Al Skinner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Albert L. Skinner (born June 16, 1952 in Mount Vernon, New York) is currently the men's college basketball head coach of the Boston College Eagles and has been since April 17, 1997. He was an assistant at Marist from 1982-84, then became an assistant at Rhode Island. He was named head coach of the University of Rhode Island basketball team and was from 1988-1997.

He was formerly a player for the University of Massachusetts and had his number (#30) retired there. He also had a ABA career, in which he led the New York Nets to an ABA title in 1976.

He was named coach of the year nationally in 2000-01. Boston College was a #3 seed that year. As a 4 seed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament, they lost to 12 seed Milwaukee. He was named Big East Coach of the Year in 2004-05. He has also been honored as the Atlantic 10 coach of the year in 1991-92. Skinner's 2004-2005 team was the first Big East team in history to start a season 20-0. During the 2005-2006 season, Al Skinner became the all-time winningest coach in Boston College history, surpassing Jim O'Brien's 168 wins.

He has taken Boston College to five NCAA Tournaments, and took Rhode Island to two. Overall he has been to seven NCAA Tournaments as a head coach and ten postseasons in all (NCAA and NIT).

He has been inducted into the UMass and URI athletics halls of fame, and BC's will likely follow.

Preceded by: Jim O'Brien

Boston College Eagles Head Basketball Coach 1997–

Succeeded by: current