by J.P Pelzman
Trove correspondent
Tony Skinn was all set to interview with University of Minnesota coach Richard Pitino for an assistant job in the spring. But that meeting never took place.
And Skinn couldn’t be happier that it didn’t.
Instead the former standout George Mason point guard and Louisiana Tech assistant coach wound up at Seton Hall as one of two new assistants on head coach Kevin Willard’s staff. Skinn’s assignment is to work mostly with the guards and wings for the Pirates, who will be looking for several new go-to players this season with the departure of most of last year’s senior-laden starting lineup.
“I think we have a chance to be very good,” Skinn said in an interview with PirateCrew.com. “Obviously we have a young group. It’s always tough when you transition from having a senior-led team like they had last year.
“We’ve got a group of competitive guys,” he added, “and with the way they compete every day in practice and the culture that we have here at The Hall they’re going to have a chance” to succeed.
Skinn and former Monmouth assistant Duane Woodward both were brought onto the coaching staff during the off-season after the departures of Fred Hill Jr. and Shaheen Holloway, who now is the head coach at Saint Peter’s.
“I ended up getting a phone call when I was actually at the airport,” Skinn said, recounting how he was contacted by Seton Hall. “I was getting ready to go to Minnesota to interview with Richard Pitino and they had a big snowstorm up there and I got a call from Grant Billmeier asking me if I would be interested in Seton Hall basketball. And me being an East Coast kid it definitely was something I was open to.”
Skinn was born in Nigeria and grew up in Takoma Park, Md.
“When I came up here and got to meet with Coach Willard and meet with Grant,” Skinn said, “I knew it was a job that I wanted.”
Seton Hall, of course, has reached the NCAA tournament each of the past three seasons, including an automatic bid as Big East tournament champs in 2016.
Skinn said he is well aware of that success, and added, “growing up in D.C., growing up a Georgetown Hoya fan, I’ve always known about Seton Hall.” He added that he admires “the job that Coach Willard and the previous staff have done. … He’s got an opportunity to capitalize and really take it to another level and win some tournament games like he did this last year, so I wanted to be a part of that.”
He also is meshing well with the other coaches.
Willard “is one of those guys who allows his coaches to learn by giving them more responsibility so I hit the ground running as soon as I got here.”
He said he and Woodward “have done a pretty good job, I would say, of getting to know those guys (players) and getting them to know us as well. At the end of the day we’re here for them and I think those guys believe that.”
Interestingly, Skinn evoked interest in the prior off-season from the program he had rooted for as a youngster.
“I interviewed with Pat (Ewing) when he first got the (Georgetown) job (in 2017) and for whatever reason it didn’t work out,” Skinn noted. “I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason so I didn’t hang my head down. I just went back to La. Tech and tried to do my best there.”
The Bulldogs posted back-to-back 23-10 seasons in 2015-16 and 2016-17. They were 17-16 last year.
Skinn heavily recruits his home area, the Beltway corridor, and helped bring point guard Daquan Bracey (Baltimore) and forward Anthony Duruji (Germantown, Md.) to Louisiana Tech. Bracey was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year two seasons ago and Duruji made the C-USA All-Freshman team last year.
Skinn said that at Seton Hall, he is “3-4 hours away from what, in my opinion, is one the greatest areas in the country for getting high-level players.”
And his pitch to those Beltway standouts?
“I’m biased because I’m here at Seton Hall,” he said, “but I think the Big East is the best basketball league in the country. You have a chance to be a part of a program that’s been in the top tier of that success, having the ability to play against top-level programs like Villanova and Xavier. Coach Willard is doing a tremendous job and he’s doing it again this year.”
Skinn added, “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to play against the best, so I think that’s very, very attractive to kids that come out of the D.C. area and are some of the most competitive kids in the country.
”Skinn added, “You know what kind of basketball player fits your program and I think Seton Hall has had a knack for getting tough gritty kids who play hard. Obviously you’ve got to have a certain level of skill but the most important thing is to show you’re giving your all on both ends of the floor and once you do that you have a chance to play at this level.”
Before he went to Tech, Skinn was an assistant coach for Nike Team Takeover, a Washington-based travel team considered to be one of the elite AAU programs in the country.
And he also has strong connections much farther away from New Jersey. The Nigerian-born Skinn played for that country’s national team in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
It marked the first time Nigeria’s national team had qualified for the Olympics.“It was kind of a big deal and just being a catalyst for that” was exciting, Skinn said.
“I’ve obviously built tremendous relationships there,” Skinn said. And one of those helped him land 7-1 shot-blocker extraordinaire Ike (pronounced EYE-KEY) Obiagu, who announced his intention to transfer out of Florida State in April.
“Ike’s uncle played with me on that national team,” Skinn said, “so I’ve got a great relationship with him. He wasn’t happy at Florida State and was looking for a different situation.”
Obiagu will sit out this season and be eligible to play for the Pirates in 2019-20.
“I’m 6-foot,” Skinn said, laughing, “so I’d be lying to you if I told you I was working with all the 7-footers we currently have. That’s Grant Billmeier’s specialty and he does a terrific job with those bigs. I specialize in the guards and the wings.”
He’s already been impressed with veterans Myles Powell and Myles Cale. Powell is expected to take on even more of a scoring role with the departures of Khadeen Carrington, Desi Rodriguez and low-box stalwart Angel Delgado.
Skinn also is bullish on the younger Pirates.
Freshman “Anthony Nelson has shown his ability to make plays and easy reads for guys,” the coach noted. “He’s unselfish. There’s some shake and bake in his game. He’s going to have a chance to be really good early.”
Sacred Heart transfer Quincy McKnight sat out the 2017-18 season and now is eligible.
“He’s kind of high-octane,” Skinn said. “He’s a combo guard who can play the point and wing as well. He’s pretty versatile. They’re going to have the opportunity to help us out this year.”
Once his playing career was over, Skinn “knew right away (coaching) was something I wanted to get into. I’m a leader. It comes naturally with being a point guard. I put together a game plan and did everything I had to do to put myself in this position.”
As a senior point guard, Skinn helped now-legendary 11th-seeded George Mason reach the 2006 Final Four.
Skinn averaged 11.3 points and 2.3 assists. The Patriots beat Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State (which had beaten Seton Hall in the first round) and Connecticut in a regional final before losing to Florida in the national semifinals.
“It was surreal,” he said. “It’s actually now more amazing than it was back then. You’re in the moment and it’s exciting but it hasn’t hit you. It’s hit me year after year when you’re a coach and you realize how difficult it is. It makes you value it so much.”
In his current team, Skinn sees a program and a culture that values hard work and putting in a full 40 minutes (or more) every game, the same as Kevin Willard’s other teams.
“I’ve been impressed since Day One when I got here,” Skinn said. “The culture here is unreal and when you bring that (intensity) every single day to practice, you’re going to have a chance every single night, no matter who your opponent is, to come out with a victory.
“I’m excited. It’s that time of the year. It’s October and we’re getting our guys ready and getting them fired up.”
COMMENTS
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
Trove correspondent
Tony Skinn was all set to interview with University of Minnesota coach Richard Pitino for an assistant job in the spring. But that meeting never took place.
And Skinn couldn’t be happier that it didn’t.
Instead the former standout George Mason point guard and Louisiana Tech assistant coach wound up at Seton Hall as one of two new assistants on head coach Kevin Willard’s staff. Skinn’s assignment is to work mostly with the guards and wings for the Pirates, who will be looking for several new go-to players this season with the departure of most of last year’s senior-laden starting lineup.
“I think we have a chance to be very good,” Skinn said in an interview with PirateCrew.com. “Obviously we have a young group. It’s always tough when you transition from having a senior-led team like they had last year.
“We’ve got a group of competitive guys,” he added, “and with the way they compete every day in practice and the culture that we have here at The Hall they’re going to have a chance” to succeed.
Skinn and former Monmouth assistant Duane Woodward both were brought onto the coaching staff during the off-season after the departures of Fred Hill Jr. and Shaheen Holloway, who now is the head coach at Saint Peter’s.
“I ended up getting a phone call when I was actually at the airport,” Skinn said, recounting how he was contacted by Seton Hall. “I was getting ready to go to Minnesota to interview with Richard Pitino and they had a big snowstorm up there and I got a call from Grant Billmeier asking me if I would be interested in Seton Hall basketball. And me being an East Coast kid it definitely was something I was open to.”
Skinn was born in Nigeria and grew up in Takoma Park, Md.
“When I came up here and got to meet with Coach Willard and meet with Grant,” Skinn said, “I knew it was a job that I wanted.”
Seton Hall, of course, has reached the NCAA tournament each of the past three seasons, including an automatic bid as Big East tournament champs in 2016.
Skinn said he is well aware of that success, and added, “growing up in D.C., growing up a Georgetown Hoya fan, I’ve always known about Seton Hall.” He added that he admires “the job that Coach Willard and the previous staff have done. … He’s got an opportunity to capitalize and really take it to another level and win some tournament games like he did this last year, so I wanted to be a part of that.”
He also is meshing well with the other coaches.
Willard “is one of those guys who allows his coaches to learn by giving them more responsibility so I hit the ground running as soon as I got here.”
He said he and Woodward “have done a pretty good job, I would say, of getting to know those guys (players) and getting them to know us as well. At the end of the day we’re here for them and I think those guys believe that.”
Interestingly, Skinn evoked interest in the prior off-season from the program he had rooted for as a youngster.
“I interviewed with Pat (Ewing) when he first got the (Georgetown) job (in 2017) and for whatever reason it didn’t work out,” Skinn noted. “I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason so I didn’t hang my head down. I just went back to La. Tech and tried to do my best there.”
The Bulldogs posted back-to-back 23-10 seasons in 2015-16 and 2016-17. They were 17-16 last year.
Skinn heavily recruits his home area, the Beltway corridor, and helped bring point guard Daquan Bracey (Baltimore) and forward Anthony Duruji (Germantown, Md.) to Louisiana Tech. Bracey was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year two seasons ago and Duruji made the C-USA All-Freshman team last year.
Skinn said that at Seton Hall, he is “3-4 hours away from what, in my opinion, is one the greatest areas in the country for getting high-level players.”
And his pitch to those Beltway standouts?
“I’m biased because I’m here at Seton Hall,” he said, “but I think the Big East is the best basketball league in the country. You have a chance to be a part of a program that’s been in the top tier of that success, having the ability to play against top-level programs like Villanova and Xavier. Coach Willard is doing a tremendous job and he’s doing it again this year.”
Skinn added, “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to play against the best, so I think that’s very, very attractive to kids that come out of the D.C. area and are some of the most competitive kids in the country.
”Skinn added, “You know what kind of basketball player fits your program and I think Seton Hall has had a knack for getting tough gritty kids who play hard. Obviously you’ve got to have a certain level of skill but the most important thing is to show you’re giving your all on both ends of the floor and once you do that you have a chance to play at this level.”
Before he went to Tech, Skinn was an assistant coach for Nike Team Takeover, a Washington-based travel team considered to be one of the elite AAU programs in the country.
And he also has strong connections much farther away from New Jersey. The Nigerian-born Skinn played for that country’s national team in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
It marked the first time Nigeria’s national team had qualified for the Olympics.“It was kind of a big deal and just being a catalyst for that” was exciting, Skinn said.
“I’ve obviously built tremendous relationships there,” Skinn said. And one of those helped him land 7-1 shot-blocker extraordinaire Ike (pronounced EYE-KEY) Obiagu, who announced his intention to transfer out of Florida State in April.
“Ike’s uncle played with me on that national team,” Skinn said, “so I’ve got a great relationship with him. He wasn’t happy at Florida State and was looking for a different situation.”
Obiagu will sit out this season and be eligible to play for the Pirates in 2019-20.
“I’m 6-foot,” Skinn said, laughing, “so I’d be lying to you if I told you I was working with all the 7-footers we currently have. That’s Grant Billmeier’s specialty and he does a terrific job with those bigs. I specialize in the guards and the wings.”
He’s already been impressed with veterans Myles Powell and Myles Cale. Powell is expected to take on even more of a scoring role with the departures of Khadeen Carrington, Desi Rodriguez and low-box stalwart Angel Delgado.
Skinn also is bullish on the younger Pirates.
Freshman “Anthony Nelson has shown his ability to make plays and easy reads for guys,” the coach noted. “He’s unselfish. There’s some shake and bake in his game. He’s going to have a chance to be really good early.”
Sacred Heart transfer Quincy McKnight sat out the 2017-18 season and now is eligible.
“He’s kind of high-octane,” Skinn said. “He’s a combo guard who can play the point and wing as well. He’s pretty versatile. They’re going to have the opportunity to help us out this year.”
Once his playing career was over, Skinn “knew right away (coaching) was something I wanted to get into. I’m a leader. It comes naturally with being a point guard. I put together a game plan and did everything I had to do to put myself in this position.”
As a senior point guard, Skinn helped now-legendary 11th-seeded George Mason reach the 2006 Final Four.
Skinn averaged 11.3 points and 2.3 assists. The Patriots beat Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State (which had beaten Seton Hall in the first round) and Connecticut in a regional final before losing to Florida in the national semifinals.
“It was surreal,” he said. “It’s actually now more amazing than it was back then. You’re in the moment and it’s exciting but it hasn’t hit you. It’s hit me year after year when you’re a coach and you realize how difficult it is. It makes you value it so much.”
In his current team, Skinn sees a program and a culture that values hard work and putting in a full 40 minutes (or more) every game, the same as Kevin Willard’s other teams.
“I’ve been impressed since Day One when I got here,” Skinn said. “The culture here is unreal and when you bring that (intensity) every single day to practice, you’re going to have a chance every single night, no matter who your opponent is, to come out with a victory.
“I’m excited. It’s that time of the year. It’s October and we’re getting our guys ready and getting them fired up.”
COMMENTS
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
