LIU Sharks men's basketball

LIU Sharks
2024–25 LIU Sharks men's basketball team
University	Long Island University
Head coach	Rod Strickland (3rd season)
Conference	Northeast Conference
Location	Brooklyn, New York
Arena	Steinberg Wellness Center and Barclays Center (capacity: 3,000/17,732)
Nickname	Sharks
Colors	Blue and gold [1]
Pre-tournament Premo-Porretta champions
1936, 1941
Pre-tournament Helms champions
1939
NCAA tournament appearances
Division I 1981#, 1984#, 1997#, 2011#, 2012#, 2013#, 2018# Division II 1962*, 1965#, 1966#, 1967#, 1971*, 1973*, 1974*. 1983*, 1984*, 1985*, 1987*, 1989*, 1990*, 1993*, 2002*, 2003*, 2008*, 2009*, 2011*, 2012* (# = LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds; * = LIU Post Pioneers)
Conference tournament champions
LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds 1981, 1984, 1997, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018 LIU Post Pioneers 1990, 1991, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
Conference regular season champions
LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds Metro NY: 1936, 1937, 1939 Tri-State: 1965, [lower-alpha 1] 1966, 1967 NEC: 1983, 1984, 1997, 1998, 2011, 2012 LIU Post Pioneers ECC: 1990, 1991, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012

The LIU Sharks men's basketball team represents Long Island University in NCAA Division I basketball competition. They play their home games at their Brooklyn Campus in the Steinberg Wellness Center and Barclays Center, formerly known as the Wellness, Recreation & Athletics Center, and are members of the Northeast Conference. Their current head coach is Rod Strickland who was hired in June 2022. ^[2]

The LIU Sharks are the result of the July 1, 2019 unification of the athletic departments which had previously represented two separate campuses of LIU, the Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the Division II LIU Post Pioneers. ^{[3] [4]}

History

Blackbirds

LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds

The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds team represented the Brooklyn campus of LIU. Following Long Island University's founding in 1927, it soon entered intercollegiate athletic competition. Initially, its sports teams wore blue uniforms and became known as the Blue Devils. In 1935, a Brooklyn Eagle reporter saw the basketball team in its new black uniforms and stated that the team looked like blackbirds, and a new nickname was born.

LIU was a national basketball powerhouse in the 1930s and 1940s under Clair Bee, who compiled the highest winning percentage in major college basketball history, and the 1935–36 team was retroactively recognized as the pre-NCAA tournament national champion by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. ^[5]

After several players were implicated in the point-shaving scandal of 1951, LIU shuttered its entire athletic program. It returned to the College Division (now Division II) in 1957. At the same time as the Blackbirds returned, LIU's C.W. Post College Pioneers began competing in the College Division as well with the athletic identity renamed LIU Post in 2012. ^[6]

The Blackbirds joined the Tri-State Collegiate Basketball League, a conference that included only College Division teams, for the 1959–60 season. In 1965, they finished tied for first place with Wagner, and the teams met in a playoff game on Hoftra's home court on March 3, to determine the conference champion and winner of the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Led by George Barbezat and Al Grant, the Blackbirds overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat Wagner, 78–69. ^{[7] [8]}

Prior to the 1965–66 season, the Blackbirds became a charter member of the Metropolitan Collegiate Conference, a league that included both University Division and College Division teams, and competed in both the Tri-State and Met conferences through the end of the 1966–67 season, after which the Tri-State League dissolved.

The Blackbirds repeated as Tri-State League champions in 1966, earning a second automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. ^[9] Larry Newbold scored 22 points to lead the Blackbirds to an 87–74 home victory over Bridgeport on February 13, 1967, completing a perfect conference season for LIU and clinching their third straight Tri-State League title and NCAA tournament berth. ^[10]

LIU reclassified to the University Division (the predecessor to Division I) for the 1968–69 season. ^[11] The Met Conference dissolved following the 1968–69 season.

The Blackbirds became a charter member of the Northeast Conference, then known as the ECAC Metro Conference, in 1981.

On March 12, 2013, the team achieved what was the greatest run in Northeast Conference history with a third straight NCAA Tournament bid. ^[12]

The Blackbirds' final head coach was Derek Kellogg, who was hired after his firing by Massachusetts in 2017, with the 2017–18 season his first as LIU mentor.

In October 2018, LIU announced that it would merge its two existing athletic programs—the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and LIU Post Pioneers, the latter an NCAA Division II member—effective with the 2019–20 school year. The merged athletic program now competes as the LIU Sharks, with the new colors of blue and gold, with Kellogg becoming the Sharks' first head men's basketball coach. ^{[13] [14]} The Sharks inherited the Division I and Northeast Conference memberships formerly held by the Blackbirds.

Blackbirds Postseason

NCAA Division I Tournament results

The Blackbirds appeared in the NCAA Division I tournament seven times. Their combined record was 0–7.

Year	Seed	Round	Opponent	Result
1981	#12	First round	#5 VCU	L 69–85
1984	#11	Preliminary Round	#11 Northeastern	L 87–90
1997	#13	First round	#4 Villanova	L 91–101
2011	#15	First round	#2 North Carolina	L 87–102
2012	#16	First round	#1 Michigan State	L 67–89
2013	#16	First Four	#16 James Madison	L 55–68
2018	#16	First Four	#16 Radford	L 61–71

NCAA Division II tournament results

The Blackbirds appeared in the NCAA Division II tournament three times. Their combined record was 6–3.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1965	Regional semifinals Regional Finals	Cheyney Philadelphia Textile	W 57–48 L 58–61
1966	Regional semifinals Regional Finals Elite Eight	Drexel Cheyney Akron	W 62–54 W 67–64 L 68–74
1967	Regional Quarterfinals Regional semifinals Regional Finals Elite Eight	Rochester Central Connecticut State Saint Michael's Winston-Salem State	W 85–76 W 114–66 W 72–64 L 54–62

NIT results

The Blackbirds appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) ten times. Their combined record was 7–8 and they were NIT champions in 1939 and 1941.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1938	Quarterfinals	NYU	L 37–39
1939	Quarterfinals Semifinals Championship Game	New Mexico A&M Bradley Loyola (IL)	W 52–45 W 36–33 W 45–32
1940	Quarterfinals	DePaul	L 38–45
1941	Quarterfinals Semifinals Championship Game	Westminster Seton Hall Ohio	W 48–36 W 49–26 W 56–42
1942	Quarterfinals	West Virginia	L 49–58
1947	Quarterfinals	Kentucky	L 62–66
1950	Quarterfinals	Syracuse	L 52–80
1968	First round Quarterfinals	Bradley Notre Dame	W 80–77 L 60–62
1982	First round	Illinois	L 78–126
1998	First round	Dayton	L 92–95

Rivalry

The Battle of Brooklyn plaque listing the men's basketball winners since 1976

For 44 years, beginning in the 1975–1976 season, an annual Battle of Brooklyn has been a tradition for LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers men's basketball teams. Each season, a game (the schools usually play each other twice) is dedicated in tribute William Lai and Daniel Lynch, former athletic directors at Long Island University and St. Francis College, respectively. The Battle of Brooklyn has been a tradition between the basketball programs for 40 years. Each year the most valuable player of the game is given the Lai-Lynch Trophy in memory of the two ADs. Long Island now has a Battle record of 23–17 against St. Francis.

Notable players

• Barry Leibowitz (born 1945), American-Israeli basketball player
• Charles Jones (born 1975), American basketball player

Notes

1. Finished tied for first place with Wagner and won playoff game for conference championship, 78–69, on March 3, 1965.

References

1. Long Island University Style Guide for Print and Visual Application (PDF). July 25, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
2. Warren, Brooks (June 30, 2022). "Rod Strickland Leaving G League Ignite to Become Head Coach of LIU Brooklyn". slamonline.com. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
3. "LIU combining Post and Brooklyn athletic programs". Newsday. October 3, 2018. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
4. "#OneLIU website". Long Island University. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
5. ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. p. 544. ISBN   978-0-345-51392-2.
6. "The Official Site of Long Island University–LIU Post Pioneers Athletics". Long Island University. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
7. "LIU Jars Wagner, to Play Cheney". The Philadelphia Inquirer. March 4, 1965. p. 31. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
8. "LIU Combine Tops Wagner for Tri-State Title". The Bridgeport Telegram. March 4, 1965. p. 32. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
9. "Stags Oppose Canisius Here Tonight; UB at Hofstra: Bill O'Dowd Closing in on 1,000th". The Bridgeport Telegram. February 22, 1966. p. 12. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
10. "LIU Overcomes UB Quintet, 87–74; Sacred Heart Wins: Blackbirds Rally to Win in 2nd Half". The Bridgeport Telegram. February 14, 1967. p. 16. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
11. "Division I Alignment History". Men's Basketball Conference Standings (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2022. p. 48. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
12. "LIU Brooklyn makes history with third consecutive Northeast Conference title after defeating Mount St. Mary's". New York Daily News. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
13. "LIU combining Post and Brooklyn athletic programs". Newsday. October 3, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
14. "#OneLIU website". Long Island University. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019.

External links

• Official website