Men's Basketball Coaching Staff
Head Coach Dave Niland
Penn State Behrend head men’s basketball coach Dave Niland is in his sixteenth season guiding the Behrend Lions program. Niland has produced 15 straight winning seasons and NCAA or ECAC postseason bids in twelve of the past thirteen years. He is the all-time leader in men's basketball coaching victories with 282 entering the 2009-10 season.
Niland has been named the AMCC Coach of the Year seven times—a league and college record. His teams have won five regular-season league titles, and three conference tournament championships. Last season the men's basketball team forged a record of 18-10 and earned its third ECAC Tournament bid in the past four seasons. In 2007-08 Niland led the Behrend Lions to an impressive 24-5 record, as the team captured the regular season AMCC championship and the conference tournament before eventually falling in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Rochester, New York. That squad’s defensive prowess was recognized for the second time in four seasons, as Behrend led Division III in scoring defense, limiting the opposition to a measly 54.6 points per game.
During the 2006-07 season, Niland’s team posted an impressive 21-8 mark and advanced to the ECAC Southern Region Tournament Championship Game. The year before Coach Niland and his program were awarded the Schoenfeld Award by the Collegiate Basketball Officials Association. The Schoenfeld Award is an annual award given to a college or university which the Collegiate Basketball Officials Association (CBOA) identifies as having "the highest degree of sportsmanship, character, and ethics among their players, coaches and spectators." The award is the highest honor that the CBOA annually bestows on any collegiate institution.
His 2003-04 team led all of Division III in scoring defense and posted a sharp 22-3 record entering the NCAA Tournament. The 1999-2000 team had the best season in school history, setting the school record for wins with 26 while advancing to the NCAA Elite Eight—the first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance for men's basketball. Also, in 1998-99, his squad earned the ECAC Southern Region Championship.
Niland came to Behrend after spending four seasons as an assistant coach at Canisius College and one season at Elmira College. He was a four-year letterman and captain during his senior year as a basketball standout at Le Moyne College. He earned his master's degree in physical education from Canisius and is now also a lecturer in health and physical education at Penn State Behrend.
E-mail Head Coach Dave Niland: dfn1@psu.edu
Assistant Coach Jimmy
Sutton
Jimmy Sutton enters his second season under Coach Dave Niland. He previously spent one year
as an assistant at both Suffolk Community College and Keystone
College. Sutton spent his playing career at Division I Marist
College in Poughkeepsie, NY,
where he graduated in 2006 with a degree in economics.
Sutton earned a spot on the MAAC All-Academic team in his junior and senior seasons. In his junior season Sutton was also given the coaches award.
He has been involved with numerous basketball camps over the summer. He has worked camps for Behrend, Villanova, Hoop Group, and the highly regarded Five Star Camp. Sutton is currently pursuing his MBA at Penn State Behrend.
Assistant Coach Rand Garrity
Rand Garrity begins his third season as an assistant for the Behrend Lions. Garrity was an assistant for several years at McDowell High School under Pete Flynn and Tom Hansen, helping the Trojans earn numerous District 10 championships.
Garrity also serves as the assistant director of the Behrend basketball summer camps. He is currently a teacher at Westlake Elementary School.