 Left to right: Al Skinner,Jack Leaman, andJulius Erving at the ceremony to retire Skinner's UMass jersey | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1952-06-16)June 16, 1952 (age 73) Mount Vernon, New York, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
| Listed weight | 190 lb (86 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Malverne (Malverne, New York) |
| College | UMass (1971–1974) |
| NBA draft | 1974: 9th round, 160th overall pick |
| Drafted by | Boston Celtics |
| Playing career | 1974–1981 |
| Position | Shooting guard |
| Number | 30, 35 |
| Coaching career | 1982–2019 |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| 1974–1977 | New York/New Jersey Nets |
| 1977–1978 | Detroit Pistons |
| 1978–1979 | New Jersey Nets |
| 1979–1980 | Philadelphia 76ers |
| 1980–1981 | Joventut Badalona |
Coaching | |
| 1982–1984 | Marist (assistant) |
| 1984–1988 | Rhode Island (assistant) |
| 1988–1997 | Rhode Island |
| 1997–2010 | Boston College |
| 2013–2015 | Bryant (assistant) |
| 2015–2019 | Kennesaw State |
| Career highlights | |
As player:
As coach:
| |
Stats at NBA.com  | |
| Stats atBasketball Reference | |
Albert Lee Skinner Jr. (born June 16, 1952) is an American men'scollege basketball head coach and a former collegiate and professionalbasketball player. He was formerly the head coach of theBoston College Eagles men's basketball team and was then an assistant atBryant University before becoming the head coach ofKennesaw State University in 2015.
Skinner played at theUniversity of Massachusetts. While on the freshman team in the 1970–71 season, the varsity team was led byJulius Erving, in what would be Erving's final season in college. (Skinner and Erving would later play together professionally.) Skinner was also a teammate ofRick Pitino.
Skinner scored 1,235 points in his three years on the varsity squad. He led the team in rebounding each of those three years, and in scoring in his junior and senior seasons. As a senior, he averaged a double-double with 18.8 points and 11.0 rebounds. That scoring average also led theYankee Conference. He recorded the first triple-double in UMass history, with 28 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists againstSt. Peter's on Dec. 28, 1973 inSpringfield MA.[1]
Skinner was a three-time Yankee Conference First Team selection. He led UMass to two straight YC titles in the 1972–73 and 1973–74 seasons. As a senior in 1973–74, he was the team captain and an All-America honorable mention selection.
His jersey number 30 was retired in a ceremony at UMass on Feb. 18, 2004.[2]
Skinner was drafted by theBoston Celtics in the1974 NBA draft (16th pick of the 9th round, or 160th overall pick).[3] He never ended up playing with Boston. Instead, he joined theNew York Nets in theABA, where he reunited with Julius Erving. The pair helped the Nets win the ABA title in 1975–76.
In his total ABA/NBA career, he spent time with the Nets (1974–77, 1978–79),Pistons (1977–78) and76ers (1979–80).[4]
An odd footnote to Skinner's career is that heis the only player in NBA history to earn a DNP for both teams in the same game. In a game against the Philadelphia 76ers on November 8, 1978, Skinner's Nets lost in overtime. However, the result was protested by New Jersey due to a total of six technical fouls being called onBernard King and coachKevin Loughery by refereeRichie Powers, with both men receiving three each. Per the rules, only two technical fouls could be called against any individual player or coach; as such, the protest was upheld and the game was ordered to be replayed from the point where King and Loughery were ejected. Before this could happen, the Nets and 76ers made a trade where Skinner andEric Money were swapped forHarvey Catchings and Ralph Simpson; this mean that, when the teams returned to finish the protested game on March 23, 1979, the four players were noted in the stat sheets for both teams with Skinner not playing for the 76ers in the return contest.[5]
After retiring from his playing career, Skinner entered the college coaching ranks. He served as an assistant coach atMarist from 1982 to 1984, and then at theUniversity of Rhode Island from 1984 to 1988.
He was named head coach at URI beginning with the 1988–89 season, replacingTom Penders. Skinner coached the Rams for nine seasons, during which he won theAtlantic 10 Coach of the Year award for the 1991–92 season. He is also credited for recruiting many of the players of the Rams' 1997–98 team –Cuttino Mobley andTyson Wheeler – which reached the Elite Eight of the1998 NCAA tournament.
During Skinner's tenure, the Rams were selected to two NITs and two NCAA Tournaments. He was inducted into URI's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.[6]
On April 17, 1997, Skinner was hired to lead Boston College afterJim O'Brien left forOhio State. Nearly all of the Eagles' prominent players followed O'Brien to Ohio State, leaving Skinner with a depleted roster. As a result, the Eagles struggled for Skinner's first three seasons in Chestnut Hill, winning only 12 games inBig East play and 32 overall.
After the Eagles struggled in Skinner's first three seasons in Chestnut Hill, he guided the 2000–01 team to the Big East regular season title with a 13–3 record—their first regular season title in 18 years. The Eagles went on to win theBig East tournament, and earned a #3 seed in theNCAA tournament. He was named the season's Coach of the Year both Nationally and in the Big East.
In the 2004–05 season, the Eagles became the first Big East team in history to start a season 20–0. The Eagles were ranked #4 in the AP Poll at the time, and even reached as high as #3 later in the season. Though they won the conference regular season title, the Eagles fell in the Quarter-Finals of theBig East tournament. As a #4 seed in the2005 NCAA tournament, they were upset by #12 seedMilwaukee. Skinner was namedBig East Coach of the Year in 2004–05.
The 2005–06 Eagles finished with a 28–8 record, which stands as the most wins in a single season in BC history. They also advanced to the Sweet 16, tying the second-deepest NCAA run for an Eagle team. During the season, Skinner also became the all-time winningest coach in BC history, surpassing O'Brien's 168 wins.
Through the 2009–10 season, Skinner led Boston College to seven NCAA Tournaments, and one NIT.
On March 30, 2010, Skinner was fired as head coach at Boston College following only his second losing season of the millennium.[7]
Almost a year to the day after his firing, Skinner took part in a phone interview withBoston Globe sportswriter Mark Blaudschun. Ending a year of self-imposed silence about what transpired atBoston College, Skinner defended his record, stating, "I ran a good program, I graduated my kids. Everybody has problems, but we addressed them and handled them in a matter that satisfied every one." Skinner continued the interview by saying that he felt that, had he been at BC during the 2010–11 season, the Eagles would have been more of a factor in the national picture. "I know the potential we had", he said. "We would have had a dog in this fight, and that we don’t bothers me." His remarks, and the fact that his interview ran on the front page of the Sports section of The Boston Globe, demonstrated the ongoing controversy regarding his firing in March 2010.[8]
In 2013, Skinner joined the staff of his former assistant coach,Tim O'Shea, as an assistant coach at Bryant University, and his first coaching job since being let go at Boston College.
On April 26, 2015, Skinner was named the sixth head coach in school history at Kennesaw State, replacingJimmy Lallathin.[9]
On February 21, 2019, Skinner announced his resignation from Kennesaw State effective at the end of the season.[10]
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island Rams(Atlantic 10 Conference)(1988–1997) | |||||||||
| 1988–89 | Rhode Island | 13–15 | 9–9 | 5th | |||||
| 1989–90 | Rhode Island | 15–13 | 11–7 | 4th | |||||
| 1990–91 | Rhode Island | 11–17 | 6–12 | 9th | |||||
| 1991–92 | Rhode Island | 22–10 | 9–7 | 4th | NIT Quarterfinal | ||||
| 1992–93 | Rhode Island | 19–11 | 8–6 | 5th | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
| 1993–94 | Rhode Island | 11–16 | 7–9 | 6th | |||||
| 1994–95 | Rhode Island | 7–20 | 2–14 | 9th | |||||
| 1995–96 | Rhode Island | 20–14 | 8–8 | 4th(East) | NIT Quarterfinal | ||||
| 1996–97 | Rhode Island | 20–10 | 12–4 | 2nd(East) | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
| Rhode Island: | 138–126 | 72–76 | |||||||
| Boston College Eagles(Big East Conference)(1997–2005) | |||||||||
| 1997–98 | Boston College | 15–16 | 6–12 | 6th(BE 6) | |||||
| 1998–99 | Boston College | 6–21 | 3–15 | 13th | |||||
| 1999–00 | Boston College | 11–19 | 3–13 | 13th | |||||
| 2000–01 | Boston College | 27–5 | 13–3 | 1st(East) | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
| 2001–02 | Boston College | 20–12 | 8–8 | 4th(East) | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
| 2002–03 | Boston College | 19–12 | 10–6 | 1st(East) | NIT First Round | ||||
| 2003–04 | Boston College | 24–10 | 10–6 | 5th | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
| 2004–05 | Boston College | 25–5 | 13–3 | 1st | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
| Boston College Eagles(Atlantic Coast Conference)(2005–2010) | |||||||||
| 2005–06 | Boston College | 28–8 | 11–5 | 3rd | NCAA Division I Sweet 16 | ||||
| 2006–07 | Boston College | 21–12 | 10–6 | 4th | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
| 2007–08 | Boston College | 14–17 | 4–12 | 11th | |||||
| 2008–09 | Boston College | 22–12 | 9–7 | 6th | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
| 2009–10 | Boston College | 15–16 | 6–10 | 8th | |||||
| Boston College: | 247–165 | 106–106 | |||||||
| Kennesaw State Owls(ASUN Conference)(2015–2019) | |||||||||
| 2015–16 | Kennesaw State | 11–20 | 7–7 | T–5th | |||||
| 2016–17 | Kennesaw State | 14–18 | 7–7 | T–4th | |||||
| 2017–18 | Kennesaw State | 10–20 | 6–8 | 6th | |||||
| 2018–19 | Kennesaw State | 6–26 | 3–13 | T–8th | |||||
| Kennesaw State: | 41–84 | 23–35 | |||||||
| Total: | 426–375 | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion | |||||||||
During the 1978–79 season, Skinner was traded by theNew Jersey Nets to thePhiladelphia 76ers along withEric Money forHarvey Catchings andRalph Simpson. The trade occurred while a protest filed by the Nets against the referees of an earlier game against the 76ers, which New Jersey had actually won, where head coachKevin Loughery was called for three technical fouls. The rules only allowed two to be called, and the league granted the Nets' appeal. Therefore, the game was considered suspended at the point of the illegal technical foul call and the game would be restarted and finished from there when the two teams met again, by which time the trade had occurred. The players involved in the trade were allowed to suit up for their new teams when the suspended game resumed, and everyone but Skinner, who had not dressed for the original game either, got to play.