NEW YORK — Sitting at the end of the fourth row of a small lecture hall in Long Island University’s Health Sciences Center, the Northeast Conference coach of the year waited along with his team to find out whom, when and where the Sharks would be playing in the NCAA Tournament.
It didn’t take too long for LIU’s name to appear, at the top of the West Region bracket, paired with No. 1 Arizona. Players jumped from their seats to celebrate a trip to San Diego — not a bad draw when you’ve spent a long winter in Brooklyn. The cheers were quickly drowned out by brass horns and drums from the band that had been squeezed into the room.
Coach Rod Strickland clapped his hands, a broad smile on his face, as he soaked in his team’s joy.
Yes, that Rod Strickland, the member of New York City’s Point God fraternity who went on to become an All-American at DePaul and a first-round draft pick by the Knicks, playing 17 seasons in the NBA.
“I was just looking for LIU on that board,” the 59-year-old Strickland said after LIU’s brief watch party 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 four seasons ago 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 executive and a member of John Calipari’s staff at Memphis and Kentucky, roles that had him working with young players who aspired to get to where he had been.
The only previous job he held with “coach” in the title came during a four-year stint as an assistant with South Florida from 2014 to 2017. Still, it’s not unusual for someone with Strickland’s credentials to jump into head coaching at a bigger job than LIU, where the basketball program has some history of success but with a modest athletics budget of about $17 million. Think Patrick Ewing landing the head job at Georgetown after years as an NBA assistant, former St. John’s star Chris Mullin landing his first coaching gig of any kind with his alma mater and Memphis making a similar move with former Tigers star Penny Hardaway.
Strickland was not the Hall of Fame-level player that those three were — though he did have his number 10 retired by DePaul this season. LIU is a long, long way from the big stages on which he is accustomed to performing, but he’s embracing a new sense of accomplishment.
“I think it’s different probably because as a player, that was a comfort level,” Strickland said 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 to 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 high school star at a time when New York City high schools were regularly pumping future All-America point guards into top college programs. His contemporaries include Kenny Smith (North Carolina), Dwayne “Pearl” Washington (Syracuse), Kenny Anderson (Georgia Tech) and Mark Jackson (St. John’s), part of a group featured in the 2022 documentary “NYC Point Gods.”
Strickland and Anderson were inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame together in 2008.
Strickland led DePaul to the NCAA Tournament three times, including consecutive Sweet 16 appearances in 1986 and ‘87, before being drafted in 1988 by the Knicks, where he played behind Jackson.
His players serve as a reminder that nearly a generation has passed since he retired in 2005. Greg Gordon, who arrived at LIU this season after stints with UAB and Iona, wasn’t familiar with Strickland’s background until after he transferred in.
“When I first got here, they were asking me, like, ‘Do you know who your coach is?’ And I was like, not really,” Gordon said.
When he found out Strickland played in the NBA, he figured the coach must have been “mediocre.” Gordon said Strickland never bragged or boasted about his playing days but did encourage Gordon to do a little research.
“I found, like, a 30-minute clip of him on YouTube,” Gordon said. “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’ leading scorer, said he was up to speed on Strickland’s background when he transferred in from Division II in 2024, but rarely, 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 said of Strickland’s message.
Better than a journeyman but never an All-Star, Strickland put together a long and productive professional career. Seven times, he ranked in the top 10 in the NBA in assists per game. He also had three DUI arrests late in his playing career, the third resulting in a 10-day stint in jail.
Calipari gave Strickland his first job post-playing career as director of basketball operations at Memphis.
As Calipari explains it, he was just reciprocating Strickland’s generosity.
“I had a player of mine moving to D.C. to work for FedEx who needed a place to stay,” Calipari recounted Wednesday from Portland, Ore., where his Arkansas team was the No. 4 seed in the West Region. “I called Rod and said, ‘Do you have any ideas?’ He said, ‘He can stay at my place, I still have my place there,’ And I said, ‘Rod, I’m always gonna be here for you.’ If you take care of one of mine, I will help you in any way 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 feel for the game and for players as “off the charts.”
Strickland followed Calipari to Kentucky in a similar role and then spent four seasons as an assistant coach at South Florida under Orlando Antigua, another Calipari disciple with Bronx roots.
“Us being the places that we’ve been, we know everybody’s journey is a little different,” said Antigua, who is now an assistant with Illinois. “There’s highs and lows, but he’s making the most of it, and I’m happy for him.”
Eventually, Strickland landed in the G League, where he was part of a group that launched Ignite, a team designed to provide high school players a professional path to the NBA as an alternative to college basketball. Among the Ignite players who went on to become lottery picks were 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,” said America East commissioner Brad Walker, who worked in the G League with Strickland. “They listen to him. It resonates with them.”
The advent of name, image and likeness compensation for college athletes undercut the purpose of Ignite, and it was discontinued after the 2023-24 season.
Strickland started looking for other opportunities earlier than that. LIU’s head coaching job came open after the 2021-22 season at a time when the school and the athletic department were going through a rebrand. LIU’s Brooklyn and suburban Brookville campuses merged in 2019. Most of the athletic department is still located and competes in Brooklyn, though the FCS football team is stationed on Long Island. The Blackbirds are now the Sharks, and the “Fins Up!” cheer is now all the rage at the Steinberg Wellness Center, where Strickland’s team plays just off of famed Flatbush Avenue, a few blocks away from the Brooklyn Nets’ home arena.
“It’s New York City, and it’s opportunity,” Strickland said.
LIU men’s basketball has a well-known past, though not all of it positive. Hall of Fame coach Claire Bee won 81.8 percent of his games from 1931 to ‘51, winning two NIT titles at a time when that was more prestigious than the NCAA Tournament. But a point-shaving scandal in the 1950s brought on the program’s fall from grace.
LIU men’s basketball’s modern-day high point 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 appearance in 2018, the program has been mostly mediocre for more than a decade.
“I think I move humbly, but I don’t think it’s about humbling yourself. It’s a job, and it’s opportunity,” Strickland said. “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 year, things started to turn behind Fuller, fellow Canadian Malachi Davis, Shadrak Lasu and Strickland’s son, Terrell. The Sharks went 17-16 and lost in the NEC tournament semifinals.
After Terrell Strickland graduated, Gordon and Jomo Goings, another Division II transfer, were the key additions to a team 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 lost a four-point game at Mississippi State of the SEC. They won the NEC by three games, going 15-3, and capped it with a conference tournament 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 said. “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.”