After one season in College Park, former Maryland men’s basketball assistant coach Tony Skinn is heading around the beltway and returning to his alma mater, George Mason, to be the Patriots’ next head coach.
Skinn played for George Mason from 2003-2006 and played an integral role for the 2006 team that made the Final Four as a No. 11 seed. Skinn scored 1,079 points and was a two-time All-CAA selection during his career at Mason.
Skinn was a no-brainer for the job, but the moment did not fully hit him until closer to his introductory press conference.
“They started to put the tribute video together that was really personalized to kind of retell the story of what myself and my teammates did back in ’06,” Skinn said on Glenn Clark Radio April 24. “… Just seeing all those familiar faces [at the press conference] gave me a sense of comfort … seeing my former teammates, seeing certain people in admin that were there. That’s when it all kind of just hit me because the last time I saw those faces, I was 21 years old.”
Though there were several familiar faces at his press conference, the campus itself has grown and expanded a lot since Skinn graduated from the university in 2006.
“When I came in for the interview I had to GPS my way out of campus,” Skinn said. “When I was here, Mason was basically inside of what’s called Patriot Circle. It’s like a big track and everything was inside that circle. Now there’s so much stuff outside the circle. … I’m still learning my way around here.”
Skinn’s relationship with Maryland men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard goes beyond the 2022-23 season. Willard hired Skinn to serve as an assistant at Seton Hall from 2018-2021. The duo compiled a 90-36 record and the regular-season Big East title in 2020.
Willard brought Skinn, a native of Hyattsville, to Maryland to help improve local recruiting, as the DMV region is home to some of the best basketball prospects and programs in the country. In just one year, Skinn and the rest of Willard’s staff made inroads in the local talent pool, landing some local talent from the high school ranks and via the transfer portal.
Skinn was an assistant coach at Ohio State during the 2021-22 season, but he jumped at the chance to return home.
“I was [Willard’s] first call and so for me it was a no-brainer to have a chance to come back home with somebody that I was familiar with,” Skinn said. “It all just kind of happened. I knew what Kevin Willard could bring to Maryland. … I knew with the way he worked and the way we were going to assemble that staff we were going to [appeal] to the diehard Maryland fans.”
Skinn helped reel in some local recruits for the upcoming season, including guards DeShawn Harris-Smith and Jahnathan Lamothe and forward Jamie Kaiser. All are from Maryland or Virginia.
The Terps also landed Charlotte transfer Jahmir Young, who played at nearby DeMatha, ahead of Willard’s first season. Young was instrumental in Maryland making the NCAA Tournament this past season and recently announced that he would stay for a fifth season.
“I think the best days of Maryland basketball are ahead,” Skinn said. “You guys got a chance to see how exciting that program is based on Kevin Willard’s basketball mind. That only gets better when you have the opportunity to really start putting the pieces together that you actually recruit and not necessarily inherited. … The sky for sure is the limit in College Park.”
For more from Skinn, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of George Mason Athletics