Louis Orr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis M. Orr (born May 7, 1958 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American basketball coach. Orr would become the men's basketball head coach at Seton Hall University from April 4, 2001 until his firing on March 24, 2006. He was formerly an assistant at Xavier University, Providence College, and his alma-mater Syracuse University, before getting his first head coaching job at Siena College.

Orr attended Withrow High School where he was coached by Charles Cadle. Orr played at Syracuse from 1976 to 1980, before entering the NBA. After graduating from Syracuse in 1980, he was the 28th pick in the 1980 NBA Draft, selected by the Indiana Pacers. He played two seasons with the Pacers, which included one playoff appearance. After that, he moved on to the New York Knicks, and played for six years, with three playoff berths. Orr averaged career highs rebounds and points for the Knicks with 12.7 and 4.9, respectively, in the 1984-85 season. He scored over 5,500 career points as a pro.

He got his first assistant coaching job in 1990 with Xavier in Cincinnati, Ohio, the town where Orr was from. Then, in 1994, he began serving under Pete Gillen at Providence and soon he was an assistant under Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse Orange. During his tenure there, he rose to become a noted assistant, and helped them to a 92-40 record in that time. Syracuse reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament twice in during Orr's time there.

In his lone year at Siena (2000-01), Orr led the Saints to a three-way tie for first place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and a 20-11 record, the best ever for a first-year Siena coach. Siena broke many attendance records that year as well.

Orr became the first former Big East player to become a head coach in the conference after he was hired in 2001 by Seton Hall after Tommy Amaker went to Michigan. In his first year in the Big East, Orr went 12-18, but was noted for playing Duke University very close in the Maui Invitational. By 2006, Orr had led the Pirates to two NCAA Tournaments in three years. In the 2004 NCAA Tournament, they beat Arizona in a first round 8-9 game before losing to #1 seed Duke (who would advance to the Final Four) two days later in the second round. In 2005-2006, Orr led the Pirates to a 9-7 record in the Big East and an 18-12 record overall. Seton Hall received a #10 seed in the 2006 NCAA Tournament and played the #7 seed Wichita State. Wichita State was the regular season Missouri Valley Conference champion and dominated the Pirates in an 86-66 first round win. Although Orr had made the NCAA tournament twice and the NIT once in his five seasons as head coach at Seton Hall he was fired after his fifth season coaching the Pirates. In those five seasons Orr's record was 80-69.

Preceded by Paul Hewitt	Siena Head Men's Basketball Coach 2000 – 2001	Succeeded by Rob Lanier
Preceded by Tommy Amaker	Seton Hall Head Men's Basketball Coach 2001 – 2006	Succeeded by Bobby Gonzalez

[edit] External links

• Orangehoops.org with a Orr's profile