Ten days after his return to Liberty, head men’s basketball coach Ritchie McKay has announced his coaching staff. , will serve as assistant coaches, while Matt Olinger will remain the program’s director of operations.
Getter is no stranger to Liberty basketball after serving on McKay’s staff during the 2008-09 season, helping guide the Flames to a 23-12 record and an appearance in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). Most recently, Getter was a member of Mike Jones’ staff at Radford, helping the Highlanders finish 22-12 overall and 12-6 in the Big South this past season. Radford made an appearance in the 2015 College Basketball Invitational, defeating Delaware State, 78-57, before falling to Vermont, 71-58.
Before his four-year stint at Radford, Getter played an integral part in VCU’s success in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, which included a magical run to the 2011 Final Four with wins over USC, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas. While on Shaka Smart’s staff, the Rams posted 55 wins over two seasons, the highest total over any two-year span in program history. Prior to his one season at Liberty, Getter was the top assistant at Walsh College in Ohio, where he helped the Cavaliers to a 26-5 record and a run into the Second Round of the NAIA Division II National Tournament.
Mance has been a member of the Flames’ coaching staff the last two seasons, working primarily with Liberty’s wing players while also handling various scouting assignments and recruiting responsibilities. Prior to coming to Liberty, Mance spent three seasons as an assistant at Army under head coach Zach Spiker.
While at Army, Mance worked with the guards while helping lead the Black Knights to its most successful Patriot League season at 8-6 and its best overall regular season in 28 years at 16-15. Army’s eight regular season wins in Patriot League play marked a school record, securing the team’s first winning season in league history. The Black Knights also garnered Army’s first overall winning season since 1984-85, while starting four freshmen in the rotation throughout the entire conference 2012-13 season. The Black Knights won the coveted “Star Game” against Navy in back-to-back seasons, becoming the first coaching staff since the Mike Krzyzewski era to accomplish the feat.
Soucie has the distinction of serving as an assistant under Ritchie McKay every day of his head coaching career. The partnership began in 1995 when the two helped resurrect the program at Portland State, which had been dormant for 15 years. He followed McKay to Colorado State and Oregon State and New Mexico, before joining McKay in his first stint with the Flames (2007-09).
Soucie returns to the Flames program with 17 years of coaching experience. While McKay served as an associate head coach at Virginia for the past six seasons, Soucie was the Cavaliers’ director of player development. Following an ACC Championship in 2014, the Cavaliers were the No. 1 seed in the East Region and advanced to the Sweet 16. The Cavaliers spent seven weeks ranked as the No. 2 team in the country this past season, finishing the year with a 30-4 overall record and a 16-2 mark in ACC play. Virginia advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Final Four team Michigan State.
Olinger will enter his 11th year with the men’s basketball program, which includes eight years on the coaching staff. The Indianapolis, Ind., native has been an integral part of Liberty’s success over the last 10 seasons, serving in various capacities that include assistant coach, director of basketball operations and graduate manager while being a part of two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2004 and 2013.
Olinger first joined the coaching staff in 2008 as the director of basketball operations during McKay’s first coaching stint. Olinger served as an interim assistant coach during the spring of 2008 and the spring and summer of 2009. In the fall of 2011, he was promoted to assistant coach where he served until the 2013 season.
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Photo Courtesy Liberty University
