It has been a very good off season for former Fairfield coaches, the latest being Tim Fuller (Stags' assistant 2006-07 season), who recently was named an assistant coach on Rick Pitino's staff at Louisville.
Fuller has 10 years of experience in basketball coaching, marketing and admininstration. A 2000 graduate of Wake Forest with a degree in communication, he has been an NBA sports marketing field representative for Nike for the past two years.
"Tim has come highly recommended to me by people I respect in the business," said Pitino, in a press release issued by his school. "He has experience in coaching and the private sector with the game of basketball. He has the potential to be an outstanding recruiter and will add a totally different dimension to our staff. We're excited to have Tim as a part of the Cardinal family."
The Winston-Salem, N.C. native began his career as a volunteer assistant basketball coach at North Carolina A&T while also serving as an intern for the Atlantic Coast Conference (2000-01). After a year as an assistant at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, N.C. where he worked with current New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul, he accepted a position as an assistant coach at Elon under Ernie Nestor in 2003. He advanced to associate coach at Elon for the 2003-04 season before briefly serving as Director of Basketball Operations at the University of Miami (Fla.) under head coach Frank Haith.
He returned to his alma mater in 2004 as Director of Basketball Operations for two seasons on head coach Skip Prosser's staff. He moved to Fairfield (Conn.) University as assistant coach for one season under Ed Cooley (2006-07).
"Tim is a tremendous young man with a lot of passion and energy," said Cooley. "He's very well-mannered and will be a great asset to Louisville's coaching staff. He will bring a lot to Louisville through the connections he has made throughout his career."
Fuller, 32, participated as a non-scholarship athlete at Wake Forest under Dave Odom and helped the Demon Deacons rise to as high as No. 2 in the national poll with current San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan as a teammate. He completed his career as co-captain of Wake's 2000 National Invitational Tournament (NIT) Championship team.
Fuller certainly isn't the only individual with past Fairfield connections to move into a new and better position this past off season.
Two former Stag head coaches are running programs again.
Mitch Buonaguro (Fairfield's head coach from 1986-91) became Siena's coach after serving there the previous five seasons as associate head coach under Fran McCaffery.
And, Paul Cormier (Fairfield's head coach from 1991-98) became Dartmouth's coach. It's Cormier's second stint in that position, having been there from 1984-91. In recent years Cormier had been an NBA scout.
Your blogger can't profess to knowing Fuller, but I've had considerable interaction with Buonaguro and Cormier during their years in the MAAC. Each is among the nicest individuals I've encountered, and their two respective programs are in good hands.
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