Longwood men’s basketball director of operations Cody Anderson has been promoted to assistant coach, head men’s basketball coach Jayson Gee announced Thursday.
Anderson, who joined the Lancers last season after serving as a four-year student manager for the Georgia Bulldogs men’s basketball team, becomes the fourth member of a Gee-led staff that boasts more than 70 combined years of college coaching experience. He becomes the youngest of Longwood’s four coaches, joining Gee, fourth-year associate head coach Jake Luhn and Big South Hall of Famer Dr. Ron Bradley, the former Big South champion head coach at Radford.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to promote Cody Anderson to full-time assistant coach,” said Gee, now entering his fourth year at Longwood. “It’s very rare for a director of operations to transition to full-time status at the Division I level in just one year, but Cody is very rare person and coach. We knew he was special when we brought him here from Georgia, and he’s shown us that every single day since he set foot on campus.”
At 23 years old, Anderson becomes one of the youngest assistant men’s basketball coaches at the Division I level. He spent the 2015-16 season as Longwood’s director of operations, managing a wealth of responsibilities including the program’s travel operations, academic monitoring, scouting, film preparation, practice logistics, statistical analysis and general quality control oversight of the entire program.
Longwood will begin a search for a new men’s basketball director of operations immediately.
“Cody is bright, talented and has extremely high character,” Gee said. “Those attributes, along with his faith and maturity, more than qualify him for the transition. Cody is a favorite within our department and our team because of his willingness to serve others and ability to create solutions. He has a bright future, and I’m happy to be able to able to open this first door for him to what promises to be a great coaching career.”
Last season Anderson also handled coordination of official visits for recruits and, in that capacity, contributed to Longwood’s signing of a seven-member recruiting class that will debut in 2016-17.
“I am blessed and truly honored to be named an assistant men’s basketball coach at Longwood University,” said Anderson, who graduated from Georgia in 2015 with a degree in mathematics education. “Coach Gee is a mentor, and I am forever grateful for his leadership and the opportunity he has given me. We are building something special here at Longwood, and I’m excited to continue working with coach Gee, coach Luhn and coach Bradley as we establish this program as a Big South championship contender that develops well-rounded young men on and off the court.”
Anderson’s heightened responsibilities come as Longwood looks to build off last season’s program-best eighth-place Big South finish and the 2014-15 trip to the Big South Tournament semifinals. The Lancers welcome back returning starters Darrion Allen and Khris Lane and third-year team captain Damarion Geter, along with three other returning letterwinners, five transfers and two freshmen.
