Brooklyn Boro

Blackbirds put their faith in Oliver

Bozzella Assistant Takes Over LIU-Brooklyn Women’s Hoops

May 20, 2015 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Stephanie Oliver will try to build a “championship culture” for LIU-Brooklyn’s women’s basketball program after being named head coach of the Blackbirds earlier this week. Photo courtesy of LIU-Brooklyn Athletics
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It’s been 15 long years since LIU-Brooklyn sent its women’s basketball team to the NCAA Tournament for its first, and thus far only, March Madness appearance.

The Downtown school’s athletic director is banking on Stephanie Oliver ending that drought in the not-too-distant future.

Blackbirds AD Brad Cohen will officially introduce Oliver as LIU’s new women’s head basketball coach Thursday afternoon at the Steinberg Wellness Center.

“We are pleased that Stephanie will be joining our program,” noted Cohen, who handed former coach Gail Striegler her walking papers two months ago following the Blackbirds’ disappointing 9-21 campaign and first-round exit from the Northeast Conference Tournament.

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“She has experienced winning as both a coach and a player,” Cohen added. “And we look forward to her development of a championship culture at LIU Brooklyn.”

That “championship culture” currently resides just a few blocks away from LIU at Remsen Street’s St. Francis College, where the women’s team pulled off back-to-back 20-plus win campaigns and an historic run to the NCAA Tournament in March.

The Blackbirds haven’t gone “Dancing” since March 2001, when then-head coach Anthony Bozzella guided the squad to its lone NEC title.

Striegler went a combined 96-115 during her seven seasons at the helm here, including a 2-5 mark in NEC Tournament play.

Oliver, who has spent the past three seasons honing her craft as an assistant under Bozzella at Seton Hall, where the Pirates have grown into a legitimate Big East contender, is ready to bring the Blackbirds back into the national spotlight.

“I am very excited to be provided the opportunity be the next head coach at LIU-Brooklyn,” Oliver said in a statement in advance of Thursday’s press conference.

“LIU offers a tremendous academic reputation, outstanding facilities, and vibrant location. My staff and I will work hard to build a program that LIU and the Brooklyn community can be truly proud of.”

The Blackbirds have failed to win more than nine games in any of the past three seasons, and are five years removed from their last NEC Championship Game appearance, which they lost on their home floor back in 2010.

Oliver, who is likely to begin announcing the rest of her coaching staff soon, was Bozzella’s top assistant at Seton Hall the past two seasons, including last year’s school-record 28-win campaign, which resulted in an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

Oliver is credited with helping Bozzella turn around a Pirates program that had compiled just two winning seasons since 2002-03.

Seton Hall won 20 games in Oliver’s first season as an assistant in 2013-14, earning the program’s first postseason berth in nearly a decade.
 
This past year, the Pirates also received a national ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in almost 20 years, rising as high as No. 23 in the country after a 70-51 victory over No. 14/16 Georgia on Dec. 28.
 
“I want to especially thank President Dr. Kimberly Cline, Vice President Gale Stevens-Haynes, Director of Athletics Brad Cohen, Deputy Director of Athletics Margaret Alaimo and the search committee for this amazing opportunity,” added Oliver, who does have previous head coaching experience after a productive three-year stint at the University of Bridgeport from 2010-13.
 
Oliver additionally spent time coaching at Caldwell College and Stevens Institute of Technology, where she was promoted to interim head coach of the Ducks at the end of the 2009-10 season.
 
The former Stephanie DelPreore was a standout student-athlete at Marist College from 2000-04. Over her four-year career, she scored 1,114 points and pulled down 670 rebounds, averaging 10.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in 109 career contests.

Upon graduation, she ranked sixth on Marist’s all-time scoring list and fifth in career rebounds.
 
A Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) All-Rookie selection in 2000-01, Oliver went on to receive Second-Team All-MAAC honors in 2003-04. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2004 MAAC Tournament after scoring 30 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and hitting two key free throws with seconds remaining to help the Red Foxes defeat Canisius in the championship game and advance to their first-ever NCAA Tournament.
 
After graduating from Marist with a liberal arts degree in communication in 2004, Oliver played professionally for Club Irlandesas in Leioa, Spain, for one season, leading the team in scoring, rebounding and minutes played.
 
As a prep player at New Jersey’s Livingston High School, Oliver finished her standout career as the school’s all-time leading scorer (1,809 points) and rebounder (1,454 rebounds), and was inducted into the Lancer Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.

Oliver and her husband, Mitch, a former assistant men’s basketball coach at Quinnipiac and currently serves as head men’s basketball coach at Albertus Magnus, reside in Connecticut.


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