LIU Sharks men's basketball

The LIU Sharks men's basketball team represents Long Island University in NCAA Division I basketball competition. They play their home games at their Brooklyn Campus in the Steinberg Wellness Center, formerly known as the Wellness, Recreation & Athletics Center, and are members of the Northeast Conference. Their current head coach is Derek Kellogg who was hired after his firing from Massachusetts in 2017. [2]

LIU Sharks
2019–20 LIU Sharks men's basketball team
UniversityLong Island University
Head coachDerek Kellogg (3rd season)
ConferenceNortheast Conference
LocationBrooklyn, New York
ArenaSteinberg Wellness Center
(Capacity: 3,000)
NicknameSharks
ColorsBlue and Gold[1]
         
Pre-tournament Premo-Porretta Champions
1936
NCAA Tournament Appearances
Division I
1981#, 1984#, 1997#, 2011#, 2012#, 2013#, 2018#
Division II
1962*, 1965#, 1966#, 1967#, 1971*, 1973*, 1974*. 1983*, 1984*, 1985*, 1987*, 1989*, 1990*, 1993*, 2002*, 2003*, 2008*, 2009*, 2011*, 2012*
(# = LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds; * = LIU Post Pioneers)
Conference Tournament Champions
LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds
1981, 1984, 1997, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018
LIU Post Pioneers
1990, 1991, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
Conference Regular Season Champions
LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds
Metro NY: 1936, 1937, 1939
NEC: 1983, 1984, 1997, 1998, 2011, 2012
LIU Post Pioneers
ECC 1990, 1991, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012

The LIU Sharks are the result of the July 1, 2019 unification of the athletic departments which had previously represented two separate campuses of LIU, the Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the Division II LIU Post Pioneers.[3][4]

History

Following Long Island University's founding in 1927, it soon entered intercollegiate athletic competition. Initially, its sports teams wore blue uniforms and became known as the Blue Devils. In 1935, a Brooklyn Eagle reporter saw the basketball team in its new black uniforms and stated that the team looked like blackbirds, and a new nicknale was born.

LIU was a national basketball powerhouse in the 1930s and 1940s under Clair Bee, who compiled the highest winning percentage in major college basketball history, and the 1935–36 team was retroactively recognized as the pre-NCAA Tournament national champion by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.[5]

After several players were implicated in the point-shaving scandal of 1951, LIU shuttered its entire athletic program. It returned to the College Division (now Division II) in 1957 as the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds, and only returned to Division I in the 1980s. At the same time as the Blackbirds returned, LIU's C.W. Post College Pioneers began competing, in the College Division with the school being renamed LIU Post in 2012.[6]

Rivalry

The Battle of Brooklyn plaque listing the men's basketball winners since 1976

For 44 years, beginning in the 1975–1976 season, an annual Battle of Brooklyn has been a tradition for LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers men's basketball teams. Each season, a game (the schools usually play each other twice) is dedicated in tribute William Lai and Daniel Lynch, former athletic directors at Long Island University and St. Francis College, respectively.

References

  1. Long Island University Style Guide for Print and Visual Application (PDF). July 25, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  2. "LIU Brooklyn makes history with third consecutive Northeast Conference title after defeating Mount St. Mary's". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  3. "LIU combining Post and Brooklyn athletic programs". Newsday. October 3, 2018. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  4. "#OneLIU website". Long Island University. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  5. ESPN, ed. (2009). ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. New York, NY: ESPN Books. p. 544. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.
  6. "The Official Site of Long Island University–LIU Post Pioneers Athletics". Long Island University. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
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