Tom Pecora (born January 21, 1958) is an American
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 ...
coach who is currently the head coach at
Quinnipiac
Quinnipiac is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; ''cf.'' Ojibwe: ''Anishinaabeg'' and Blackfoot: ''Niitsítapi''), a Quiripi-speaking Native American nation of the Algonquian family who inhabited the ''Wampano ...
.
Pecora was originally hired as associate head coach at Quinnipiac on March 28, 2017, under new head coach
Baker Dunleavy
Baker Dunleavy (born October 5, 1982) is an American college basketball coach and current head coach for the Quinnipiac Bobcats men's basketball team.
Playing career
After playing at Jesuit High School, Dunleavy took a post-graduate year at the ...
.
Pecora, a veteran with 14 years of experience as a head coach at the Division I level, enters his third season at Quinnipiac in 2019–20. Born in
Queens Village
Queens Village is a mostly residential middle class neighborhood in the eastern part of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bound by Hollis to the west, Cambria Heights to the south, Bellerose to the east, and Oakland Gardens to the north ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, he graduated from
Adelphi University
Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...
in 1983.
He has 198 wins as a head coach at the Division I level (Hofstra, Fordham), and 261 wins in his career as a collegiate coach.
Pecora was promoted to the position of head coach at
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...
in 2001, taking over for
Jay Wright. Following his time at Hofstra, Pecora took over as the permanent replacement at
Fordham University
Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
[ ] after the program fired
Dereck Whittenburg
Dereck Whittenburg (born October 2, 1960) is a former collegiate basketball player who played for North Carolina State Wolfpack men's basketball, North Carolina State University, where he was a member of the 1982–83 team that won the 1983 NCAA Di ...
during the 2009–10 season.
Pecora served as the head coach at Hofstra for nine years (2001-2010) and at Fordham for five seasons (2010–15). Prior to taking over the head coaching position at Hofstra, Pecora served as the associate head coach under Jay Wright for seven seasons, the last two of which resulted in America East Conference titles and NCAA Tournament berths.
As a head coach at Hofstra, he compiled a 155–126 mark in nine seasons, leading the Pride to four postseason appearances (three NIT and one CBI), more than any team in New York City over that nine-year span. In 16 years at Hofstra with Pecora on the staff (nine years as a head coach, seven as an assistant), the Pride averaged 19 wins a season (246-161).
During his time in Hempstead, Hofstra was the winningest program in the Metropolitan New York area. Over his last six years, Hofstra won 121 games, including four 20-win seasons. In 2006 and 2009, he was named Coach of the Year by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) and he also received regional Coach of the Year honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the Basketball Coaches Association of New York (BCANY).
Pecora also had tremendous success in developing guards while at Hofstra. As an assistant, he recruited NBA guards
Speedy Claxton
Craig Elliott "Speedy" Claxton (born May 8, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player and the current head coach of the Hofstra University men's basketball team. Claxton won an NBA championship in 2003 as a member of the San Anto ...
and
Norman Richardson, while as a head coach, he recruited three guards who scored over 2,000 career points:
Loren Stokes
}
Loren Stokes (born November 12, 1983) is an American professional basketball player from Buffalo, New York. He was a combo guard at Hofstra University from the 2003–04 season to 2006–07. He is 6'3" and weighs 175 lbs. Stokes is one of s ...
,
Antoine Agudio and
Charles Jenkins. Claxton, Richardson, Stokes and Jenkins all won their conference Player of the Year Awards, while Jenkins also played in the NBA for the Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers.
Pecora assumed the head coaching position for
Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac University () is a private university in Hamden, Connecticut. The university grants undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees through its College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Engineering, School of C ...
on April 13, 2023, following the announcement the University released that same day stating that longtime head coach
Baker Dunleavy
Baker Dunleavy (born October 5, 1982) is an American college basketball coach and current head coach for the Quinnipiac Bobcats men's basketball team.
Playing career
After playing at Jesuit High School, Dunleavy took a post-graduate year at the ...
would be stepping down. Pecora will become the eighth head coach in Quinnipiac Men's basketball history and only their fourth coach since the team's transition into the Division 1 scene in 1999.
Over his entire collegiate basketball coaching career, Pecora has a student-athlete graduation rate of 100 percent.
Division I Head Coaching Record
References
1958 births
Living people
Adelphi University alumni
American men's basketball coaches
Basketball coaches from New York (state)
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
Farmingdale State Rams men's basketball coaches
Fordham Rams men's basketball coaches
High school basketball coaches in the United States
Hofstra Pride men's basketball coaches
Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball coaches
Sportspeople from Queens, New York
Quinnipiac Bobcats men's basketball coaches
UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball coaches
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