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Photo by Matt McClenathen, Cal Lutheran athletics |
Cal Lutheran went all the way to Hackettstown, N.J. to pick its next men's head basketball coach. Tim Fusina, who coached at Centenary for four seasons, will lead the Kingsmen next season.
- Rider's journey complete (Nov. 2016)
- ATR: Addition and subtraction at Cal Lutheran (Nov. 2016)
- More moves in Coaching Carousel
The University announced the hiring on Thursday.
“When I stepped foot on Cal Lutheran’s campus, it was obvious that this is a special place with a lot of special people,” Fusina said in CLU's release. “The support everyone has shown me has been incredible and I look forward to leading a new era of Kingsmen basketball.”
Fusina went 48-58 in four seasons at Centenary (N.J.), but that included the only two winning seasons in program history. The Cyclones went 14-13 in 2015-16 and 15-13 in 2014-15, reaching the ECAC tournamet both times. Centenary was 12-14, 8-10 in the CSAC last season.
Before coaching at Centenary, Fusina was an assistant coach for five seasons at Washington and Jefferson.
His hiring completes the transition that began shortly before the 2016-17 began when long-time coach Rich Rider stepped down. Rider went 345-207 in 25 seasons at Cal Lutheran.
Rider's assistant Geoff Dains was the interim head coach last season and led the Kingsmen to a 20-7, 12-4 record in the SCIAC. Cal Lutheran fell one game short of the NCAA Tournament with a 77-71 loss at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the SCIAC tournament title game.