Brian Giorgis Position: Head Coach Experience: Eighth Season Alma Mater: SUNY Cortland Graduated: 1977

Brian Giorgis enters his eighth season as head coach of the Marist women's basketball team as the program's all-time leader in wins. His career record stands at 168-54 and his .757 winning percentage is ninth best among active Division I coaches.

Giorgis had led the program to national prominence in his first seven seasons. Last season, the Red Foxes reached their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament and their fifth in six years. Marist also won its sixth consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season title. The Red Foxes went 29-4 last season with a 16-2 mark in conference. Marist was ranked as high as 20th in the Associated Press Top 25 that season as well, and was ranked for three weeks. For his efforts, Giorgis was named the Maggie Dixon Coach of the Year by the Met Basketball Writers Association.

In 2007-08, the Red Foxes set a new program-record with 32 wins. Marist became the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team to finish the regular season undefeated, going 18-0 to win its fifth consecutive regular season title. The Red Foxes also earned their first in-season ranking in 2007-08 when the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll ranked them 25th on Feb. 12. Marist was ranked as high as 20th in the poll by the end of the regular season. A new record 21-game winning streak propelled Marist to its fourth MAAC Tournament title and a seventh-seed in the New Orleans Region of the NCAA Tournament.

Marist won its first round NCAA Tournament game for the second straight season, using a 39-7 run over the last 14:13 of the game to defeat tenth-seeded DePaul 76-57. The Red Foxes took a 22-game winning streak, the nation's longest at the time, into their second round game against LSU. While Marist did fall to the Tigers, the Red Foxes showed they can hang with the nation's elite teams for a second straight season. Giorgis earned two accolades for his work during the 2007-08 season. He was named MAAC Coach of the Year, marking the fourth time in six seasons that he earned at least a share of the award. The Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association also honored Giorgis by naming him and C. Vivian Stringer of Rutgers the Maggie Dixon Co-Coaches of the Year.

Giorgis led Marist to a program-best 29 triumphs and its third trip to the NCAA Tournament in the last four seasons in 2007. He led the Red Foxes to their first ever win in the NCAA Tournament, a 67-63 upset of fourth-seeded Ohio State. Marist followed it up with a 73-59 win over Middle Tennessee State to advance to the regional semifinals. The Red Foxes embarked on winning streaks of seven and 13 games as they claimed at least a share of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season crown for the fourth straight season.

In 2005-06, Giorgis led Marist to a then program-best 23 triumphs and its second trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Red Foxes embarked on winning streaks of seven and 12 games as they claimed at least a share of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season crown for the third straight season.

In 2004-05, Giorgis guided Marist to a 22-win season, which included a program-record 16-game winning streak. After starting the MAAC season 0-3, the Red Foxes closed it with 15 consecutive triumphs to earn the top seed in the MAAC Tournament for the first time. The 2003-04 season was historical, as it was the first time the Red Foxes earned a berth in the NCAA tournament in what became known as a "season of firsts." Additionally, Marist earned its first share of a MAAC regular-season title and compiled its first winning record in 11 years.

Giorgis' first campaign laid the foundation for future success. Taking over a team in 2002-03 which had lost the fourth- and fifth-leading scorers in program history to graduation the prior year, Giorgis' team improved its win total from 11 to 13. The Red Foxes also earned their first win in a MAAC Tournament game in school history with a first-round triumph over Loyola.

Prior to his arrival at Marist, Giorgis enjoyed a tremendous amount of success at Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie. In his final season there, the girls basketball team finished with a fourth-place national ranking in the USA Today poll and earned its fourth straight New York State Federation Championship. He earned WBCA Region One Coach of the Year honors, was runner-up for WBCA National Coach of the Year honors and was selected to coach at the Phoenix/WBCA High School All-America Game.

As the head girls basketball coach at Lourdes, Giorgis posted an astounding record of 451-44 in his 19 seasons, good for a winning percentage of .911. In his last two years, his teams posted a combined mark of 56-2 and earned the top ranking in the Madison Square Garden Tri-State Area Poll each year. Giorgis has earned two WBCA Region One Coach of the Year honors and two coach of the year awards from the New York State Coaches Association. He led Lourdes to the league title all 19 of his seasons there and won 15 Section One crowns, with the last 11 coming consecutively.

Giorgis' achievements at Lourdes were not limited to the basketball court. He is the only coach in state history to take four teams to the state Final Four in his career, as he also guided the baseball, softball and volleyball teams there. His softball squad captured the state crown in 1990. Additionally, Giorgis coached golf and tennis at Lourdes and served as athletic director for 10 years. He served two stints as president of the Section One Girls Basketball Coaches Association.

Giorgis earned a bachelor's degree in health education from the State University of New York at Cortland in 1977, and earned a master's in health education from Virginia Tech University in 1982.