July 23, 2010
dailypress.comNew ODU assistant Lonnie Blow feels right at homeBy Melinda Waldrop, mwaldrop@dailypress.com | 247-4634
9:44 PM EDT, July 21, 2010
Lonnie Blow is like the kid in a candy store - except that before now, he couldn't reach the top shelf.
Blow, a 21-year veteran of high school coaching in Norfolk, steadily has moved up the coaching ranks, spending a season as an assistant at Hampton University and two at Norfolk State before becoming head coach at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, N.C., in 2008. But even as he led that school to a 46-15 mark the past two seasons -- including a 27-5 mark, CIAA championship and a first-round victory in the Division II NCAA tournament last year -- certain things remained off-limits.
Like the caliber of athlete he hopes to be able to recruit in his newest job, as an assistant on Blaine Taylor's staff at Old Dominion.
"I'm looking forward to being able to go in the gym, and now I'm looking at the best players in the gym, not necessarily the second-rate players or whoever might slip through the cracks," said Blow, hired earlier this month to replace John Richardson, now an assistant at Virginia Tech. "When you're recruiting at the (D-II) level, you don't necessarily recruit on what (a player) can do right now. You've got to look at potential."
With four starters returning from the Monarchs' 27-9 season that included the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season and conference titles and a 51-50 victory against Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Blow will be able to focus more on the present on the recruiting road this summer.
"When I first got here, this was not a first-choice school," said Taylor, entering his 10th season as ODU head coach. "Kids would come here if they couldn't go elsewhere. Since that time, we've become a first-choice school, and I think one of the exciting things for Lonnie is he's going to be able to recruit kind of a different guy than maybe he was recruiting at his last stops."
Blow's local high school ties include 10 years at Granby, where he won a state championship in 2000. A former player at Frederick Military Academy in Portsmouth who kept a home in that town while at St. Augustine's, Blow is no stranger to area basketball, or to Taylor.
Blow interviewed for a job when Taylor was putting together his first Monarchs staff, but Taylor was wary of bringing a high school coach directly into Division I basketball, with its increased recruiting, fund-raising and academic demands.
Now, with college experience - and success - on his resume, Blow is back in his comfort zone. Blow already knew many of the Monarchs' local players, including senior forward Frank Hassell (from Chesapeake), senior guards Ben Finney (Portsmouth) and Darius James (Virginia Beach), and freshman guard Dimitri Batten (Hampton), and Taylor hopes to keep mining Blow's area ties.
"Maybe he went to high school with somebody or maybe he knows somebody's dad," Taylor said. "I'll use him heading north, south, east and west. ... Him having spent decades here, that certainly will help open some doors and some ears and some eyes."
Blow said he won't miss calling his own shots as a head coach - "Coaching is coaching for me. I just enjoy the craft" - and he's looking forward to his first game in front of 8,424 people at the Ted Constant Center after coaching in St. Augustine's 750-seat gym.
"Basketball season is just a great time," Blow said. "It's almost like when October rolls around, you just get a different smell in the air. I'm looking forward to the season starting, and getting it on and competing."
And to competing with grade-A candy.
Copyright © 2010, Newport News, Va., Daily Press