FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood assistant men's basketball coach Jake Luhn has been promoted to associate head coach, effective immediately, head coach Jayson Gee announced Friday.
 
Luhn is entering his third year as the top assistant on Gee's coaching staff and will hold the title of associate head coach for the first time in his 14-year coaching career.
 
"I am excited to promote Jake Luhn to the position of associate head coach," said Gee, who with Luhn as his right hand in 2015 led Longwood to the Big South Championship semifinals for the first time in program history. "Coach Luhn has made an impact in every facet of our program and is a major reason why we are in a position to compete in the upper half of Big South.
 
"Most importantly this promotion is a reflection of coach Luhn's growth and ability as a top-flight assistant coach. In a short period of time, Jake has established himself as one of the best assistant coaches in the country. He will one day run his own program at the Division I level, and I am excited to reward him in this fashion."
 
Since his hire before the 2013-14 season, Luhn has made an immediate impact in all areas of the Longwood basketball program, from recruiting to scouting to player development. This past season, Longwood won 11 games, including five in the Big South regular season and two in the conference tournament, all totals that rank as the highest since the Lancers joined the league in 2012-13. Among those victories were wins over regular season champion and tournament No. 1 seed Charleston Southern, fourth-place finisher Radford, Presbyterian, Campbell and Liberty.
 
"Jake Luhn was coach Gee's top coaching target to hire when he arrived, and over the past two years we have seen why," said Longwood director of athletics Troy Austin. "Coach Luhn is a bright, gifted coach who focuses his efforts on developing the whole student-athlete. We are lucky to have a person of his talents and character on staff here at Longwood. He is absolutely deserving of this title."
 
For the 2014-15 season, Luhn was responsible for the recruitment and development of Big South All-Tournament selection Shaquille Johnson and freshmen guards Ryan Badowski and Kanayo Obi-Rapu. In his first season in Farmville, Johnson was Longwood's second-leading scorer averaging 13.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and a team-leading 2.8 assists per game before exploding for two 20-point games in the Big South Tournament. Badowski finished as the Big South's second-leading freshman scorer with 7.3 points per game and a league freshman-best .384 (61-of-159) shooting percentage from three-point range, while Obi-Rapu cracked the starting lineup for the entirety of the postseason.
 
Luhn's rise through the coaching ranks began during the 2002-03 season when he served as a graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, UMass Boston. He parlayed that stint into a four-year stay at St. Bonaventure as the director of basketball operations from 2003-2006 and assistant coach during the 2006-07 season. At St. Bonaventure Luhn worked on the same staff as Gee, who was an assistant coach and associate head coach for Luhn's first three years with that program.
 
Luhn left the collegiate coaching circuit following the 2006-07 season to serve as CEO of LifeStyle Homes Builders following the sudden death of his father, John. Despite his departure from the collegiate ranks, however, Luhn put his coaching acumen to use as an assistant coach at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne, Fla., before Gee tapped him to join the Lancers staff on May 25, 2013.
 
"I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity coach Gee has given me to serve and assist him in carrying out his vision for Longwood basketball," Luhn said. "We have established ourselves as a relevant and respected program in the Big South and are on our way to fulfilling that vision of a Big South Championship. I feel fortunate to be part of Longwood University and am grateful for the support of our athletics department and the Longwood community. I am excited about the privilege of coaching the young men on this team and helping to keep pushing our program forward."
 
In his new position, Luhn, Gee and assistant coaches Samba Johnson and Craig Carter will welcome back a Longwood squad that returns three starters, nine letterwinners and one incoming freshman, guard Al Burge of Garfield Heights, Ohio.
 
Luhn holds a bachelor's degree in exercise science and physical education from UMass Boston and a master's degree in business administration from UMass Amherst. He and his wife, Jodi, have three children: J.J., Julia and John.

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