| Erik Smiles went 182-72 in 10
years as head coach at Farmingdale State. Farmingdale State athletics photo |
|
| Brendan Twomey had a hand in
the best season in Mount St. Mary history as a player and did the
same as a head coach in just one year at Centenary. Centenary (N.J.) athletics photo |
Farmingdale State coach Erik Smiles was named head coach at Division II LIU Post. Smiles went 182-72 at the helm of the Rams, including 43-14 the past two seasons with D3hoops.com All-America selection and NBA prospect A.J. Matthews.
Under his tenure, Farmingdale advanced to the Elite 8 in 2009, finishing the season 27-4 and ranked No. 23 in the D3hoops.com Top 25.
“It's an honor to be named the men's basketball coach at LIU Post,” said Smiles. “I'm honored to follow Coach (Chris) Casey, and I'm left with a great group of players to work with. I'm very excited by this opportunity to work with Coach Collins (Bryan Collins, the athletic director) in continuing the tradition of success for men's basketball and the entire LIU Post athletic department."
Smiles will be replaced by Brendan Twomey, a former Skyline Conference star at Mount St. Mary and head coach at Centenary (N.J.). Twomey spent one year with the Cyclones, leading them to arguably the best season in their recorded history, a 13-13 mark and a winning record at 10-8 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference.
In four years as an assistant coach at Stevens, Twomey helped guide the team to a 73-37 overall record including a 2011 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship while developing nine All-Conference and two All-Region student-athletes.
As the recruiting coordinator, Twomey helped bring in the team's leading scorer, Sheldon Jones, a Second-Team All-Conference selection in his sophomore year and First-Team All-Conference selection his junior year. In 2011-12, Twomey helped lead Stevens to a 20-8 overall record and an ECAC semifinal appearance. During the 2010-11 season, Twomey and his staff were named the Empire 8 Conference Staff of the year and was given the Schoenfeld Award in 2008-09, given by N.J. officials for sportsmanship in the state of New Jersey.
A graduate of Mount St. Mary in 2004 with a degree in business administration, Twomey was inducted to the Athletics Hall of Fame in April 2013. Serving as a team captain his junior and senior seasons, Twomey became the school's all-time leading scorer, finishing fifth All-Time in Division III in three pointers made (362) and 12th all-time in three-pointers per game (3.32). Behind Twomey, the Knights went 58-29 during his three years on campus; and in 2002-03 Mount Saint Mary went 23-8, which stood as the program's best record in school history until 2011-12. Adding the 306 points he scored as a freshman at Oneonta State, Twomey totaled 1,809 points during his four-year career, for an average of 16.6 per game.
Twomey was named a three-time First Team All-Conference member in the Skyline Conference and was named the Skyline Player of the Year as a senior in the 2003-04 campaign. He also earned ECAC Metro Region Second Team honors as a junior and First Team honors as a senior. He earned Second Team All-Atlantic Region honors from D3hoops.com in both 2002-03 and 2003-04.
Upon graduating from Mount St. Mary, Twomey played professionally for Merry Monk Ballina and the Limerick Lions of the Irish Super League, as well as the Carolina Thunder of the American Basketball Association.