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La Salle alum Neubauer settling in at Fordham

10/22/2015, 9:02am EDT
By Stephen Pianovich

New Fordham head coach Jeff Neubauer (above) played for La Salle from 1989-1993. (Photo: Madeline Pryor/CoBL)

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's 2015-16 College Season Preview, which will run from October 2-November 13, the first day of games. For the complete rundown, click here)

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BROOKLYN – Jeff Neubauer’s introduction to college basketball happened in Philadelphia.

As high school player in Louisiana, Neubauer was recruited late in his senior year by La Salle’s William “Speedy” Morris. After a call with the coach and a visit to Olney Ave., Neubauer was sold on a college career with the Explorers. In four years playing for Morris from 1989-93, Neubauer went to the NCAA Tournament twice and made dozens of memories on La Salle’s campus.

This season, Neubauer will be facing his alma mater for the first time as a head coach.

After a decade as Eastern Kentucky’s head man, Neubauer took the Fordham job this offseason, reuniting himself with La Salle in the Atlantic 10. Neubauer still credits what he learned playing under Morris – who last coached La Salle in 2001 and currently coaches St. Joe’s Prep -- to how he approaches some aspects of coaching.

“How I relate to players, I think it begins with my relationship to Speedy,” Neubauer said at Tuesday’s Atlantic 10 media day. “He was a terrific man who treated people with respect, and I think that goes a long way.”

The Rams’ visit to Tom Gola Arena on Feb. 24 won’t be Neubauer’s initial return to La Salle as a coach, however. When he was an assistant at Richmond, the Spiders visited the Explorers in the 2001-02 season.

Richmond was Neubauer’s second coaching stop, as he started his career on the Citadel’s bench as a graduate assistant in 1993. He also served on John Beilein's staff at West Virginia for three seasons, including for a Mountaineers team that made an Elite 8 run in 2005.

The following season, Neubauer got his first head coaching stint at Eastern Kentucky. He compiled a 188-134 record and appeared in two NCAA Tournaments during 10 seasons with the Colonels.

As a point guard, he also went to the big dance twice in his four years with La Salle. The Explorers went 83-36 (.697) during Neubauer’s career, and that included one of the best seasons in program history his freshman year.

In the 1989-90 campaign, La Salle went 30-2 and 16-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, but fell in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Clemson.

“I thought college basketball was that easy: you just walk in and start winning,” Neubauer joked. “We had great players: Doug Overton, Randy Woods, Lionel Simmons -- three NBA players on the same team.”

Neubauer played in just 15 games and 41 minutes during his freshman year, but by the time he was a senior, he made 15 starts, scored 3.8 points per game and had 69 assists.

The 44-year-old said he’s still close with a bunch of former members of those teams, and they’ll occasionally exchange texts. He also went to the Yankees playoff game with former Explorer Chris Donato earlier this month – something he’s again able to do after stops in the south and the Midwest.

“It’s been really cool to move back to the northeast, because I’ve been gone for 10 years,” he said. “When I was at Richmond and West Virginia as an assistant, I would come up here and recruit all the time -- Philadelphia and New York. But I haven’t been up this way in 10 years. It’s been interesting to come back.”

But he knows he has his work cut out for him. The Rams have had just one winning season (2006-07 when they went 18-12) since joining the Atlantic 10 in 1995, and Neubauer’s predecessor, Tom Pecora, went 44-106 (.293) in five seasons.

It’s going to take a lot for Neubauer to turn the program around, and being able to recruit Philadelphia would certainly help. Neubauer’s Philly connections could come in handy, but he said his No. 1 priority will be recruiting New York City to help make the Bronx program competitive again.

“I’d love to recruit Philadelphia, and we’re certainly going to try,” Neubauer said. “The one thing I won’t do is put geographic limitations on recruitment. We’re going to start by recruiting New York City, and hopefully we can start by getting some great New Yorkers to come play at Fordham. However, we’re then going to go find great players. I’m not sure where they’re going to come from. They may come from Philadelphia, they may be from Europe, we’re going to find great players.”


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