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Saturday, October 3, 2009

Coach Zach Spiker, To Be All He Can Be



WEST POINT, N.Y. – Zach Spiker, a fast-rising star in the college coaching profession, has been named new men’s basketball head coach at Army it was announced Saturday by Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson.

One of the architects behind the recent resurgence of the men’s basketball program at Cornell University, Spiker has served as an assistant under head coach Steve Donahue the past five years. Spiker helped the Big Red to upper-division finishes in the Ivy League during each of his five seasons in Ithaca, N.Y. He was instrumental in helping Cornell’s recruiting efforts the last five years, culminating in the Big Red winning consecutive Ivy League titles the past two seasons. It marked the first back-to-back league titles for Cornell in school history and the first time a team other than Pennsylvania or Princeton copped consecutive Ivy League championships.

“We couldn’t be more excited to name Zach Spiker as the head coach of our men’s basketball program,” U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Buster Hagenbeck said. “Zach impressed us with his high-energy level, intimate knowledge of our program and well-conceived plan to deliver a championship to the Army program.”

“We conducted a national search and spoke to a tremendous pool of candidates,” Anderson stated. “Throughout the process, one individual clearly rose to the top.”

“Zach is highly regarded by some of the most well-respected coaches in the country. He is widely recognized as one of the true young talents in the coaching profession and someone we feel is ready to lead our program to a Patriot League championship,” Anderson added.

With Spiker on the sidelines alongside Donahue, Cornell is coming off the most successful consecutive seasons in school history. One year after establishing school records for victories (22) and consecutive wins (16), points (2136), three-point field goals made (228) and highest free-throw percentage (.761), the Big Red set school records for points (2281), three-point field goals made (241) and blocked shots (121) last winter.

After registering a 22-6 overall record in 2007-08 (and a perfect 14-0 Ivy mark), the Big Red posted a 21-10 slate last season, closing out consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in school history. Cornell won the Ivy League championship by three games and tied a school record with a perfect 13-0 home record, extending its home winning streak to a school-record 21 games (the third-longest active streak in the country). Juniors Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman repeated as first-team All-Ivy League selections, while Jeff Foote was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and was a second-team all-league selection. Freshman Chris Wroblewski earned Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors, marking the third time in the last four years a Cornell player was presented with the award. Spiker played a large role in recruiting all those players to Cornell.

“I am extremely humbled and excited by the opportunity that Mr. Anderson has given me to coach at West Point,” Spiker said. “I can’t wait to get to work, and I am looking forward to serving this senior class to make this season the best it can be. I am confident we will all work together and make this a great experience for everybody.”

Spiker had helped Cornell to its first Ivy League title in 20 years in 2007-08 as Cornell became the 13th team in league history to go unbeaten in conference action (14-0). Four Big Red players were named to the All-Ivy League team, including conference Player of the Year Louis Dale. Dale became the second Big Red player to earn the honor, and the second sophomore in league history to capture the award. He was joined as a unanimous first-team all-league selection by classmate Ryan Wittman. Juniors Jeff Foote and Adam Gore were also second-team picks.

During Spiker’s five-year tenure at Cornell, the Big Red notched a 50-20 Ivy League record. That stands as the best mark among Ivy League teams in that time. The Big Red finished no lower than third in the conference standings over that stretch. In the previous five seasons, Cornell posted a 20-50 record in conference play.

Spiker was part of a 2006-07 Cornell club that won 16 games and finished third in the Ivy League with nine wins, surpassing the team’s win total from the previous year. Wittman was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year, while Dale was an All-Ivy selection. Spiker also assisted in the development of All-Ivy selection Andrew Naeve.

In 2005-06, Spiker helped the Big Red to its second-consecutive winning season in Ivy League play for the first time in 18 years. Adam Gore was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and joined Lenny Collins on the All-Ivy second team.

During Spiker’s first year at Cornell (2004-05), the Big Red earned their highest Ivy finish in 17 years and achieved their first winning season (8-6) in conference play since 1992-93. The Big Red had two players named to the first team All-Ivy League squad for the first time since 1997. The team’s overall win total of 13 marked its highest since 1996-97.

Spiker joined the Cornell staff in June 2004, returning to Ithaca after spending the previous two seasons as an administrative assistant at West Virginia University under head coach John Beilein. He helped the Mountaineers to a pair of Big East Tournament appearances and an invitation to participate in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 2003-04. While in Morgantown, Spiker was responsible for managing on-campus recruiting visits, opponent scouting, postgame film breakdown and overseeing the team’s daily event schedules.

Prior to joining the Mountaineer staff, Spiker served from 2000-02 as a graduate assistant coach at Winthrop University under head coach Gregg Marshall, helping the Eagles garner a pair of NCAA Tournament berths after winning the Big South tournament in successive seasons.

Spiker joined the coaching ranks after completing his playing career at Ithaca College.

The Morgantown, W.Va., native graduated from Ithaca in 2000, earning a bachelor’s degree in communications. He received a master’s degree in sport management from West Virginia in the spring of 2004.

“In many ways, this process reminded me of the search we conducted when hiring Maggie Dixon to lead our women’s program a few years back,” Anderson offered. “Maggie was a bit of an unknown commodity, but we felt she was the perfect choice to lead our women’s program. We feel Zach is the right individual to head our men’s program at this time for many of those same reasons.

“We feel very fortunate to name Zach Spiker as our new men’s basketball coach today. We think Zach will inject great energy into our program and provide tremendous leadership to our cadet-athletes.”

Spiker and his wife, Jennifer, will reside at West Point with their son, Charlie, born this past spring.

Spiker will begin his new duties at Army immediately.

A formal press conference to introduce Zach Spiker as Army’s 30th men’s basketball head coach will be held in West Point’s Randall Hall Auditorium on Tuesday.


THE SPIKER FILE

Army, Oct. 2, 2009-Present
Head Coach

Cornell, 2004-Oct. 1, 2009
Assistant Coach
Five Seasons
Two NCAA Tournament appearances
85-57 (.599)

West Virginia University, 2002-04
Administrative Assistant
One National Invitation Tournament appearance
31-29 (.517)

Winthrop University, 2000-02
Graduate Assistant
Two NCAA Tournament appearances
37-25 (.597)

Nine-Year Record as an Assistant – 153-111 (.580)

Four NCAA Tournament appearances
One NIT appearance

Posted by yusa at 9:50 AM
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