Jay Larranaga is the son of legendary George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga, whom Jay also played for at Bowling Green State University from 1993 to 1997. He was a three-time academic All-MAC at Bowling Green State University and graduated as BGSU leader in game, season and career 3 point field goals. He played professionally for 12 years in Italy, Spain, France and Greece from 1997 to 2009. He was captain of the Irish National Team for 5 years from 2001 to 2006 and won a championship in Spain in 2005 and in Italy in 2006 and 2008. Larranaga has also served as the head coach of the Irish national basketball team and assistant coach with the Ukrainian National Team as well as the head coach of the NBA D-League team Erie BayHawks. Over the past two years the Bayhawks had records of 32-18 and 28-22 under Larranaga and lost in the first round of the D-League playoffs both seasons.
In 2011, Erie extended Larranaga's contract for an additional year as he turned down a job offer to join his father, Jim Larranaga, now Miami Hurricanes head coach as an assistant coach. Larranaga is 37 years old, 6'5" tall, and played small forward. I was kind of hoping for a big man's coach but at 6'5", Larranaga isn't it. Hopefully that is still coming.
In other coaching news, former Celtic head coach, Jim O'Brien was hired as an assistant with the Mavericks. We get Jet. They get Obie. Sounds good to me.
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