Saint Augustine’s College announced the hiring of Lonnie Blow, Jr. as its head men’s basketball coach on Tuesday, April 24, 2012.

This is Blow’s second stint as Falcons’ head coach. During his first tenure from 2008 to 2010, the basketball program experienced its most successful period in school history. In 2010, Blow directed the Falcons to their first CIAA championship and NCAA Division II playoff berth in 13 years. It was the Falcons’ second conference title overall.

His teams compiled a 46-15 record in two years including a 27-5 mark in the 2009-10 season, which was the best season winning percentage (.844) for the Falcons since the NCAA started keeping track of the program’s statistics in 1975. Blow, who won a conference crown quicker than any St. Aug coach, was named NCAA Division II national coach of the year by Heritage Sports Radio Network and CIAA coach of the year in 2010, the same year his team was ranked 23rd nationally in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll and third in the Atlantic Region.

Blow returns to St. Aug from Old Dominion University where he was an assistant coach at the Division I mid-major program for two seasons. He used his defensive knowledge to help Old Dominion become one of the best defensive teams in Division I. In the 2010-11 season, the Monarchs were the top rebounding team and the third-ranked defensive team in the nation. That same season, the Monarchs won the Paradise Jam tournament, captured the CAA title and received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They finished the season as the third-ranked mid-major team in the nation. In the 2011-12 season, the Monarchs reached the quarterfinals of the College Insiders Tournament.

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