|
On April 11, 2005 former Alabama assistant Orlando Early was named the sixth head coach of the ULM men’s basketball program. An enthusiastic leader and proven winner, Early instantly became the face of one of the region’s most historic programs, leading the Warhawks into the Sun Belt Conference and establishing him as one of the rising stars of the collegiate basketball coaching fraternity.
Now entering his fourth season at the helm, Early has proven himself in short time as the best man to return the program to the successes it experienced during its gloried past.
Under Early’s guidance, the Warhawks have returned to their dominant ways inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum posting a 28-12 home record in his first three seasons. During one stretch, including the entire 2006-07 season, ULM rattled off 15-consecutive home victories – a streak that reached as high as sixth nationally before it ended on a buzzer beating shot.
Early - The Head Coach
With only three seasons under his belt at ULM, it hasn’t taken long for Early to experience the highs and lows that come with being the head coach of collegiate basketball program. He was hired with the daunting task of succeeding the program’s only 400-game winner and the Southland Conference’s all-time winningest coach in Mike Vining.
The off-court challenges came before Early’s first ULM squad ever took to the floor. On August 23, 2005 – just over four months after the coach’s appointment – the southern half of the Warhawks home state was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The squad featured two players and an assistant coach directly affected by the disaster. Already an uphill battle with a program that failed to tally double-digit wins for the first time in 46 seasons, Early guided the team to a 10-18 overall record.
One year later the Warhawks joined the Sun Belt Conference and, under Early’s guidance, made their presence known immediately. Picked in the 2006-07 preseason league polls to finish last, the Early-led Warhawks raced out to a 4-0 league start and ended the season with an 11-7 conference mark. With an 18-14 overall record marking the program’s first winning campaign since the 2001-02 season, ULM won a share of the West Division title. The team advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament before being knocked out – in overtime – by eventual champion North Texas.
ULM’s postseason win and winning league record were also the first for the program since the 2001-02 campaign.
Having taken the league by storm during his sophomore campaign, Early garnered Coach of the Year honors from four different outlets, including the Sun Belt Conference, Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches, Louisiana Sports Writers Association, and National Association of Basketball Coaches. Early also ended the 2006-07 season as a finalist for the Hugh Durham Mid-Major Coach of the Year award.
With high expectations for the 2007-08 season, ULM opened at eventual national champion Kansas and became the only program on the season to convert on better than 50 percent of their field goals in the loss to the Jayhawks. ULM challenged nationally ranked Michigan State in the CBE Classic before breaking out with a win over the Big 10’s Iowa in the opening round of the Hawkeye Challenge.
From hunter to hunted, ULM entered the conference slate with a .500 record and ready to defend its divisional title from the previous season. A buzzer-beating shot in the league opener, coupled with some unlucky bounces along the way culminated in a 10-21 season that ended with a first-round loss at Middle Tennessee in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.
Through his first three seasons as a head coach, Early has led the Warhawks to a 38-53 overall record.
Early - The Assistant
Beginning his collegiate coaching career as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Gardner-Webb, in the 1993-94 season, Early began a meteoric rise over the next ten years. His work in a supporting role became nationally recognized and culminated in an appearance in Athlon magazine’s Fall 2004 basketball issue as the third best assistant coach in the nation.
With Early on the sideline, teams have posted a winning record nine times – including five seasons with 20 or more wins – and advanced to the NCAA Tournament on seven occasions.
After two seasons with his alma mater, Early joined the staff at Western Carolina for the 1995-96 season. In his first year as an assistant with the Catamounts, Early helped the team to the Southern Conference championship and his first NCAA Tournament appearance. One year later, he was promoted to associate head coach – a position he served in for two seasons.
Prior to the 1998-99 season, Early continued his coaching assent by joining Bobby Lutz’s staff as an assistant at UNC-Charlotte. In three seasons with the 49ers, Early helped the team to a pair of Conference USA titles, two NCAA Tournament appearances, an NIT appearance and 62-38 overall record.
Three years later Alabama’s Mark Gottfried came calling for Early and added him to his staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2001-02 season. On December 23 of his first season in Tuscaloosa, Alabama reached a No. 1 national ranking on their way to an SEC regular season championship and an NCAA Elite Eight appearance.
In four seasons with the Crimson Tide, Early helped the team to four-consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Alabama topped 20 wins three times with the ULM head coach on the sidelines and posted a combined 88-41 record.
Early - The Player
Before starting his collegiate coaching career Early served as the floor general of the Gardner-Webb Running Bulldogs in Boiling Springs, N.C. As the team’s point guard, he helped the team to the 1988 NAIA District 26 title.
A four-year letterwinner as a point guard, he graduated with a degree in accounting in 1990.
Early - The Person
An avid teacher of the game, Early spends his summers teaching the game of basketball to youth in the Monroe, La. area. In the summer of 2008, Early returned to his hometown of Lebanon, Va. to conduct his first youth basketball camp in the area.
More than just a basketball teacher, Early has instilled in his players a responsibility to the community they live in. Following Hurricane Katrina Early and his first team of Warhawks volunteered during the relief efforts - lending an ear, serving food, and organizing supplies for those displaced by the disaster. This past summer, the Warhawks were at it again, helping ease the pain of those families that were displaced to Monroe, La. due to Hurricane’s Gustav and Ike.
Early is married to the former Jualeah Johnson. The couple has three children, Nakita, Storm and Erica.
A native of Lebanon, Va., he was born on November 27, 1967.
|
Courtesy: ulmwarhawks.com
