Providence adds Mike Tranghese to Staff

[FriarJ]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Providence College announced today (Oct. 26) that Mike Tranghese will serve as a Senior Advisor for Basketball and Ivan Thomas will be an Associate Director of Player Development and Video Operations for men’s basketball.


Tranghese, who will assist Athletics Director Bob Driscoll with a variety of items involving the College’s basketball programs, has been one of the most influential people in college sports since he helped Dave Gavitt create the BIG EAST Conference in 1979. Tranghese served as an assistant to Gavitt at the BIG EAST and became the commissioner of the league in 1990. He filled the role of commissioner of the BIG EAST until he retired in 2009. During his tenure, Tranghese served as chair of several prestigious groups, including the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee, the Division I-A Commissioners, the Collegiate Commissioners Association and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Subcommittee on Television. He was on the NCAA’s negotiating team that secured a record $6-billion contract from CBS for broadcast rights to the men’s basketball championship. A 1965 graduate of St. Michael’s College, Tranghese started his career as a sports information director at AIC before coming to Providence College in 1972 to work as a sports information director for seven years.


“We are very excited that Mike Tranghese will be working with us,” Driscoll said. “He has so much knowledge and information about the game. We wanted to bring in one of the best minds in college basketball to help us build a championship organization.”


Thomas comes to Providence College after serving as a head high school basketball coach for 13 years and as an AAU coach for the Boo Williams 17U Team for the last 13 years. In 2008, he became the head coach of Kecoughtan High School (Hampton, Va.) where he coached for the last seven years, registering a 127-60 mark. In 2010 and 2012, Thomas led Kecoughtan to the Peninsula District title. Prior to coaching at Kecoughtan, he guided the T.C. Williams High School (Alexandria, Va.) boys basketball team (2005-08). In Thomas’ three seasons at T.C. Williams High School, his teams posted 75-9 mark and won the District title each season, including 2008 when the squad captured the state title and he was named Virginia Coach of the Year. In 2002, Thomas was named the head coach at Edison High School in Alexandria, Va. He coached Edison for three seasons. His first coaching position was at Schaumburg High School in Schaumbur, Ill. He was an assistant coach at Schaumburg for three years (1999-01), including 2000 when the team captured the Illinois State title. Thomas received his master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University ‘99 and his master’s degree in educational leadership from George Mason University ‘03, as well as his bachelor’s degree sociology from VCU ‘97. Thomas was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. He is married to Dr. Jennifer Miles-Thomas, and they have three children, Christopher, Taylor, and Jordan Thomas.





“Ivan is a great addition to our staff,” Providence College Head Coach Ed Cooley said. “He has so much experience coaching and mentoring student-athletes. I believe he will have a very positive influence on our players.”


The Friars finished the 2014-15 season with a 22-12 mark overall and an 11-7 record in BIG EAST play. For the second consecutive season and 17th time overall, the team was selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament. It marked the first time since 1988-89 and 1989-90 that the team made consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

[Hoya Hoya Hoya]

Well this is certainly unexpected

[FriarJ]

More details, sounds like the BE Conference will lean on him too.

http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20151026/SPORTS/151029485/SHARED/st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/fGDdFyJmaG

[GoldenWarrior11]

That's awesome. Tranghese gets a lot of unfair criticism with the way the Big East evolved when Miami, VT and BC left. Without him, Marquette and DePaul don't get added as non-football members - and we don't get our C7 established for our new conference in 2013. Adding Cincinnati and Louisville were home run additions in 2005, with the only questionable addition being USF.

Can you imagine if the league added Memphis instead of USF in 2005? Basketball juggernaut (more so) from 2005 - 2013.

[gosports1]

Article mentioned a new practice facility kind of in passing. There has been a rumor floating around for some time now about a new state of the art facility in the works. Talk may have been pushed back due to all the other facility improvements happening at PC (athletic and otherwise)

[FriarJ]

My understanding is one more large donor is currently being secured then ground will be broken. It's that close.

[stever20]

for the record- Thomas coached at where I went to High School-Edison. Took a program that was pretty down and turned it around pretty quickly. Will be interesting to see how he helps PC with recruiting kids in the DMV/757 areas.

[whiteandblue77]

Nice Score.