Sunday, December 22, 2024

IU INDIANAPOLIS ANNOUNCES MEN’S BASKETBALL STAFF – IUPUI Athletics

Must read

INDIANAPOLIS – IU Indianapolis head basketball coach Paul Corsaro announced his coaching staff this week, having assembled a staff with strong Indiana ties. Both Mike Burris and Reese McGinsie will join the program after having served with Corsaro at UIndy, while Indianapolis-native Tony Wills joins the program from UIC. Scott Gauthier will join the program from Lindenwood and Keith Oddo will return to the program as Special Assistant to the Head Coach. 

“I’m really excited about this staff collectively. It’s a group of men that I really trust to lead our guys and that will work incredibly hard to make the program better,” Corsaro said. “They each bring a unique skillset to their jobs, but together, I think we’re going to be able to recruit and develop student-athletes at a high, high level. 

“All of them have already hit the ground running and now we’re just excited to get the guys on campus and start putting it together.”

Burris joined the UIndy program with Corsaro prior to the 2020-21 season and helped the Greyhounds to back-to-back GLVC Regular Season titles in 2023 and 2024. UIndy went 68-25 the past three seasons with back-to-back NCAA Division II Tournament berths. The 2023 squad won a program best 26 games and climbed as high as No. 4 in the NABC national polls. He originally joined the UIndy program as assistant coach and was elevated to associate head coach in June 2022. Before joining UIndy, Burris was head coach at Olney Central College, winning 252 games over 15 seasons as the program’s all-time winningest head coach. He had 68 players sign with NCAA Division I and Division II programs and graduated 97 percent of his student-athletes. He was the 2012 Great Rivers Athletics Conference Coach of the Year and NJCAA Region 24 Coach of the Year in 2013. Burris is originally from Owensburg, Ind., and played collegiately at Olney Central and later at Cal Poly. 

Wills coached last season at UIC after spending two years prior at SIU. Wills helped guard Toby Okani to a spot on the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) All-Defensive Team after leading the league in blocked shots and ranking among the league’s top-10 in rebounding and steals. Wills helped SIU to 10 MVC wins in 2023, despite being picked last in the league’s preseason polls. That group, keyed by Freshman All-American Marcus Domask. Wills, who starred at nearby Ben Davis High School, started 71 games in his four seasons at Illinois State. As a senior, he made 32 starts for a team that went 28-7 overall and 17-1 in MVC play, earning a share of a regular season title. He was later named to the MVC’s All-Defensive Team. 

Gauthier joins the Jaguars after having spent last season as Director of Operations at Lindenwood University. Prior to that, he spent seven years as assistant coach at University of Missouri-St. Louis, helping the Tritons to a 135-70 record and three NCAA Division II Tournament appearances. The 2019-20 squad went 27-6 and earned a share of the GLVC regular season title on the heels of a 20-win season in 2018-19. Gauthier also spent nine years as assistant coach at Webster Groves (Mo.) High School, helping the Statesmen to a dominant stretch of nine straight Suburban South Conference titles, three district titles, two state quarterfinals appearances and the 2008 Missouri Class 5 state crown. Webster Groves went 218-41 (.846) during that span, including a 29-3 mark in the 2008 state championship season. 

McGinsie, an Indianapolis-native, joins the program after serving as graduate assistant at UIndy the past two years. McGinsie’s time with the Greyhounds coincided with back-to-back NCAA Division II Tournament appearances and a 49-14 (.777) record the past two seasons. McGinsie, a graduate of nearby Roncalli High School, played collegiately at Trine University in Angola, Ind. He made 33 appearances for the Thunder, including helping Trine to an undefeated regular season in 2020-21. 

Oddo returns to the program after having joined the staff in August 2023 as an assistant coach. Prior to IUPUI, Oddo spent two seasons at Bridgewater College (Va.) and was promoted to top assistant in spring 2022. The Roanoke, Va.-native also spent time as a graduate assistant at the University of Akron and worked as a team assistant for the Brooklyn Nets summer league team in 2021. He also spearheaded the creation and growth of the University of Louisville’s TBT entry ‘The Ville’ in 2023, highlighted by former Cardinal standouts Peyton Siva and Russ Smith. Oddo played four seasons collegiately at the University of Richmond before playing a fifth year at the University of Louisville, helping the Cardinals climb as high as No. 1 in the national polls and a 24-7 overall record. 

 

Latest article