Gene Keady coaching tree

The Gene Keady Coaching Tree is a chain of NCAA men's basketball coaches who can trace their coaching roots to Gene Keady.
==NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Head Coaches In The "Gene Keady Coaching Tree"==
Gene Keady
In 1975, then a Junior College basketball head coach, Gene Keady was hired by the University of Arkansas. Assisting under legendary head coach Eddie Sutton, Keady helped lead the to an appearance. After a successful career as an assistant, including successful recruiting of players such as Sidney Moncrief (who is currently an assistant for the Golden State Warriors), he moved on for a Division I head coaching position at Western Kentucky University, where he led the Big Red to an appearance. In 1980, he was hired as the head coach at Purdue University, where he coached for 25 seasons. He led the to six conference titles and seventeen NCAA Tournament appearances, including two Elite Eights. After retiring from Purdue, Keady served as an assistant coach in the NBA for the Toronto Raptors during the 2005-06 season. As of the 2010-2011 season, Keady serves as an assistant to his former assistant, Steve Lavin, at St. Johns of the Big East Conference.
Bruce Weber
After serving as an assistant under Gene Keady for one season at Western Kentucky and 18 seasons at Purdue, Bruce Weber became the head coach at Southern Illinois University in 1998. He quickly turned a losing team into a success, winning the Missouri Valley Conference title twice and making two NCAA Tournament appearances in his five seasons with the Salukis, including a Sweet Sixteen run in 2002. From 2003 to 2012, he was the head coach at Illinois, where he led the team to two Big Ten Conference championships and six NCAA Tournament appearances, including a trip to the NCAA Finals in 2005. In 2012, he was fired from Illinois and hired as the head coach at Kansas State.
Kevin Stallings
Kevin Stallings was an assistant under Keady for six seasons from 1982 to 1988; he also played at Purdue for three seasons, two of them under Keady. He then spent five years as an assistant at the University of Kansas, where he helped lead the to two Final Four appearances under Roy Williams. In 1993, he became the head coach at Illinois State, where he led the Redbirds to two Missouri Valley Conference championships and two NCAA appearances in six seasons. He is currently the head coach at Vanderbilt University and has led the Commodores to two Sweet Sixteen appearances. He was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year in 2007 and 2010.
Steve Lavin
Steve Lavin was an assistant coach at Purdue under Gene Keady from 1988 to 1991 before he was hired as an assistant at UCLA. Lavin was an assistant under Jim Harrick in 1995 when UCLA won the NCAA Championship. In 1996, after Harrick was fired, Lavin took over as UCLA's head coach. In seven seasons as head coach, Lavin led the to six consecutive NCAA appearances and four Sweet Sixteens and an Elite Eight. He was named Pacific-10 Conference Coach of the Year in 2001. Lavin then served as a color commentator on ABC and ESPN. After a stint commentating for college basketball, Lavin accepted the offer to be the new head coach of the Big East Conference starting the 2010-2011 season.
Matt Painter
Matt Painter played for Gene Keady from 1989-1993, starting 50 games for the Boilermakers. After graduation, Painter turned to coaching basketball, beginning his career as an assistant at Division III Washington & Jefferson College in 1993, after which he spent one season as an assistant at Division II Barton College and three seasons at Division I Eastern Illinois University. In 1998, Painter joined the Southern Illinois coaching staff as an assistant when Bruce Weber took over the head coaching position. After Weber left for Illinois, Painter took over the head coaching position and he led the to a conference title and to an NCAA appearance in his only season as the head coach. In 2004, he took an associate head coaching position at Purdue University. After Keady retired in 2005, Painter took the head coaching job. He led the to five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in his first six seasons as the head coach at Purdue, while being named the Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year in 2008, 2010 and 2011.
Cuonzo Martin
Cuonzo Martin was an assistant for Gene Keady and Matt Painter at his alma mater from 2000 to 2008 at Purdue (where he played from 1991-1995 under Keady) before moving on to his first head coaching position at Missouri State, where he led the Bears to a 10-0 start in the 2009-2010 season and their first MVC conference title in the 2010-2011 season. In March 2011 Cuonzo was named the head coach at the University of Tennessee. Counzo was named the Head Coach at the University of California Golden Bears in Berkeley, California, on April 15, 2414. He replaced Mike Montgomery at Cal when Montgomery retired.
Alan Major
Alan Major served as a student manager under Keady during his undergraduate tenure at Purdue. After graduating in 1992, Major became an assistant coach at Cal Lutheran, a Div. III school, and then Pacific. He spent one season (1998-1999) on the staff of fellow Purdue alumnus Bruce Weber before returning to Pacific. In 2001, he became an assistant coach at under Thad Matta. He followed Matta to in 2004 where he worked as an assistant coach for six seasons. In 2010, he was named the head coach of .
Linc Darner
Although never serving as an assistant under Keady, Linc Darner was a player under Keady at Purdue from 1991 to 1994, teaming with fellow mentions Cuonzo Martin and Matt Painter. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Lincoln Memorial University, before moving to Ashland University as the school's recruiting coordinator and moved on to Murray State, where helped them win two Ohio Valley Conference championships as an assistant. He got his first head coaching position at , a Div. II college in Indiana in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. He currently coaches the Mocs at Florida Southern, a Division II team in the Sunshine State Conference. In his second season at FSC, he was named the Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year, while winning the conference title and tournament. Although coaching in Florida, he recruits heavily in the state of Indiana.
Paul Lusk
Paul Lusk transferred from the Southern Illinois bench staff and came to assist under Gene Keady and associate head coach Matt Painer. Lusk served under Keady for the 2005 season and continued to serve under Painter for the following six seasons (2006-2011), being named his associate head coach (2009-2011) after Cuonzo Martin moved to Missouri State to take the head coaching position. He helped lead Purdue to four NCAA Tournament appearances, which included two Sweet Sixteens with a 6-4 record in the NCAA tournament. He helped lead the Boilers to a Conference Tournament Championship (2009), as well as help lead the Boilermakers to a Big Ten Title (2010). After the 2011 season, Lusk accepted the vacant head coaching job at Missouri State, taking over Cuonzo Martin's position. On December 28, 2011, Lusk led the Bears to a victory on the road against # 21 .
Dan Muller
Although never serving as an assistant under Keady, Dan Muller was a player under Stallings at Illinois State from 1995 to 1998; Muller hails from Lafayette, Indiana and was not heavily recruited by Purdue. In accepting Kevin Stallings offer from Illinois State, he became a smaller branch of the 'Keady Coaching Tree.' Following his professional playing career, he became an assistant at Vanderbilt University, reuniting with Kevin Stallings, for 12 seasons, he was the recruiting coordinator and oversaw the team's academic program. Following the 2011-12 season, he was named the head coaching job at his alma mater Illinois State University.
Austin Parkinson
Austin Parkinson currently serves as the head women's basketball coach at Indiana University Purdue University - Indianapolis (IUPUI), a division 1 school in the Summit League. Parkinson played under Gene Keady at Purdue 2000-2004 and served as a graduate assistant following his playing career. Later he began his coaching career on the staff of former Big Ten rival, IU graduate Dane Fife at Indiana University Purdue University - Fort Wayne (IPFW). Parkinson left IPFW to become assistant head men's coach at IUPUI. The Summit League awarded Parkinson 2012-2013 Women's Basketball Coach of the Year.
Dr. Carson Cunningham
Dr. Carson Cunningham currently serves as the head coach at (MT), an NAIA Division I school in the Frontier Conference. Cunningham played under Gene Keady at Purdue 1998-2001; leading the Boilermakers to a pair of Sweet 16 finishes and one Elite Eight appearance. He is one of three two-time Academic All-America basketball players from Purdue, (the others: Coach John Wooden and Steve Reid). Following a four year professional career in the CBA and overseas, Dr. Cunningham completed his PhD and began an academic career at DePaul University; simultaneously, he began coaching at his high school alma mater; he spent five years at Andrean High School. (Merrillville, Indiana). Dr. Cunningham turned around a program that won two games the season before he arrived into one that won four straight sectional titles and 43 of their last 50 games. His final season, he led the ‘59ers to the final four in Indiana’s second biggest class (3A) and a #3 state ranking. Dr. Cunningham is the author of three books - American Hoops - U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball from Berlin to Beijing; Underbelly Hoops - Adventures in the CBA and Before the Curse, a collection of vintage stories about the Chicago Cubs during their glory years.

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