Canisius coach Tom Parrotta did not return calls to a variety of sources trying to reach him regarding his dismissal after six seasons as that school's men's basketball coach.
But, on Monday, Parrotta issued a statement through the Canisius sports information office. Here it is:
"I am extremely proud and thankful for the opportunity to have served at a fine institution such as Canisius College. I cannot thank (athletic director) Bill Maher enough for seeing the qualities in me to lead a Division I men's basketball program. Transition is never easy and I will do all that I can to ensure that the student-athletes stay discipllined in their studies, on the court and in the community. They are all in a position to achieve great success in all those areas and it is my responsibility at this time to reassure them that their goals to graduate, win a championship and continue to proudly represent their school are very much attainable. I surrounded myself with great assistants in Rob Norris, Derrick Worrels and Gabe Michael - all guys I feel will be stars in the coaching ranks and I commend them for their loyalty and friendship.
"My emphasis on what was best for my players was always at the forefront of my philosophy. They routinely graduate in three years and attain a master's degree in four. They played with the same passion in which I coach and were wonderful representatives of Canisius College and the Buffalo community. Most importantly, my wife and I nurtured them as our own sons and we enjoyed much satisfaction in watching them grow and mature as people. I thank them for entrusting my family with the great responsibility of touching their lives in a way that holds them as individuals with their futures as the top priority. To me, this is what coaching is all about. I now take that philosophy with me in my future coaching career in the pursuit of winning championships and touching lives."
And, so Parrotta leaves with class.
Your Hoopscribe can't profess to have known Parrotta very well. A few conversations via phone, or after a game or two annually, was the extent of my personal contact with him.
But, during those times he was always well-spoken, honest about his team and its situation and cooperative.
Those in the Buffalo media who know him far better recognize that he was a good guy, and a good coach to deal with, via a reporter-coach relationship.
The very strong guess is that Parrotta's career in college basketball will continue in some capacity.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Men's, Women's MAAC All-Tournament Selections
Just in case you missed these ... the all-tournament teams from the just-concluded MAAC's post-season tournament.
WOMEN'S ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
- Lauren Gatto, Niagara
- Katelyn Linney, Fairfield
- Taryn Johnson, Fairfield
- Casey Dulin, Marist
- Brandy Gang, Marist
- TOURNAMENT MVP: Corielle Yarde, Marist.
MEN'S ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
- Scott Machado, Iona
- Desmond Wade, Fairfield
- Rakim Sanders, Fairfield
- Justin Drummond, Loyola
- Robert Olson, Loyola
- TOURNAMENT MVP: Erik Etherly, Loyola
WOMEN'S ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
- Lauren Gatto, Niagara
- Katelyn Linney, Fairfield
- Taryn Johnson, Fairfield
- Casey Dulin, Marist
- Brandy Gang, Marist
- TOURNAMENT MVP: Corielle Yarde, Marist.
MEN'S ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
- Scott Machado, Iona
- Desmond Wade, Fairfield
- Rakim Sanders, Fairfield
- Justin Drummond, Loyola
- Robert Olson, Loyola
- TOURNAMENT MVP: Erik Etherly, Loyola
Monday, March 5, 2012
Historical Halftime Reference Helps Motivate Loyola
Jimmy Patsos isn't afraid to use history to illustrate what he wants from his Loyola basketball team, and at halftime of Monday's MAAC championship game he thought his Greyhounds needed to be inspired not by the philosophies of John Wooden, Adolph Rupp or Red Auerbach, but from something far from the realm of the sport.
Patsos rolled out a lesson about Bobby Seale and the Black Panther movement.
Talk about a stream-of-consciousness motivational talk ... but it worked.
With Loyola trailing by four at the break, the colorful (to put it mildly) Loyola coach sought to bring some description to the change of strategy he wanted from his team in the second half.
"I talked about Bobby Seale and the Black Panther movement (a revolutionary leftist movement active mostly in the 1960s), and told them that there are levels," Patsos said.
"There's Martin Luther King, and there's Malcolm X. I told them that I saved Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers for the end. I told them that (like the Black Panthers) we were going to get militant and we are going to go right after them and press after every made shot. I wasn't asking for violence, but I told them that we were going to go full force."
Full force for Loyola meant all-out, end-to-end defensive pressure designed to rattle an opponent.
"There's nothing wrong with being a pacifist, or a middle-of-the-road intellectual, but this was our time for anger. We weren't going to back down. We were going to press for the full 94 feet. If it worked, it worked. If not, then not."
It worked to near perfection as Loyola made offensive life difficult for Fairfield after the intermission, holding the Stags to just 6-of-31 shooting (19.4 percent, including misses on their first 13 tries after halftime) and 14 points in the second half.
It was more than enough for the Greyhounds to rally from their four-point halftime deficit to earn a 48-44 victory in Monday night's MAAC men's championship game and the school's first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1994.
And, now, Loyola's players also know about Bobby Seale.
"I wanted the guys to go for it," added Patsos. "We had to press them. They were trying to grind it out, and we're not a grinding team. If we let them grind it out they would have beat us."
Fairfield, though, was nearly up to the challenge with its own effective half-court defense, holding Loyola to 22 second-half points and still in position to tie the game in the closing seconds before forward Rakim Sanders' three-point attempt when his team trailed, 47-44, bounced off the rim.
"That's what the press does to you," added Patsos. "It wears you down."
It was a game only the most-defensive appreciative fans would enjoy, producing the lowest-scoring MAAC tournament men's championship game in the league's 31-year history.
"We're pretty devastated right now," admitted Fairfield coach Sydney Johnson. "It's what we worked for since we went on a trip to Italy as a team this summer. From the first day we started preparing for that trip we talked about playing for and winning a MAAC championship.
"We just put enough shots in. We held Loyola to 48 points. Anytime you hold an opponent to 48 points in a Division I game you figure you're going to win that game, but they one-upped us."
Fairfield, now 19-14, figures to keep playing in one of the sport's minor post-season events.
"We're not through playing this season, and that will take some of the sting away from this ... but, not all. Still, we're happy we can continue to play and show people who we are."
Loyola can show off in the upcoming NCAA tournament, and will learn when and against what opponent during the NCAA selection show on Sunday March 18.
"I don't care where we get seeded," said Patsos. "I think we deserve a 14, but we'll take whatever they give us."
In his most recent "Bracketology" prediction for ESPN Joe Lunardi figures Loyola to get a No. 15 seed in a 16-team bracket.
Patsos rolled out a lesson about Bobby Seale and the Black Panther movement.
Talk about a stream-of-consciousness motivational talk ... but it worked.
With Loyola trailing by four at the break, the colorful (to put it mildly) Loyola coach sought to bring some description to the change of strategy he wanted from his team in the second half.
"I talked about Bobby Seale and the Black Panther movement (a revolutionary leftist movement active mostly in the 1960s), and told them that there are levels," Patsos said.
"There's Martin Luther King, and there's Malcolm X. I told them that I saved Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers for the end. I told them that (like the Black Panthers) we were going to get militant and we are going to go right after them and press after every made shot. I wasn't asking for violence, but I told them that we were going to go full force."
Full force for Loyola meant all-out, end-to-end defensive pressure designed to rattle an opponent.
"There's nothing wrong with being a pacifist, or a middle-of-the-road intellectual, but this was our time for anger. We weren't going to back down. We were going to press for the full 94 feet. If it worked, it worked. If not, then not."
It worked to near perfection as Loyola made offensive life difficult for Fairfield after the intermission, holding the Stags to just 6-of-31 shooting (19.4 percent, including misses on their first 13 tries after halftime) and 14 points in the second half.
It was more than enough for the Greyhounds to rally from their four-point halftime deficit to earn a 48-44 victory in Monday night's MAAC men's championship game and the school's first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1994.
And, now, Loyola's players also know about Bobby Seale.
"I wanted the guys to go for it," added Patsos. "We had to press them. They were trying to grind it out, and we're not a grinding team. If we let them grind it out they would have beat us."
Fairfield, though, was nearly up to the challenge with its own effective half-court defense, holding Loyola to 22 second-half points and still in position to tie the game in the closing seconds before forward Rakim Sanders' three-point attempt when his team trailed, 47-44, bounced off the rim.
"That's what the press does to you," added Patsos. "It wears you down."
It was a game only the most-defensive appreciative fans would enjoy, producing the lowest-scoring MAAC tournament men's championship game in the league's 31-year history.
"We're pretty devastated right now," admitted Fairfield coach Sydney Johnson. "It's what we worked for since we went on a trip to Italy as a team this summer. From the first day we started preparing for that trip we talked about playing for and winning a MAAC championship.
"We just put enough shots in. We held Loyola to 48 points. Anytime you hold an opponent to 48 points in a Division I game you figure you're going to win that game, but they one-upped us."
Fairfield, now 19-14, figures to keep playing in one of the sport's minor post-season events.
"We're not through playing this season, and that will take some of the sting away from this ... but, not all. Still, we're happy we can continue to play and show people who we are."
Loyola can show off in the upcoming NCAA tournament, and will learn when and against what opponent during the NCAA selection show on Sunday March 18.
"I don't care where we get seeded," said Patsos. "I think we deserve a 14, but we'll take whatever they give us."
In his most recent "Bracketology" prediction for ESPN Joe Lunardi figures Loyola to get a No. 15 seed in a 16-team bracket.
Speculation Begins on Nat'l Tournament Possibilities
It appears that the MAAC will be well-represented in upcoming national post-season tournaments.
Marist, by virtue of its chamionship game victory over Fairfield in the women's event, gets an automatic bid to the NCAA event.
Fairfield, now 24-8 overall, gets an automatic bid to the WNIT, by virtue of finishing second to a regular-season champion that qualified for the NCAA event.
And, 16-15 Manhattan, which finished third in regular-season women's play, will receive a bid to the Women's Basketball Invitational, according to its head coach John Olenowski.
Until seedings and match-ups are announced for the women's NCAA tournament on March 18, there will be much speculation on where 25-7 Marist will be seeded.
"It really doesn't matter, as long as we're in," said Marist coach Brian Giorgis. "It will probably be anywhere from 11th to 15th (in a 16-team bracket). I think we've achieved enough to be from 11 to 14, but anything can happen.
"When you look at it, we're probably not getting a No. 10 seeding position. But, we just wanted to get in. We didn't think we'd get in this year without winning this tournament. We talked all year, like we always do, that it comes down to three days in March (the three games of the MAAC tournament)."
On the men's side, tonight's championship game winner advances to the NCAA tournament.
Joe Lunardi, the bracketologist for ESPN, projects Loyola to win tonight's game and be seeded 15th in a 16-team bracket for the NCAA event.
If 19-13 Fairfield wins, it might be looking at a No. 16 seed.
Iona, the event's top seed that was knocked out in Sunday's semifinal round by Fairfield, looks like it will have to accept its automatic bid to the NIT (given to the regular-season champion provided it isn't included in the NCAA field).
The Gaels are now 25-7 with some good wins in non-conference play, but four losses against MAAC oppoents (three in the regular season) don't help its case.
Lunardi does not include Iona in his projected NCAA field, and rates the Gaels only the sixth-best team not included in his predicion of NCAA participants.
If Iona does indeed wind up in the NIT, it might be alone there.
If Loyola loses tonight's championship game, it it likely to get strong consideration for the NIT field. Fairfield could potentially get NIT consideration if it loses tonight, but would most likely be included in one of the other men's lesser post-season events.
And, Manhattan, which lost a quarterfinal-round contest to Siena on Friday night, has a 20-12 overall record and is also likely to wind up in a post-season event.
Marist Secret? Giorgis The Program's One Constant
Those with long memories will recall that the Marist women's program wasn't always as strong as it has been in recent years.
During its first few years in the MAAC, after joining the conference in 1997, it had overall records of, believe it or not, 5-22, 4-23, 11-17, 6-22 and 11-17. It was basically, an annual battle to approach mediocrity.
And, then, head coach Brian Giorgis came to town.
Or, more accurately, he just moved over and upwards, from the high school level to Division I college basketball, having already being well-established in Poughkeepsie over 19 years as head coach of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Success was nothing new on Giorgis' resume, having accumulated a 451-44 record on the high school level.
It didn't take long for Giorgis to put a similar stamp on the Marist program. After an 8-10 conference finish in the 2002-03 season, his first, Marist has shared (once) or won outright (eight) every regular-season conference title over the past nine seasons.
Its victory over Fairfield in Monday's MAAC women's championship game sends Marist and Giorgis to the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in that nine-year run.
So, how does he do it?
"We've got kids who believe in themselves and believe in the system and I've got great, great assistant coaches and they put together great scouting reports."
"One of the reasons (for the success) is that his (Giorgis') scouting reports are unbelievable in their detail," said senior guard Corielle Yard. "We know what we're doing at every point of the game. The other thing is that he always keeps us focused. There are so many distractions around the program and with school, but when we're with him we know we have to be focused."
Giorgis even has two of his former players around, members of his coaching staff, to help deliver those messages.
Fifi Camara, the program's director of operations, was a 2006 graduate of Marist and was the MAAC's Player of the year in her senior season. Alisa Kresge, now in her third season as an assistant coach in the program, was a three-time conference Defensive Player of the Year..
Both were parts of MAAC championship teams, Camara in 2005-06 and Kresge on three of them.
"Coach Giorgis' secret is great coaching," said Camara. "He develops players, now matter who comes in. We are just so well-prepared. But he also has the ability to take a good player and turn her into a great one."
"He keeps recruiting kids who have a don't-want-to-lose attitude," said Kresge. "He kids those kind of kids every year. Plus, he's fabulous with X's and O's, the best I've ever seen."
Giorgis prefers to deflect much of the credit, but he has been the constant. He not only turned around a struggling program but has maintained success to the point where Marist has had the longest active run of successive championships of any team, men's or women's, in the MAAC's 31-year history.
"It's very hard to have that kind of success," said Fairfield coach Joe Frager. "This is my fifth year at Fairfield, and we've had some success but to maintain that is tough. What he's done has become a hurdle for us and the other eight schools."
"Our secret is that our players believe in the system and believe in each other," said Giorgis. "That and taking care of the ball on the court. Those have always been our credos."
Sounds simple. But surely more easily said than done.
Yet, somehow Giorgis, as the one constant in the unprecendented nine-year stretch of excellence by Marist, has done it. And everyone else remains trying to figure out how to emulate that.
During its first few years in the MAAC, after joining the conference in 1997, it had overall records of, believe it or not, 5-22, 4-23, 11-17, 6-22 and 11-17. It was basically, an annual battle to approach mediocrity.
And, then, head coach Brian Giorgis came to town.
Or, more accurately, he just moved over and upwards, from the high school level to Division I college basketball, having already being well-established in Poughkeepsie over 19 years as head coach of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Success was nothing new on Giorgis' resume, having accumulated a 451-44 record on the high school level.
It didn't take long for Giorgis to put a similar stamp on the Marist program. After an 8-10 conference finish in the 2002-03 season, his first, Marist has shared (once) or won outright (eight) every regular-season conference title over the past nine seasons.
Its victory over Fairfield in Monday's MAAC women's championship game sends Marist and Giorgis to the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in that nine-year run.
So, how does he do it?
"We've got kids who believe in themselves and believe in the system and I've got great, great assistant coaches and they put together great scouting reports."
"One of the reasons (for the success) is that his (Giorgis') scouting reports are unbelievable in their detail," said senior guard Corielle Yard. "We know what we're doing at every point of the game. The other thing is that he always keeps us focused. There are so many distractions around the program and with school, but when we're with him we know we have to be focused."
Giorgis even has two of his former players around, members of his coaching staff, to help deliver those messages.
Fifi Camara, the program's director of operations, was a 2006 graduate of Marist and was the MAAC's Player of the year in her senior season. Alisa Kresge, now in her third season as an assistant coach in the program, was a three-time conference Defensive Player of the Year..
Both were parts of MAAC championship teams, Camara in 2005-06 and Kresge on three of them.
"Coach Giorgis' secret is great coaching," said Camara. "He develops players, now matter who comes in. We are just so well-prepared. But he also has the ability to take a good player and turn her into a great one."
"He keeps recruiting kids who have a don't-want-to-lose attitude," said Kresge. "He kids those kind of kids every year. Plus, he's fabulous with X's and O's, the best I've ever seen."
Giorgis prefers to deflect much of the credit, but he has been the constant. He not only turned around a struggling program but has maintained success to the point where Marist has had the longest active run of successive championships of any team, men's or women's, in the MAAC's 31-year history.
"It's very hard to have that kind of success," said Fairfield coach Joe Frager. "This is my fifth year at Fairfield, and we've had some success but to maintain that is tough. What he's done has become a hurdle for us and the other eight schools."
"Our secret is that our players believe in the system and believe in each other," said Giorgis. "That and taking care of the ball on the court. Those have always been our credos."
Sounds simple. But surely more easily said than done.
Yet, somehow Giorgis, as the one constant in the unprecendented nine-year stretch of excellence by Marist, has done it. And everyone else remains trying to figure out how to emulate that.
Marist Women: More of the Same to Win MAAC Title
By now a MAAC tournament championship from the Marist women's basketball is as expected as a sunrise, an all-but sure thing.
After all, with Monday's 61-35 championship game victory over Fairfield the Red Foxes now have claimed the last seven tournament crowns and eight of the last nine that result in an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
But this year's wasn't quite so certain. Marist lost two all-league level starters from a year ago, one the conference's Player of the Year, to graduation. Shortly after, an emerging 6-foot-4 player transferred out. And, then, in this year's sixth game it lost its starting point guard.
It set Marist up to play the rest of the season without a true center and without a true point guard, arguably the two most-important positions for any college basketball team.
So, just maybe, this would be the year a Marist women's championship wouldn't join death and taxes as life's certainties.
And, then, nothing changed except the level of domination Marist exhibited in Monday's championship game.
Instead of everyone closing the gap with the conference's dominant team for almost all of the past decade, the gap got larger on Monday. It got this large: Marist had a 54-23 lead over the conference's second-best team with 7:05 remaining and was still outscoring Fairfield by a more-than two-to-one ratio with 2:30 remaining.
The final 26-point margin goes down as the second most-lopsided result in the 31 years of MAAC women's championship games. Only a Saint Peter's 66-38 victory over Niagara in 1997 came by a larger margin, and Monday's probably would have challenged that one had the Red Foxes not had their reserves on the floor for the final four or five minutes.
"This was the classic team on which the whole was greater than the sum of its parts," said head coach and program architect Brian Giorgis. "We faced adversity, losing a lot of people and then losing our point guard (Kristine Best) six games into the season. And, then, we looked abominable in the first game we played without her.
"But we got great senior leadership and great performances by underclassmen who really believe in what we do.
"This is why you coach. You coach for this type of team, for people who believe in each other. This is just incredible."
By the time it reached the MAAC tournament, Giorgis knew something special was coming out of his Poughkeepsie, N.Y., women's basketball laboratory.
It found a point guard in sophomore Casey Dulin, the team's least-used scholarship player last season. It moved forward Brandy Gang, whose best work comes on the perimeter, into a non-traditional center's role. It had the preseason Player of the Year choice in senior guard Corielle Yard, but there was far more uncertainty throughout the rest of the roster.
By mid-season, though, the "special" label was a good fit for Marist once again.
But, this special?
It found a point guard in sophomore Casey Dulin, the team's least-used scholarship player last season. It moved forward Brandy Gang, whose best work comes on the perimeter, into a non-traditional center's role. It had the preseason Player of the Year choice in senior guard Corielle Yard, but there was far more uncertainty throughout the rest of the roster.
By mid-season, though, the "special" label was a good fit for Marist once again.
But, this special?
"Last night I couldn't sleep," said Giorgis. "All night I kept remembering how well Katelyn Linney and Alexis Vazquez (Fairifled guards) had been shooting, and how tough Taryn Johnson (a Fairfield forward) was inside.
"I finally said to myself that I had to stop that. My kids have been amazing all year, and I realized that they would do it again. They couldn't have come this far and not do it again. And what they turned in was as dominant a performance as I've ever seen in a championship game and they did it at both ends of the court."
Dominant on the defensive end? In taking its first 13 shots Fairfield had more of them blocked by Marist (four) than it made (three).
The winners had a 12-point advantage early in the first half, saw Fairfield pull to within seven and, then, had the lead back up to 12 at the intermission.
Fairfield made its first shot of the second half to cut its deficit to 10 and, then, the winners' dominance was on full display with a 24-3 run during which Marist's defense forced Fairfield into 0-for-17 shooting from the field.
"They made it extremely hard for us to get looks at the basket," said Fairfield coach Joe Frager. "But when we did get good looks we didn't knock shots down. Marist just played as close to a perfect game as they played all year."
And, they did it without the traditional expectations, considering all the personnel losses since the end of last season.
But, nothing seems to change for the now long-running success show at Marist except for the cast.
In Monday's championship game, sophomore Casey Dulin had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists after a freshman season in which she was the team's least-used scholarship player.
Two days earlier, in a 68-54 overtime semifinal-round victory over Niagara it was Kelsey Beynnon with team-high totals of 23 points and 16 rebounds who, last season, played only slightly more than 10 minutes per game.
In Friday's quarterfinal-round victory over Saint Peter's Leanne Ockenden had 15 points and and five rebounds. A year ago she averaged just 11.6 minutes of court time per game.
For Marist, it seems, the names change but the results rarely differ.
Only this time, the championship-game victory was more dominant than ever.
And, just maybe, a little bit more unexpected than usual.
Fairfield made its first shot of the second half to cut its deficit to 10 and, then, the winners' dominance was on full display with a 24-3 run during which Marist's defense forced Fairfield into 0-for-17 shooting from the field.
"They made it extremely hard for us to get looks at the basket," said Fairfield coach Joe Frager. "But when we did get good looks we didn't knock shots down. Marist just played as close to a perfect game as they played all year."
And, they did it without the traditional expectations, considering all the personnel losses since the end of last season.
But, nothing seems to change for the now long-running success show at Marist except for the cast.
In Monday's championship game, sophomore Casey Dulin had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists after a freshman season in which she was the team's least-used scholarship player.
Two days earlier, in a 68-54 overtime semifinal-round victory over Niagara it was Kelsey Beynnon with team-high totals of 23 points and 16 rebounds who, last season, played only slightly more than 10 minutes per game.
In Friday's quarterfinal-round victory over Saint Peter's Leanne Ockenden had 15 points and and five rebounds. A year ago she averaged just 11.6 minutes of court time per game.
For Marist, it seems, the names change but the results rarely differ.
Only this time, the championship-game victory was more dominant than ever.
And, just maybe, a little bit more unexpected than usual.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Canisius Fires Tom Parrotta After 5-25 Season
Even the prospect of a strong season a year from now, with quality perimeter players returning and some impressive transfers in place to play in 2012-13, couldn't save Canisius coach Tom Parrotta's job.
According to the school's website, Canisius has announced that Tom Parrotta will not return as its coach next season.
The Golden Griffins finished a 5-25 campaign with a loss against Western New York rival Niagara in the first round of the MAAC Tournament on Friday night.
Parrotta, who came to Canisius after serving as an assistant at Hofstra, was its head coach for the past six seasons and had a year remaining on his contract.
Canisius College's director of athletics Bill Maher made the announcement earlier this evening.
In a statement released by the school, Maher said: "After careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to make a change in the leadership of our men's basketball program. This decision comes after careful thought to what I believe is in the best interest of our men's basketball program ... Tom has worked diligently on behalf of Canisius College and has had a significant impact on our program in a number of areas, and for that, we are grateful. However, our goal is to compete for the MAAC championship and we have not made sufficient progress toward that goal. I appreciate Tom's hard work and dedication ... and most importantly to our student-athletes. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Parrotta had a career record of 64-121 overall at Canisius and a 30-78 mark in MAAC play. His team's 5-25 overall record this season included a 1-17 mark in conference play.
The program has not finished above .500 overall since a 20-11 record in the 2000-01 season. Its best season since then was under Parrotta when his 2010-11 team finished 9-9 in MAAC play and 15-15 overall with a veteran group of players.
Four starters graduated from that squad and Parrotta opted to build for the future via the transfer rout, including 6-10 centers Freddie Gasparilla (from Kansas State), and Jordan Heath (Robert Weslyan) and 6-3 guard Isaac Sosa (from Central Florida).
All three had to sit out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, but will be eligible for next season.
The Griffs also saw their top returnee from the 2010-11 season, guard Gaby Belardo, deal with back issues that rarely allowed him to practice and saw him play throughout the current season noticeably hindered physically.
According to the school's website, Canisius has announced that Tom Parrotta will not return as its coach next season.
The Golden Griffins finished a 5-25 campaign with a loss against Western New York rival Niagara in the first round of the MAAC Tournament on Friday night.
Parrotta, who came to Canisius after serving as an assistant at Hofstra, was its head coach for the past six seasons and had a year remaining on his contract.
Canisius College's director of athletics Bill Maher made the announcement earlier this evening.
In a statement released by the school, Maher said: "After careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to make a change in the leadership of our men's basketball program. This decision comes after careful thought to what I believe is in the best interest of our men's basketball program ... Tom has worked diligently on behalf of Canisius College and has had a significant impact on our program in a number of areas, and for that, we are grateful. However, our goal is to compete for the MAAC championship and we have not made sufficient progress toward that goal. I appreciate Tom's hard work and dedication ... and most importantly to our student-athletes. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Parrotta had a career record of 64-121 overall at Canisius and a 30-78 mark in MAAC play. His team's 5-25 overall record this season included a 1-17 mark in conference play.
The program has not finished above .500 overall since a 20-11 record in the 2000-01 season. Its best season since then was under Parrotta when his 2010-11 team finished 9-9 in MAAC play and 15-15 overall with a veteran group of players.
Four starters graduated from that squad and Parrotta opted to build for the future via the transfer rout, including 6-10 centers Freddie Gasparilla (from Kansas State), and Jordan Heath (Robert Weslyan) and 6-3 guard Isaac Sosa (from Central Florida).
All three had to sit out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, but will be eligible for next season.
The Griffs also saw their top returnee from the 2010-11 season, guard Gaby Belardo, deal with back issues that rarely allowed him to practice and saw him play throughout the current season noticeably hindered physically.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)