Continuing Lonergan’s emphasis on building successful student-athletes on and off the court, Strickland comes with a resume of impressive academic success. According to NCAA statistics, his team posted the highest graduation rate of any Division I football, baseball or basketball program in the state of South Carolina in 2004-05.
Before his time at Coastal Carolina, Strickland spent 10 seasons at three different Division I schools as an assistant coach including Atlantic 10 foe Dayton from 1994-98. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1979, completing his playing career with the all-time record in assists.
“Pete and Kevin are both well-respected basketball coaching veterans,” Lonergan said. “It is a luxury to have someone of Pete’s stature and experience on our staff, and I plan to lean on him for his insight and wisdom. Kevin is also someone I’ve wanted to work with for a long time. He has built a solid reputation as one of the best teachers of the game.”
Sutton was the first widely confirmed staffing decision for Lonergan, although his hire was not officially announced until Thursday.
“I’m confident that Coach Lonergan will do a great job, he’s a great technician,” Sutton said. “I see my role as a person who can recruit talent and also develop talent and I think I’ll be a great salesman for the University.”
Sutton served as athletic director and head coach at Montverde Academy for eight years before leaving the program in March, a parting that many news outlets, including Bright House Sports Network, attributed to “an internal issue.”
A Virginia native, Sutton said his familiarity with GW and the D.C. area will make him an asset to the program. He said he he’s particularly familiar with the Colonials through senior Joseph Katuka. Sutton coached Katuka at Montverde Academy prior to the center’s career as a Colonial.
While at Montverde Academy, Sutton constructed their basketball team into a respected, dominant program. Under his leadership, the Eagles earned a 2007 National Title and were 2010 National High School Invitational Runners-Up. Montverde was No. 13 in the final USA Today rankings in 2011, finishing the season with a 22-4 record.
Sutton pointed to recruiting as one of his major strengths as a coach, saying that he was prepared to bring players to Foggy Bottom that would mesh well with the team and atmosphere at GW.
“I’m going to try my best to identify players that can be successful student-athletes at George Washington University,” Sutton said. “We will identify players collectively and try to recruit some players to the best of our ability and if they happen to come from Montverde Academy, I think that would be a great thing.”
The two hires will join Hajj Turner on Lonergan’s staff.
