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Catholic University's all-time winningest head coach and leader of the 2001 NCAA Division III national champions Mike Lonergan will join the Maryland men's basketball team as an assistant coach, Gary Williams announced in April.
"Mike Lonergan is a proven winner and a former national championship coach," said Williams. "He is very familiar with the Baltimore-Washington area and brings a strong recruiting background to our staff."
Lonergan, who led the Cardinals to seven consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearances and nine overall since taking over the program at his alma mater in 1992, fills the assistant coaching vacancy left by Jimmy Patsos, who became the head coach at Loyola College on April 1. Lonergan amassed a 251-88 (.740) record during his 12-year tenure and his squad averaged 24.7 victories per season over his last seven years.
"I am very excited to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity," said Lonergan. "I am able to work for a future Hall of Fame Coach in Gary Williams, coach in the finest basketball conference in the country and contribute to the basketball team that I grew up rooting for."
Lonergan graduated from Catholic in 1988, earning a B.A. in history. He went on to attain a master's degree in criminal justice at American International College in Springfield, Mass., while working as an assistant coach during the 1988-89 season.
Before returning to his alma mater, Lonergan served as an assistant coach at Colgate University for three seasons from 1989-1992. There he served as the top recruiter for his former college coach, the late Jack Bruen, who was named Patriot League Coach of the Year in Lonergan's final season with the Red Raiders.
Lonergan was the head coach at Catholic from the 1992-93 to 2003-04 seasons, leading the Cardinals to nine of the 11 NCAA appearances in the history of the program, all while graduating 100 percent of his players and taking on Division I foes such as Princeton, American, Davidson and William & Mary. Catholic's victory over Albany (N.Y.) in 2000 was the program's first over a Division I school since 1981. He has coached a Division III All-American in each of the last five seasons, and is the only coach in the nation to have led his team to seven consecutive regular-season conference championships.
Lonergan, a native of Bowie, Md., is married to Catholic University's women's basketball coach, the former Maggie Meagher, who led her squad to its finest season ever in 2003-04. They have two children - a son Jack (5), and daughter Margaret (3).
