IBCA E-Newsletter

Stanley, Steele and Owens to be featured at 2020 Clinic

Click here to go to the online form to register for the 2020 IBCA Clinic.

Indiana Fever coach Marianne Stanley, Xavier University men’s coach Travis Steele and Miami (Ohio) men’s coach Jack Owens are the featured speakers for the 2020 Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Spring Clinic.

They are headliners on an itinerary that also includes talks from 12 current high school coaches, an “Issues and Answers” session with IHSAA commissioner-elect Paul Neidig and IBCA leaders, a round-table session with three retired coaches and the annual IBCA awards program.

The dates for the 2020 Clinic now are TBA. (It was to be April 24-25 at Lawrence North High School, but the event now is postponed to dates not yet determined.)

Cost to attend the clinic is $50 for current-year IBCA members and $100 for non-members.

In addition to the featured speakers, 11 of the 12 IBCA Coaches of the Year will offer their secrets to success.

Boys coaches scheduled to speak are Marc Davidson of Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian, Al Gooden of Lawrence Central, Nate Hawkins of Heritage Hills, David McCollough of Shenandoah, Marc Urban of Chesterton and Kendall Wildey of South Decatur. Girls coaches on the agenda are Brandon Appleton of Angola, Jerry Hickey of Salem, Brian Smith of Loogootee, Lauren Votaw of Fishers and Adam Yoder of NorthWood.

Also, Lawrence North girls coach Chris Giffin, coach of the 2020 Class 4A state champions, is one other speaker.

More information about the IBCA Coaches of the Year can be found elsewhere in this e-Newsletter.

In addition, a roundtable of retired coaches tips off the clinic agenda. Former coaches Charles Mair, Dave Nicholson and Virgil Sweet will be on a panel moderated by Indiana SportsTalk host Bob Lovell. The three coaches will discuss steps that they took to make their programs successful for the long run. Questions from those in attendance will be encouraged. (More on these three coaches also can be found elsewhere in this e-Newsletter.)

At the end of the evening, D-One Camps is sponsoring a hospitality room at Days Inn, 8300 Craig St., Indianapolis. This will begin about 8:00 p.m. with complimentary wings and beverages available.

Featured Speakers

Marianne Stanley, Indiana Fever

Marianne Stanley was named the seventh coach in the history of the Indiana Fever on Nov. 26, 2019.

Stanley has had a long career of success in women’s basketball, both as a player and as a coach, including her induction into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

Stanley – who turns 66 on April 29 – comes to the Fever after serving as an assistant coach to the WNBA Washington Mystics since 2010, helping direct the team to the 2019 WNBA championship. Earlier, when she was the Mystics’ head coach, she was the 2002 WNBA Coach of the Year. As a college coach, her teams won three national championships and she three times was a conference coach of the year (Sun Belt Conference in 1984 and 1985, and Pac-10 Conference in 1993).

She also coached on multiple occasions for USA Basketball. Stanley was head coach for the USA Junior National Team that won gold at the 1985 Junior World Championship. She was an assistant coach for the USA National Team that won gold in the 1986 Goodwill Games and the 1986 World Championship. She also assisted on the USA National Team that won bronze in the 1991 Pan American Games.

A 1972 graduate of Archbishop Prendergast High School in Drexel Hill, Pa., Stanley went on to be a four-year standout player on teams at Immaculata (Pa.) College that won AIAW national titles in 1973 and 1974, was named a Kodak All-American in 1975 and 1976 and still holds the career school record with 554 assists. The ’73 and ’74 Mighty Macs were inducted as teams to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.

After college, she became a coach, initially for one season as an assistant to Cathy Rush at Immaculata. She then became head coach at Old Dominion University, guiding the Monarchs to a 269-59 record over 10 seasons with one WNIT championship (1978), two AIAW national championships (1979 and 1980) and one NCAA championship (1985). Her ODU teams reached the postseason nine times while she was at the school in Norfolk, Va.

She later was a college head coach at Penn (11-41 in two seasons), Southern California (71-46 in four seasons), Stanford (29-3 in one season) and California (35-75 in four seasons) before becoming an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2000 and an assistant for the Washington Mystics in 2001.

Stanley was the Mystics’ head coach in 2002 and 2003, being named WNBA Coach of the Year in 2002 and guiding the team to the Eastern Conference finals that season. Her Mystics’ teams went 20-17 and 9-25 in the two seasons, including a 3-2 mark in 2002 playoff games.

Stanley followed by becoming an assistant in 2004 for the New York Liberty, returned to the college game as an assistant at Rutgers in 2006-07, then had a second stint as a Los Angeles Sparks assistant in 2008 and 2009 before returning to the Mystics for a 10-season run as an assistant coach that was capped with the 2019 WNBA title.

Travis Steele, Xavier University

Travis Steele is regarded as one of the nation’s top up-and-coming coaches at Xavier University, where he has guided the Musketeers to a 38-29 record in two seasons as head coach.

Steele directed Xavier to a 19-13 slate with an 8-10 mark in the Big East Conference in the 2019-2020 season that was abruptly halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That prevented any postseason contests, which appeared likely. Still, four Musketeers received league honors – Naji Marshall being voted first-team all-conference, Tyrique Jones being selected second-team all-conference and Zach Freemantle and KyKy Tandy being named to the all-freshman squad.

Steele began his tenure in the top job with the Musketeers with a 19-16 finish in 2018-19, including a 9-9 mark in the Big East Conference and an appearance in the postseason NIT. At season’s end, he was a finalist for the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top first-year head coach in Division I. Marshall was voted second-team all-Big East, while Paul Scruggs was chosen to the Big East all-tournament team.

Steele, 38, was named Xavier head coach on March 31, 2018, after spending 10 seasons as an assistant coach at the school. During his time as an assistant to Sean Miller for one season and to Chris Mack for nine seasons, the Musketeers were selected for the NCAA Tourament on nine occasions, earned a program-first No. 1 seed in 2018 and reached the Sweet 16 five times.

Prior to joining the staff at Xavier, Steele worked for the men’s basketball program at Indiana University. He joined the Hoosiers in August 2006 as the Hoosiers’ video coordinator. After working in that role for a season and a half, he was promoted to the position of assistant coach in February 2008.

Steele is a 2000 graduate of Danville High School, where he played basketball for the Warriors for coaches Rick Snodgrass and Brian Barber. Steele went on to Butler University and began coaching as an assistant at Ben Davis High School for three seasons while an undergraduate.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Butler in 2004, Steele spent one season as a graduate manager at Ohio State. He followed by working one season as an assistant coach at Wabash Valley College in Illinois before joining the IU staff for two seasons.

Steele is the younger brother of John Groce, who is the men’s head coach at the University of Akron. Groce previously was head coach at Ohio University (2008-12) and the University of Illinois (2012-17). Groce also had been an assistant at North Carolina State (1996-2000), Butler (2000-01), Xavier (2001-04) and Ohio State (2004-08).

Steele and his wife, Amanda, live in Cincinnati. The couple has two sons – Winston, 7, and Anderson, born last Sept. 30.

Jack Owens, Miami (Ohio)

Jack Owens is an Indianapolis native who has had excellent success in basketball , most recently as men’s head coach at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

In three seasons, Owens, 43, has guided the RedHawks to a 44-54 record, including a 13-19 finish in the 2019-2020 season that ended with a first-round victory over Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference Tournament. That followed a 16-18 season in 2017-18 and a 15-17 campaign in 2018-19.

Several Miami players have received MAC accolades during Owens’ tenure. They include Darrian Ringo being named third-team all-league, Nike Sibande being chosen honorable mention all-conference and Sibande and Dalonte Brown being picked MAC all-freshman in 2017-18; Sibande being named third-team all-conference, Ringo being voted MAC all-defensive and Mekhi Lairy being chosen MAC all-freshman in 2018-19; and Dae Dae Grant being selected MAC all-freshman in 2019-20.

Owens came to Miami after working for nine seasons with Matt Painter on the men’s basketball staff at Purdue, three seasons as an assistant coach and the final six seasons as the associate head coach. During Owens’ time in West Lafayette, the Boilermakers totaled 209 victories – 23.2 per season – while earning seven NCAA Tournament selections and reaching the Sweet 16 on three occasions.

A 1995 graduate and an Indiana All-Star player at Indianapolis Washington High School, Owens helped the Continentals to fabulous season as a senior that ended in a memorable regional contest with eventual state champion Ben Davis. He went on to play one season at Murray State, one season at Howard (Md.) Community College and two seasons at Eastern Illinois University – averaging 11.7 points and 6.5 assists as a senior while being named team MVP and honorable mention all-Ohio Valley Conference.

Owens remained at EIU in 1999-2000 as a student assistant coach, then returned to Howard Community College in 2000-01, initially as an assistant coach and serving as the interim head coach for a portion of the season. He assisted at Barton County Community College in Kansas in 2001-02 before connecting with Painter for the next 15 seasons – at EIU in 2002-03, at Southern Illinois from 2003-08 and at Purdue from 2008-17.

In five seasons at SIU, Owens was part of a Salukis' program that earned four NCAA Tournament bids, reached the Sweet 16 once, won a Missouri Valley Conference championship and had one NIT appearance.

Owens and his wife, Kamilah, are the parents of three daughters – Alanah, Aniyah and Anyah.

Chris Giffin, Lawrence North

Chris Giffin is an IBCA Clinic speaker for 2020 after directing the Lawrence North girls to a 26-4 season that included the Class 4A state championship. Along the way, his team won the Marion County Tournament, the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference, the Indianapolis Tech Sectional, the Decatur Central Regional and the Jeffersonville Semi-State.

In eight seasons with the Wildcats, Giffin’s teams have compiled a 174-36 record with five sectional titles, four regional crowns, two semi-state trophies and Class 4A state runner-up finish in 2019. During his tenure, LN has turned out eight Indiana All-Star selections and 14 players who have received NCAA Division I scholarships.

Giffin previously was a Lawrence North boys’ basketball assistant for 10 years, including one year as the boys’ freshman coach, four years as the boys’ JV coach and two years as a boys’ varsity assistant. He also spent one season as a men’s graduate assistant coach for Bob Knight at Texas Tech.

A 1996 graduate of Ben Davis, Giffin competed in basketball, tennis and baseball and collected all-state honors in doubles in tennis as a senior in high school. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 2001, serving three seasons in Knight’s program as a men’s basketball manager, and received a master’s degree from IUPUI in 2004.

Giffin is in his 14th year as a special education teacher at Lawrence North.

He and his wife, Jenica, are parents of three children – Bailee, 9, Emersyn, 5, and Parker, 2.

2020 IBCA Clinic itinerary