A key member of the resurgence of Clayton State men’s basketball, head coach Jimmy Link has announced the promotion of Lance Egnatz to associate head coach effective immediately.
“I’m excited for Lance to get this promotion and he definitely deserves it,” said Link. “He is exactly that title for us and I am happy to have him still with me going into year five.”
A 17-year coaching veteran, including 12 at the collegiate level and eight in the Southeast Region, Egnatz joined the Lakers as an assistant coach in July of 2015 and has been instrumental in the most successful seasons the program has had in a decade.
Those successes have included a pair of back-to-back Peach Belt Conference Regular Season Championships in 2016-17 and 2017-18, the first NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in a decade in the latter of those two seasons and numerous accolades and honors.
The first of those championships would come in dramatic fashion in 2016-17 as Clayton State earned a rare five-way share of the PBC West Division Championship with a thrilling 71-70 victory over Montevallo in the regular season finale before repeating the following year. They were the first titles for the program since the 2001-02 season.
That 2017-18 campaign saw the Lakers go 24-7 to tie the team’s DII wins record, won 14 games in a row at one point and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007-08. They would then knock off Carson-Newman 75-69 to advance to the Southeast Region Semifinals.
Over the course of his career, Egnatz has been a part of four regular season championships, a league tournament title and three berths in the NCAA Division II Tournament while recruiting and coaching tremendous individuals at four different stops.
The latter have included a DII Bulletin Preseason All-American, two NABC All-Region selections, three Daktronics All-Region honorees, a Player of the Year, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and 22 All-Conference selections. Of those, 13 have been First-Team choices.
Prior to joining the staff at Clayton State, Egnatz spent two years as an assistant at Polk State (Fla.) at the junior college level from 2006-08, four seasons helping to turn Lincoln Memorial (2008-12) into a regional and national powerhouse and gaining Division I experience at UT-Martin (2012-14).
Overall he has been part of teams that have compiled a 142-98 record (.592) and 104-76 mark (.578) in league play. Those teams have combined to win a pair of NCAA Tournament games in three appearances and garner multiple national rankings.
“I’m extremely grateful for coach Link and Director of Athletics Ryan [Erlacher] having the confidence in me to promote me to the associate head coach position,” said Egnatz. “I’m excited to get the season started!”
Egnatz promoted to Associate Head Basketball Coach at Clayton State
