Nets announce assistant coaches: Brian Hill on board
InsideHoops.com NewsWire | Aug. 2, 2007
The New Jersey Nets have named Brian Hill as an assistant coach and have rehired assistant coaches Tom Barrise and Pat Sullivan, Nets President Rod Thorn announced today. Hill, Barrise and Sullivan will join Bill Cartwright on Head Coach Lawrence Frank’s coaching staff for the 2007-08 season.
“We are very pleased to add Brian to our coaching staff as well as retain Tom and Pat,” said Thorn. “Brian has been both a head coach and assistant coach in this league, and his experience will be an asset to Lawrence, his fellow coaches and our players. Both Tom and Pat have contributed to the team’s success over the past several years and we are happy that they will continue to be members of Lawrence’s coaching staff.”
Hill will be making his second stint on the Nets bench, as he served as an assistant under Lawrence Frank from January, 2004 until he took his most recent post as Orlando’s head coach prior to the 2005-06 season. The East Orange, NJ native has amassed a 298-315 (.486 winning percentage) record as a head coach during stops in Orlando and Vancouver. With a coaching resume that extends more than 35 years, Hill has also served as an assistant in Atlanta, Orlando, New Orleans and New Jersey to go along with 14 years of coaching at the collegiate level.
The 2007-08 season will mark Barrise’s 12th season with the Nets and his fourth as an assistant coach. The Paterson, NJ native served as an advance scout for the Nets prior to moving to the bench in January 2004. A former two-sport athlete (soccer and basketball) at Farleigh Dickinson University, Barrise served as an advance scout for the Cleveland Cavaliers (1992-96) and made multiple stops on the collegiate coaching landscape before settling in with the Nets organization.
Sullivan will be entering his third season on the Nets coaching staff. A native of Bogota, NJ, Sullivan has more than a decade of basketball experience as both a player and a coach. He served as an assistant coach for Detroit during the 2004-05 season after being promoted from his role as assistant coach/video coordinator for the Pistons. Sullivan began his basketball career at North Carolina, where he played in three Final Fours (1991, 1993 and 1995) and then served as an assistant coach for UNC in three other Final Fours. Following UNC, Sullivan moved to North Carolina-Wilmington, where he was was an assistant coach from 2001-03.
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