Jeff Ruland

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Jeffrey Alan Ruland (born December 16, 1958 in Bayshore, New York) is the current head coach of the Iona Gaels men's college basketball team.

A 6'10, 240lbs. center, Ruland went from Sachem High School in Suffolk County, New York, to Iona College on a basketball scholarship and played for coach Jim Valvano before Valvano left for North Carolina State University. Ruland was the big gun on the Gaels' 1979-1980 team that compiled a 29-5 record en route to a number 19 national ranking, the best in the school's history.

Ruland was selected by the Golden State Warriors in the 1980 NBA Draft with the 25th overall pick. During the 1980-81 NBA season he instead opted to play professionally in Barcelona, Spain for a year before returning to the U.S. Prior to his rookie campaign, his draft rights were traded by the Warriors to the Washington Bullets, with whom he played for five seasons before being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. He retired from the game after five games with them in 1986 after a nagging knee injury.

Five years later Ruland made a comeback with the Sixers, playing in 13 games during the 1991-92 before sustaining an apparently bizarre achilles injury involving a luggage cart which was allegedly slammed into his leg by a Celtics employee outside Boston Garden.^[1] He managed to play an additional 11 games with the Detroit Pistons the following season before retiring for good in January 1993.

After his playing days, Ruland became an assistant coach under the Sixers' Fred Carter during the 1993-94 NBA season. He then returned to coach at his former alma mater.