Men's Basketball Coaching Staff
Head Coach Dave Niland
Penn State Behrend head men’s
basketball coach Dave Niland enters his fourteenth season guiding the Behrend
Lions program.
His workmanship has produced thirteen straight winning seasons and
postseason bids in ten of the past eleven years. He is the
all-time leader in men's basketball coaching victories with 240 entering
this season. Niland has been named the AMCC Coach of the Year six times—a league and
college record. His teams have won five regular-season
league titles, and a pair of conference tournament championships.
Last
season, his team posted an impressive 21-8 mark and advanced to the ECAC
Southern Region Tournament Championship Game.
In 2005 coach Niland and his
program were awarded the Schoenfeld Award by the Collegiate Basketball
Officials Association. The Schoenfeld Award is an annual award given to a
college or university which the Collegiate Basketball Officials Association
(CBOA) identifies as having "the highest degree of sportsmanship, character,
and ethics among their players, coaches and spectators." The award is
the highest honor that the CBOA annually bestows on any collegiate
institution.
His 2003-04 team led all of Division III in
scoring defense and posted a sharp 22-3 record entering the NCAA Tournament.
The 1999-2000 team had the best season in school history, setting the school
record for wins with 26 while advancing to the NCAA Elite Eight—the
first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance for men's basketball. Also, in
1998-99, his squad earned the ECAC Southern Region Championship.
Niland came to Behrend after spending four seasons as an assistant coach at Canisius College and one season at Elmira College. He was a four-year letterman and captain during his senior year as a basketball standout at Le Moyne College. He earned his master's degree in physical education from Canisius and is now also a lecturer in health and physical education at Penn State Behrend.
E-mail Head Coach Dave Niland: dfn1@psu.edu
Assistant Coach Justin
Jennings
Justin
Jennings is in his second season as assistant
coach
for Behrend
basketball. Jennings
graduated from Behrend in May of 2006 with a degree in Communications.
A four-year starter at point guard for coach Dave Niland, Jennings finished his career at number three all-time in assists with 322. While at Behrend, Jennings led the blue and white to a school record 81 wins, including two NCAA and two ECAC appearances. Jennings earned constant recognition while playing at Behrend, he was named Rookie of the Year as a freshman, Most Improved Player as a sophomore, and Most Valuable Player as a senior.
He has been involved with multiple basketball camps for Behrend as well as in the Pittsburgh and West Virginia areas. Jennings spent this past summer working for Behrend summer camps and the highly respected Five Star Camp in Pittsburgh. Jennings is currently pursuing his MBA at Penn State Behrend.
Assistant Coach Rand Garrity
Rand Garrity begins his first season as an assistant
for the Behrend Lions. Garrity was an assistant for several years
at McDowell High School under Pete Flynn and Tom Hansen, helping the
Trojans earn numerous District 10 championships. Garrity also
serves as the assistant director of the Behrend basketball summer
camps.
He is currently a teacher at Westlake Elementary School.