Kevin Bannon

Kevin Bannon (born June 11, 1957) is a former American men's college basketball head coach who most recently served as head coach at Rutgers University from 1997 through 2001.^[1] Prior to that he spent eight years as head coach of Rider University's team and seven more as the coach of Trenton State College. He is a native of Verona, New Jersey, having graduated from Verona High School in 1975, and holds a bachelor's degree in management from St. Peter's College in Jersey City, New Jersey and a master's degree in sports management from Virginia Commonwealth University.

During his tenure at Rutgers, Bannon went 59-60 and failed to make the NCAA Tournament, although he was able to take the Scarlet Knights to the NIT.^[2] His only appearances in the NCAA Tournament came during his time at Rider, when he led the team to two consecutive berths by winning the Northeast Conference tournament.^[3]

Bannon came under fire toward the end of his tenure at Rutgers regarding an incident in a free throw drill during his first year as coach. Players Earl Johnson and Josh Sankes claimed they were forced to remove clothing for each free throw they missed, and then were forced to run wind sprints while naked. Other players claimed the practice was in fun, and expressed their disappointment that Rutgers and Bannon were being sued because of this. Both players transferred from Rutgers, and Johnson filed a lawsuit against the school, which was later reduced to naming Bannon as one of two co-defendants. The suit had originally been dismissed in 1999, but in 2001 was reinstated.^[4]

Bannon has not coached on the collegiate level since his firing at Rutgers and currently is employed by the Mercer County, New Jersey, Park Commission, where he serves as its executive director, and the Mercer County Sports and Entertainment Commission where he is vice president. He returned to coaching basketball in 2008, acting as the coach for the boy's varsity team at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, NJ^[5]

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