But, the search hasn't stopped and two very reliable sources have confirmed that Saints' athletic director John D'Argenio has already conducted at least one off-campus interview. That took place recently when D'Argenio met with Penn State assistant coach Keith Urgo.
The 33-year old Urgo appears relatively young compared to Siena's last two hires (Fran McCaffrey and Mitch Buonaguro), but is perceived as a strong assistant coach who favors the uptempo style employed by the Nittany Lions during the two years that program's head coach Pat Chambers has been in charge.
This year, Penn State averaged only 61.6 points per game after some early season injuries left it with only seven players that Chambers used almost exclusively.
During Urgo's two seasons at Penn State the team has had records of 10-21 overall this season and 12-20 last year.
Urgo, though, is no stranger to the MAAC, having played for and graduated from Fairfield (2002). After that he developed a non-profit organization, "Playing for Peace, Inc.," designed to aide in conflict resolution. The organization is now based in five locales: Dublin, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Cypress, Greece, and the West Bank in the Middle East. He remained with the organization, now known as "Peace Players International," for close to two years.
After that he coached the JV team at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C., for two seasons and, then, joined the staff at Villanova in 2007 as video coordinator. A year later he was promoted to the role of director of basketball operations and, then, upgraded again to a coaching assistant's position for the 2010-11 season.
He them moved to Penn State in 2011 as part of Chambers' new staff there.
2 comments:
I have a better chance to be President than Urgo does of becoming the Siena coach. Think about it this guy is the THIRD assistant at Penn State. Siena is a big mid-major job. I don't know who your "sources" are but they're way off base.
Hi Fredrick -- I'm not saying, or even advocating, that Urgo be the next Siena coach.
I'm just reporting that this meeting was indeed held, according to two very reliable sources ... one with direct access to Urgo.
My sources are indeed "on base" with this, 100 percent so.
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