After a disappointing finish in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference a season ago, the Allegheny men’s basketball team wanted a change.
Earlier in the month, athletic director Bill Ross announced that Pat Sullivan was named the next head coach of the team.
“I was looking for a head coaching opportunity at a high academic Division III institution that also valued winning,” Sullivan said after accepting the role. “It is important to me that I am at a place where I know that the students are being educated at a high level and that they are being prepared for lifelong success.”
Sullivan was also enticed by what the buildings could offer.
“Allegheny has an impressive campus and athletic facilities,” he said. “It really checked all of the boxes that I was looking for.”
Coming from the North Coast Athletic Conference, Sullivan has seen plenty of the Gators in years prior. He was formally the head coach at Wabash College and has strung together success over the recent years with the Little Giants.
Sullivan led his old team to three consecutive NCAC tournament titles and NCAA tournament appearances, from 2021-22 to 2023-24. His first two years at the helm were amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and there was no postseason.
He amassed a 167-93 record in his five years at Wabash and also led the program to a record-setting 28 wins in the 2021-22 year. The Little Giants went to the NCAA Championships semi-finals that season and were ranked No. 15 in the country at the Division III level.
“I learned that a player-led team is always better than a coach-led team,” Sullivan said. “The players have to be invested in the program if you are going to have championship-level success. It’s a hard thing to achieve and not something that happens overnight. It takes a lot of hard work, commitment and trust.”
Sullivan also emphasized his piece in the puzzle as well.
“It’s also on myself and the other coaches to create the right environment for this to happen,” he added. “We have to empower the players to become leaders and give them the tools and information they need to be successful.”
The Gators placed last in the PAC a season ago with a 4-18 record. In the 2022-23 campaign, they went to the conference tournament final, placing second behind Chatham University.
“We have to be consistent in our practice on a daily basis,” Sullivan said. “We will be organized and structured. We will be very detailed in how we break everything down in practice and in preparation for games.”
His ideas of gaining consistency are centered around knowledge from his team.
“It’s important that the players understand why we are doing what we are doing and how the pieces fit together,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to be consistent when you are given the necessary information to understand what you are being asked.”
Understanding there was a lot of work to be done upon being hired, Sullivan wasted no time picking up the phone to make several calls.
“I knew the roster needed some work, as we had guys in the transfer portal that I knew I needed to try to get to stay,” he said. “The first thing I did after signing the paperwork was to start calling the returning players, and then once I finished calling all of them, I moved on to calling the recruits.”
Members of the athletic department told The Campus they were ecstatic to hear Sullivan was coming to Allegheny, and there is a buzz around the new look.
Hoops in is in the middle of its offseason, but the grind has already begun for Allegheny.
“We have to be willing to outwork the teams we are playing against,” Sullivan said. “There’s no substitute for hard work.”
