Rod Strickland’s biggest basketball challenge

They just made it over the .500 mark in 2022 with a 16-14 won-loss record.
And to show you just how tough it’s been, well there’s been just four winning seasons in the last 10 years – and just seven seasons with more W’s than L’s in the last 15.

We’re talking basketball at Long Island University.

The year 2017-18, they squeaked over the top with an 18-17 record. In the past 26 seasons, the Sharks have reached post-season play in the NCAA Tournament just five times. The most recent came in that 2017-18 season when they were bounced in the first-round by Raford, 71-61.

But Rod Strickland hopes to change all that – but it won’t happen overnight.
Strickland is a winner – and New York basketball legend.

As a high school junior, he led Treuman High of The Bronx to the state championship and was ranked as one of the top 10 high school recruits in the nation.

He became a college star at DePaul University where he was a First-Team All American as a junior averaging 20 points-per-game and 7.8 assists. He helped the Blue Demons to three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1985-88, including Sweet Sixteen showings in 1986 and 1987.

The Knicks made him a first-round selection in the 1988 draft, where he backed-up point guard Mark Jackson, the 1988 NBA Rookie of the Year.
Seven NBA teams in a 17-year career; 1,094 games and a 13.2 points-per-game average. In fact, from 1990 to 2000 he averaged double-digits every season with an 18.9 per-game high in ’94-’95 with the Portland Trailblazers.

Great resume – but it doesn’t mean much as head coach of the Sharks. “That was then,” Strickland told the Eagle when he was hired at LIU last July, “Now,” he continued, “My job is getting these players better. My career was ’88 to 2005, that’s over now. Now it’s time for me to add value to their game.”

And win.

Now is the challenge of taking the Sharks of Long Island…