Griff Aldrich took over the Longwood men’s basketball program in March of 2018 and soon after began what has become one of the most successful runs in the program’s history.
He won his 100
th game as a head coach on Sunday, December 17, 2023 against VMI, and he is 109-86 in his six seasons while leading Longwood to a bevy of milestones and program firsts. He has helped cultivate a home court advantage that is second to none as well, going 67-23 in Farmville in that span.
Those milestones include the program’s first two Division I NCAA Tournament appearances, two Big South Championships, a Big South regular season title, and back-to-back-to-back 20-win campaigns for the first time in team history.
The past three seasons have been especially memorable, with Longwood winning its two Big South titles amid sellout crowds in both the elegant, gleaming Joan Perry Brock Center, which opened in the fall of 2023, and Willett Hall, the team's home prior to the JPB.
During the run, the team has won 20 or more games in each season, with the team's 67 wins the most in a three-year span in team history.
In 2023-24, the Lancers powered their way to a third-straight 20-win campaign, going 21-14 while closing the season strong with seven wins in its final 10 games.
Longwood won three games in three days to claim its second Big South title and advance to the NCAA Tournament behind Big South Tournament MVP Walyn Napper and All-Tournament honorees Michael Christmas and Szymon Zapala. The Lancers knocked off Winthrop, top-seeded High Point in overtime, and UNC Asheville, the second seed, to win the title.
In the NCAA National Tournament, Longwood was named a No. 16 seed and faced off against No. 1 seed Houston in Memphis.
During the regular season, the team boasted one of the top winning streaks in the nation with a 15-game winning streak that was the second-longest in team history. At home, Longwood boasted the second-best attendance in the Big South in the JPB, a program record, and Aldrich was named a finalist for the 2023-24 Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award for a second straight year.
Napper, under Aldrich’s direction, was an All-Big South Second Team selection as one of the top guards in the league, and Emanuel Richards earned Big South All-Freshman Team honors.
Longwood was one of the top rebounding outfits in the nation, ranking sixth in the nation in rebounding margin (+8.6) and 12
th nationally in offensive rebounds per game (13.4). The team’s scoring defense led the Big South, giving up 68.5 points per game, and the Lancer bench, long a strength under Aldrich, led the league in bench points per game at 26.9.
The three-year run started in 2022, when the Lancers Lancers won both the Big South regular season and tournament crown, and the team also had the first nationally televised game on ESPNU in Willett Hall in program history.
After a historic trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2022, the follow up campaign saw the Lancers again compete at the top of the Big South. The 2022-23 campaign saw Longwood post a second straight 20-win campaign as the Lancers went 20-12 against a difficult schedule, and the program sold out back-to-back home games to close the regular season. Aldrich was named a finalist for the 2022-23 Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award.
The team had a pair of All-Big South selections make more program history. Isaiah Wilkins earned an All-Big South First Team spot, and he became the first player to garner back-to-back All-Big South First Team honors since the Lancers joined the league. DeShaun Wade was named All-Big South Honorable Mention for a second time to join Wilkins as the only Lancers to earn All-Big South honors in back-to-back seasons.
The team’s rise under his direction culminated in the program’s first Big South Championship crown in 2022. The Lancers set a program record with 15 Big South wins, went 15-1 while also winning the Big South regular season title, and stormed through the conference tournament to earn the team’s first NCAA National Tournament bid at the Division I level.
In the NCAA Tournament, Longwood was named a No. 14 seed and faced No. 3 seed Tennessee.
The Lancers closed the season on a tear, winning 19 of their 21 games once the calendar turned to January. That stretch included an 11-game winning streak, including the team’s first 10 conference games. It was the first time the team had won at least 10 straight games in its Division I history and was only the fourth time the Lancers had won at least 10 in a row in program history.
The team’s 26-7 overall record and 15-1 Big South record were both high water marks in the team’s Division I history, and the 26 wins were the most since the team went 28-3 in the 1979-80 season and advanced to the Division III Final Four.
The team also went 16-1 at home, a program best at the DI level. The team also ranked as high as 13
th in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25, the first time the Lancers have appeared in the rankings.
In addition, he coached a pair of All-Big South First Team selections in Isaiah Wilkins and Justin Hill, marking the first time Longwood has had two players selected to the All-Big South First Team. DeShaun Wade was also named an All-Big South Honorable Mention, giving the program three all-conference honorees for the first time in the Big South.
Aldrich was named the Big South Coach of the Year while also being named a finalist for both the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award, given to the top Division I coach in the nation, and the Hugh Durham Award, given to the top mid-major coach in the country.
Aldrich’s career at Longwood has garnered national attention throughout his time in Farmville. In his first season, he was a finalist for the 2019 Joe B. Hall Coach of the Year Award. He was also profiled in best-selling author John Feinstein’s 2020 book “The Back Roads to March.”
Longwood’s turnaround under Aldrich has been the byproduct of standout recruiting classes and a program grounded in the “Longwood Five:” Excellence, Grit, Humility, Gratitude and Service.
In the 2020-2021 season, the program won a then-record 10 Big South games while advancing to the semifinals of the Big South Championship. The performance included a run of eight wins in the final 10 regular season games and an upset of No. 5 seed UNC Asheville in the Big South Quarterfinals. Veteran guard Juan Munoz earned an All-Big South nod, and the team qualified for the College Basketball Invitational for a second time in three seasons.
The Lancers also made history in Aldrich's second year in 2019-20 by amassing what was then the most conference victories (9), best conference winning percentage (.500) and highest league finish (4th) since joining the Big South Conference in 2012-13. That performance, which the team punctuated by winning eight of their final 11 regular-season games, earned Longwood a first-round bye in the Big South Championship tournament for the first time in program history and elevated the Lancers four spots higher than their previous best Big South finish.
In 2018-19, Aldrich’s first version of the Lancers broke the school record for most three-pointers, reached the postseason for the first time in the Division I era, and put an exclamation point on that debut breakout by taking down Conference USA powerhouse Southern Miss 90-68 in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational. The Lancers also picked up an early-season signature win at Commonwealth rival Richmond, swept the Tubby Smith-led High Point Panthers, and won six Big South games.
Point guard Shabooty Phillips, whose relationship with Aldrich spans more than a decade back to Aldrich’s time as an AAU coach at The Forge in Houston, Texas, was named Big South Newcomer of the Year that season, while Aldrich was named one of 10 finalists for the Joe B. Hall Coach of the Year award, which goes to the top first-year coach in all of Division I basketball.
Longwood’s success under Aldrich has extended off the court as well with record-breaking performances in the classroom and graduation stage. The program set a record with a 3.29 GPA in the spring of 2021 and has routinely posted cumulative GPAs north of 3.00 in his six seasons.
Additionally, Aldrich has initiated several facility upgrades for Longwood men’s basketball, including a new basketball performance center, renovated locker room and player lounge, film room, and aesthetic updates to the student entrance to Willett Hall. Those are in addition to the Joan Perry Brock Center, the new home of Longwood basketball that opened in the fall of 2023 and was made possible by a $15 million gift from Joan Perry Brock.
The new heights Longwood basketball has enjoyed under Aldrich are the latest successes in the former attorney’s unique career path, which has taken him from the highest rungs of the corporate ladder to the hardwood where his passions for the game of basketball and the mission of developing young people through sport lie.
From his days as a member of the Hampden-Sydney men’s basketball program, to his first coaching job alongside Commonwealth coaching stalwart Tony Shaver, to his career as a partner in a top-tier international law firm, and finally to his role in helping UMBC pull off the greatest upset in NCAA Tournament history, Aldrich has found success at every step of his professional career.
As a collegiate player, he helped lead the Tigers to a 79-31 record during his career, which included two NCAA Tournament appearances, and was team captain his senior year. After earning his Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law, he rejoined his former college coach Shaver on the Hampden-Sydney bench for the 1999-2000 season. That year, Aldrich helped Shaver lead the Tigers to their best season in school history with a perfect 24-0 record in the regular season, a No. 1 Division III national ranking, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Championship and a trip to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
After that championship season at Hampden-Sydney, Aldrich shifted his professional sights to the private sector where he began a successful 16-year career in law and business. He became a partner at Vinson & Elkins, a leading international law firm, working in Houston and London. Later, he established and built a private oil and gas company in Texas, and held the position of Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer in a national energy-focused private investment firm.
But even as his professional resume grew, Aldrich's heart remained in coaching, and he never stepped out of the elite coaching ranks. While at Vinson & Elkins, he served as head coach at several elite-level AAU basketball programs for high school players. He went on to found the HIS Hoops program in Houston's Third Ward, one of the most impoverished areas of the city, where his work with students focused on faith, academics and basketball. Several of his players there and at other AAU programs advanced to the college and professional ranks, including L.A. Clippers forward DeAndre Jordan, international professionals Jay Couisnard, P.J. Couisnard and Brandon Peters, and NFL linebacker Orie Lemon.
In 2016 that passion for the game of basketball finally pulled Aldrich back to the court full time. At the urging of his college teammate and then-newly hired UMBC head coach Ryan Odom, Aldrich left behind his law career to become UMBC’s Director of Recruiting and Program Development and helped Odom engineer one of the great turnarounds in college basketball. In that role, he acted as chief of staff for Odom – his college teammate and son of legendary college coach Dave Odom – and was involved in all aspects of UMBC's turnaround from NCAA cellar-dweller to America East Champion and NCAA Tournament giant-killer.
At UMBC, Aldrich oversaw the recruiting and program development efforts during those two seasons, helping bring in a wealth of talent that included AEC Defensive Player of the Year K.J. Maura and AEC All-Rookie Team selections Daniel Aiken and Arkel Lamar. He was involved in all aspects of the program from recruiting and scouting, to quality control and campus and community engagement.
UMBC posted back-to-back 20-win seasons during Aldrich’s tenure and had that success culminate during a postseason run that put the Retrievers on the map. After winning the America East Conference title in 2018 to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, UMBC shocked the college basketball world when they pulled off the biggest upset in tournament history by taking down No. 1 overall seed Virginia in the first round.
Weeks later, Longwood University President W. Taylor Reveley IV and former Longwood athletics director Troy Austin introduced Aldrich as Longwood’s next head coach. Now, Longwood men’s basketball has experienced a bevy of firsts, from postseason wins, to academic highs and record attendance in Willett Hall.
Aldrich and his wife, Julie, live in Farmville with their three children – Scott, Ford and Laura Lee.
