Men’s Basketball Staff Begins to Take Shape Antigua, McCullough, Strickland hire

[Guest PCBull14]

 

The more I am thinking about this, the more it looks like we will be in need of a big time veteran assistant coach.  Here is what we have so far:

 

Orlando Antigua-zero experience as a Head coach

Oliver Antigua-3 total years as a college assistant

.

 

They coach the Dominican National Team together, iirc. that's worth something innit?

 

 

Apparently not...Its tougher to coach a international team then an NBA team or a college team.

 

Coach O reached highest not reached by that country in basketball in 30 years. I think our head coach knows what he is doing and does not need some washed up failure on the bench unless they can recruit. This staff as it is right now could get it done, if they add another it needs to be another young fired up coach.

[Mama_Bull]

For anyone interested, there are a number of videos on You Tube of him coaching the 2013 Dominican national team.

 

This is a clip from their first game against Argentina.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1KdSxGEZSo

 

This is a link to his page on the FIBA site. You can navigate from there to see team results  and such.

 

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/14/wcm/team/p/rid//sid/6584/tid/274/profile.html

[Mama_Bull]

CARACAS (FIBA Americas Championship/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - The Dominican Republic travelled to the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship in Caracas, Venezuela, in late August with the primary objective of qualifying for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

They had to overcome adversity, but did, and will now be a part of a 24-team field in Spain.

Despite the absence of NBA superstar Al Horford and two losses in their first three games, a squad led by new head coach Orlando Antigua rebounded with five straight victories to reach the Semi-Finals of the tournament to seal a place in the 2014 hoops extravaganza.

James Feldeine, coming off a breakout season in Spain's Liga Endesa with Fuenlabrada, averaged 14 points per game to lead the Dominicans in Caracas.

What increased the 1.93m guard's value to the side was his free-throw shooting.

Feldeine buried 38 of his 39 (97.4%) attempts at the line.

The native New Yorker of Dominican heritage had played with the team the previous summer but not been given the naturalized spot for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

 

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/14/wcm/news/p/nid/69223/article.html

It instead went to Josh Asselin.

Feldeine nevertheless spoke with great enthusiasm about playing with the national team during their 2012 training camp in an interview with FIBA.com last October and now says that being a part of the squad in Venezuela was a special experience.

"I'm proud to be part of this team," he said.

"I was anxious for this moment. I do not live in the Dominican Republic. I'm from New York, but as of now I know that I can be a help to the team."

The last time the Dominican Republic played at a FIBA World Championship was in 1978 in the Philippines, when the team finished 12th in the 14-team field.

"Our goal was to qualify for the finals and we did," Feldeine said.

The Dominicans had an opportunity to reach the podium in Caracas but fell to Puerto Rico in the Semi-Finals and then lost to Argentina in the third-place game.

"Argentina have a tremendous team," Feldeine said.

"We were able to beat them in the first round but they made some adjustments the next time we met."

FIBA

[Vega]

 

USF Athletics â€@USFAthletics

@USFMBB Head Coach @USFCoachO and Assistant Coach Oliver Antigua with @USFBaseball Head Coach Lelo Prado. pic.twitter.com/t7Qb2FT4j2

 

[Reliable Source]

The more I am thinking about this, the more it looks like we will be in need of a big time veteran assistant coach.  Here is what we have so far:

 

Orlando Antigua-zero experience as a Head coach

Oliver Antigua-3 total years as a college assistant

Rod Strickland-1 year college experience as a college assistant/4 years as a special assistant (I am reading that as a recruiting specialist)

Jerry McCullough-zero years of college coaching experience

 

That is pretty thin college coaching experience.  Especially for such a young team as ours.  

 

Bringing recruiting prowess and enthusiasm to the program is going to be great, but there still needs to be some kind of guiding influence over these kids and someone to really help Antigua out when the going gets rough.

Before everyone goes all Chicken Little on this let's correct the facts

 

Oliver Antigua- D-1 ASST Coach 2 years at Seton Hall, 1 year Asst coach. Not exactly how it was characterized. He prolly would have come over anyway if Masiello hadn't violation all over himself.

 

Oliver Antigua is in his first season as an assistant coach for the Seton Hall men's basketball program. The long-time St. Raymond High School head coach and former college teammate of Willard at Pittsburgh spent the 2012-13 season as an assistant coach at Manhattan College under Steve Masiello. Antigua was part of the Jaspers run to the 2013 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game.

Antigua spent the summer coaching professionally in the Dominican Republic for the Leones Basketball Club of Santo Domingo. As a member of the Leones' staff, he reunited with former Seton Hall guard Brian Laing '08 who played for Antigua at St. Raymond. Antigua also served as an assistant coach this summer under his brother Orlando Antigua for the Dominican Republic National Team at the FIBA Americas Championship in Caracas, Venezuela. The Dominican Republic advanced to the semifinals to secure a spot in the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain. It marked the first time the Dominican Republic qualified for the FIBA World Cup in 35 years.

Antigua enjoyed a successful career at St. Raymond High School in the Bronx, where he coached the Ravens to five Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Class AA championships over his 13-year tenure. In 10 seasons as head coach, the Ravens won 186 games and three intersectional championships (2003, 2004, 2012). The most recent championship campaign in 2012 featured St. Ramond posting a 21-10 overall record behind CHSAA Player of the Year Daniel Dingle. The Ravens captured a berth in the New York State Federation Tournament semifinals.

Over his extensive coaching career, Antigua has mentored more than 20 NCAA Division I talents, with four players moving on to careers in the NBA. He was named CHSAA Coach of the Year in 2002 by the New York Daily News and again garnered Coach of the Year honors in 2003 by the New York Post. He propelled St. Raymond to national recognition, as well. The Ravens were ranked as high as #3 in the country by USA Today Super 25 Poll in 2008.

Antigua lettered in the BIG EAST as a player at Pittsburgh from 1996-1998 before joining the collegiate coaching ranks on the Panthers' staff working under head coach Ralph Willard for one season. He returned to his alma mater St. Raymond in 1999 and helped lead the Ravens to CHSAA city championships in two of his three seasons as an assistant coach (1999 & 2000). The Ravens' accomplishments in Antigua's time as an assistant also included winning the New York State Federation title in 2000.

On the international level, Antigua also coached the Dominican Republic Under-17 team at the Central American qualifiers for the Pan American Games in the summer of 2011. Additionally, his background extends to stints coaching some of the top high school talent at the Nike All American Camp in 2007 and at the Jordan Brand All-American Game in 2008.

 

http://www.shupirates.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/oliver_antigua_866657.html

 

Strickland is the godfather of 2011 NBA Draft first overall pick and 2012 Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving.^[6]

Edited April 16, 2014 by Bullwinkle

[Ricky the Bull]

 

 

USF Athletics â€@USFAthletics

@USFMBB Head Coach @USFCoachO and Assistant Coach Oliver Antigua with @USFBaseball Head Coach Lelo Prado. pic.twitter.com/t7Qb2FT4j2

 

 

 

Coach O threw out one of the first pitches.  Suffice it to say that his baseball skills are limited.

[JTrue]

USF Athletics â€@USFAthletics

@USFMBB Head Coach @USFCoachO and Assistant Coach Oliver Antigua with @USFBaseball Head Coach Lelo Prado. pic.twitter.com/t7Qb2FT4j2

Coach O threw out one of the first pitches. Suffice it to say that his baseball skills are limited.

So Prado put him in the starting lineup?

[charsibb]

ZING!

[Mama_Bull]