Al Skinner

Albert Lee Skinner Jr. (born June 16, 1952) is an American men's college basketball head coach and a former collegiate and professional basketball player.

While on the freshman team in the 1970–71 season, the varsity team was led by Julius Erving, in what would be Erving's final season in college.

(Skinner and Erving would later play together professionally.) Skinner was also a teammate of Rick Pitino.

Skinner scored 1,235 points in his three years on the varsity squad.

He led the team in rebounding each of those three years, and in scoring in his junior and senior seasons.

As a senior, he averaged a double-double with 18.8 points and 11.0 rebounds.

That scoring average also led the Yankee Conference.

He led UMass to two straight YC titles in the 1972–73 and 1973–74 seasons.

He recorded the first triple-double in UMass history, with 28 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists against St. Peter's on Dec. 28, 1973 in Springfield MA.

Skinner was a three-time Yankee Conference First Team selection.

As a senior in 1973–74, he was the team captain and an All-America honorable mention selection.

Skinner was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 1974 NBA draft (16th pick of the 9th round, or 160th overall pick).

He never ended up playing with Boston.

Instead, he joined the New York Nets in the ABA, where he reunited with Julius Erving.

In his total ABA/NBA career, he spent time with the Nets (1974–77, 1978–79), Pistons (1977–78) and 76ers (1979–80).

An odd footnote to Skinner's career is that he is the only player in NBA history to earn a DNP for both teams in the same game.

The pair helped the Nets win the ABA title in 1975–76.

In a game against the Philadelphia 76ers on November 8, 1978, Skinner's Nets lost in overtime.

However, the result was protested by New Jersey due to a total of six technical fouls being called on Bernard King and coach Kevin Loughery by referee Richie Powers, with both men receiving three each.

Per the rules, only two technical fouls could be called against any individual player or coach; as such, the protest was upheld and the game was ordered to be replayed from the point where King and Loughery were ejected.

Before this could happen, the Nets and 76ers made a trade where Skinner and Eric Money were swapped for Harvey Catchings and Ralph Simpson; this mean that, when the teams returned to finish the protested game on March 23, 1979, the four players were noted in the stat sheets for both teams with Skinner not playing for the 76ers in the return contest.

After retiring from his playing career, Skinner entered the college coaching ranks.

He served as an assistant coach at Marist from 1982 to 1984, and then at the University of Rhode Island from 1984 to 1988.

He was named head coach at URI beginning with the 1988–89 season, replacing Tom Penders.

Skinner coached the Rams for nine seasons, during which he won the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year award for the 1991–92 season.

He is also credited for recruiting many of the players of the Rams' 1997–98 team – Cuttino Mobley and Tyson Wheeler – which reached the Elite Eight of the 1998 NCAA tournament.

During Skinner's tenure, the Rams were selected to two NITs and two NCAA Tournaments.

On April 17, 1997, Skinner was hired to lead Boston College after Jim O'Brien left for Ohio State.

Nearly all of the Eagles' prominent players followed O'Brien to Ohio State, leaving Skinner with a depleted roster.

As a result, the Eagles struggled for Skinner's first three seasons in Chestnut Hill, winning only 12 games in Big East play and 32 overall.

He was inducted into URI's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.

After the Eagles struggled in Skinner's first three seasons in Chestnut Hill, he guided the 2000–01 team to the Big East regular season title with a 13–3 record—their first regular season title in 18 years.

The Eagles went on to win the Big East tournament, and earned a #3 seed in the NCAA tournament.

He was named the season's Coach of the Year both Nationally and in the Big East.

His jersey number 30 was retired in a ceremony at UMass on Feb. 18, 2004.

In the 2004–05 season, the Eagles became the first Big East team in history to start a season 20–0.

The Eagles were ranked #4 in the AP Poll at the time, and even reached as high as #3 later in the season.

Though they won the conference regular season title, the Eagles fell in the Quarter-Finals of the Big East tournament.

He was formerly the head coach of the Boston College Eagles men's basketball team and was then an assistant at Bryant University before becoming the head coach of Kennesaw State University in 2015.

Skinner played at the University of Massachusetts.