NEW ORLEANS — The University of New Orleans hired a familiar face as the Privateers new men's basketball coach last month.
Mandeville native Stacy Hollowell joins UNO as the 13th head coach in the history of the men's program after spending last season with as an associate athletic director of men's basketball at the University of Mississippi and eight years before that at as as head coach at Loyola New Orleans.
Hollowell's tenure at Loyola culminated with a NAIA championship in 2022 – just the second in school history.
While at the helm of the Wolfpack, Hollowell recorded 166 victories, including five 20-plus win campaigns, and made five appearances in the national tournament. His 2021-22 National Championship title season included a 37-1 record despite displacement due to Hurricane Ida. Following his historic season, he was also honored as the NAIA and NABC Coach of the Year.
Hollowell coached NAIA National Player of the Year Zach Wrightsil and National Tournament MVP Myles Burns currently an NBA G-League Player.
"Stacy Hollowell is a coach that I have watched for the past several years. From his national championship season through his time at Ole Miss and Texas Southern, we have talked about the alignment of our basketball philosophies," said UNO Vice President of Athletics and Recreation Tim Duncan.
Hollowell replaces longtime coach Mark Slessinger, who left last month to take an associate head coaching role at Indiana State.
Slessinger finished his time on the Lakefront with 171 wins and 360 games coached – both totals the most by a men's basketball coach at UNO. His Privateers earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament in 2017, which was the first for the school in over 20 years.
"I love this place. I'm going to do everything I can," Hollowell told WWL Louisiana sports director Doug Mouton about bringing success to UNO. "I don't want to overpromise anything, but we'll fire up that shot for sure."
Mouton asked Hollowell about the importance of his international coaching experience, and what the inclusion of the international game can bring to the New Orleans Lakefront Arena.
"I think the international experience has been undervalued throughout my career," said Hollowell, who has coached men's basketball in close to 30 countries. "Joey Stiebing and I coached in a world championship...2006 we were in Japan. LeBron James was in that world championship. Carmelo Anthony was in that world championship. Chris Paul, Dwight Howard...Dirk Nowitzki and Manu Ginobili, all those guys played in that world championship.
"I had to scout on almost every game that we played during my time with Joey," he continued. "Along the way, learning from the best coaches in the world. And so when you ask how I can draw on that, I've drawn on it. Right? That's a lot of the stuff that we ran at Loyola or did at Loyola came from the influence of guys like ... David Blatt, Željko Obradović. And so, we've we've drawn on it all along the way."
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