Peter Joseph Gillen (born June 20, 1947) is an American former

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

head coach of the Division I,

Providence Friars The Providence Friars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Providence College, located in Providence, Rhode Island. They compete in the Big East Conference (NCAA Division I) for every sport except for ice hockey, where they compet ...

and

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as ''Wahoos'' or ''Hoos'', are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic ...

and is a member of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame. Gillen is currently a college basketball analyst with the

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...

Biography

Playing career

Gillen was two sport athlete in baseball and basketball at

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2017, the university had about 4,100 full-time undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students, including full-time a ...

where he received his bachelor's degree ''cum laude'' in English Literature in 1968.

Coaching career

Coach Gillen began his coaching career at his high school alma mater Brooklyn Prep, first as freshman coach in the 1970–71 school year then as varsity head coach from 1971 to 1973. He soon moved to the collegiate level when he joined the coaching staff of the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

Rainbow Warriors, with

Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (born September 18, 1952) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach for Iona College. He was also the head coach of Greece's senior national team. He has been the head coach of several teams in NCAA ...

as one of his fellow assistants. Gillen followed that with subsequent assistant coaching stints at the

Virginia Military Institute la, Consilio et Animis (on seal) , mottoeng = "In peace a glorious asset, In war a tower of strength""By courage and wisdom" (on seal) , established = , type = Public senior military college , accreditation = SACS , endowment = $696.8 mill ...

;

Villanova University Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Pen ...

under

Rollie Massimino Roland Vincent Massimino (November 13, 1934 – August 30, 2017) was an American basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Stony Brook University (1969–1971), Villanova University (1973–1992), the University of Nevada, L ...

, and the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

under

Digger Phelps Richard Frederick "Digger" Phelps (born July 4, 1941) is an American former college basketball coach, most notably of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 1971 to 1991. For 20 years, from 1993 to 2014, he served as an analyst on ESPN. He got the n ...

from 1980 to 1985. He was head basketball coach at

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 stud ...

from 1985 to 1994,

Providence College Providence College is a private Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1917 by the Dominican Order and the local diocese, it offers 47 undergraduate majors and 17 graduate programs. It requires all of its undergradua ...

from 1994 to 1998, and the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...

from 1998 to 2005. At Xavier, Gillen compiled an impressive record, taking the Musketeers to the NCAA tournament seven times and to the NIT tournament once (1994). He won 202 games in the third-longest tenure ever for a XU coach. He was the winningest coach in XU history until Chris Mack passed him in 2018. Following his success at Xavier, Gillen was hired at Providence to replace

Rick Barnes Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

, who had left to coach

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

. He followed PC's 1994 Big East title with two trips to the NIT before the Friars' 1997 run to the Elite Eight, upsetting Marquette and

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, t ...

and beating Chattanooga before losing in overtime to eventual national champion

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

. Following a tough 1997–98 year, where he lost four starters (three to graduation, and one ( God Shammgod) to the NBA draft), Gillen moved on, replacing Jeff Jones at Virginia, who resigned on March 15, 1998 after eight years as the Cavaliers’ head coach. Gillen's seven Virginia teams compiled an overall record of 118–93 and competed in five postseason tournaments. The Cavaliers participated in the 2001 NCAA tournament and in the National Invitation Tournament four times. He resigned after the 2004–05 season. Gillen was notorious for his philosophy of expeditiously calling timeouts as he felt needed – routinely using most, if not all, of his teams' allotted timeouts in the first half of games. In September 2008, Gillen was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame along with NBA stars Kenny Anderson, Sam Perkins and

Rod Strickland Rodney Strickland (born July 11, 1966) is an American basketball coach and former professional basketball player. He is currently the head coach at Long Island University. Prior to LIU, he served as the program manager for the NBA G League's profe ...

, and pioneers Lou Bender and

Eddie Younger Edward Younger (January 7, 1923 – March 18, 1985) was an American professional basketball player. He played for the New York Rens. Younger attended Benjamin Franklin High School and later Long Island University. Younger would also play for ...

USA Basketball

Coach Gillen was an assistant coach under

Don Nelson Donald Arvid Nelson (born May 15, 1940) is an American former professional basketball player and head coach. Nelson is second all-time in regular season wins of any coach in NBA history, with 1,335 (he held the record for most wins for almost 12 ...

for the US national team during the

1994 FIBA World Championship The 1994 FIBA World Championship was the 12th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. The tournament was hosted by Canada from August 4 to 14, 1994. The tournament was held at SkyDome and Maple ...

, winning the gold medal.1994 USA Basketball

Broadcasting career

In 2005, Gillen joined College Sports Television (later CBS College Sports and now

) as a college basketball analyst.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillen, Pete 1947 births Living people American men's basketball coaches Basketball players from New York City Basketball coaches from New York (state) College basketball announcers in the United States College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Fairfield Stags men's basketball players Hawaii Rainbow Warriors basketball coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball coaches Point guards Providence Friars men's basketball coaches Shooting guards Sportspeople from Brooklyn Villanova Wildcats men's basketball coaches Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball coaches VMI Keydets basketball coaches Xavier Musketeers men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Brooklyn Preparatory School alumni