Coaching staff complete
Killings makes final assistant coach hires to help in first season
The playing roster for the 2021-22 season is far from settled, but the University at Albany basketball program filled out its coaching staff Wednesday.
Dannton Jackson, who compiled a 294-130 record in 13 seasons as head coach of NAIA Xavier (La.), has been added as an assistant coach, joining previously announced Hamlet Tibbs and Matt Griffin on the staff of new coach Dwayne Killings. Dan Madhavapallil was named director of basketball operations, a position he held the past two seasons at Marquette, and K.J. Baptiste is the new video/recruiting coordinator.
“There was so much interest in our program and the opportunity to be a part of what we’re going to do here,” Killings said on a Zoom call. “That’s humbling for me as a person, and it’s also reflective of this opportunity that’s here at Ualbany.”
Killings said he has been holding workouts with a handful of returning players, including some who entered their names in the transfer portal. He didn’t mention any specific players other than Jarvis Doles, who put his name in the portal but indicated that he is open to returning.
Eleven of the players who were on the 2020-21 roster have either entered the portal or indicated that they don’t plan to return.
“If he comes back next year, he’s going to be a leader,” Killings said. “It’s going to be his last year of eligibility, so what happens to that team good and bad every day is going to be applied to his experience on the court and off.”
Here’s a rundown of the assistant coaches:
Hamlet Tibbs
A former Albany Academy and Albany City Rocks coach, Tibbs arrives after seven seasons as an assistant at Vermont. The Catamounts were 162-61 during Tibbs’ time there.
“As a basketball fan, I was always in love with that Vermont and Albany matchup,” said Tibbs, who played at Troy High and Hudson Valley Community College. “I liked the (Ualbany) program back then and obviously I love the program now being back here.”
Matt Griffin
Griffin is the son of former Siena coach John Griffin (1983-86). He was coach of Philadelphia high school power Roman Catholic and likely is responsible for Ualbany getting commitments from Phillyarea transfers Matt Cerutti (Lock Haven) and Paul Newman (Bucknell).
“When he moved here,” Griffin said of his father, “he was 25 years old, and he was the head coach in a place he didn’t know. He was able to embrace the community and be a part of this community. Those were his words to me, to embrace the community here in Albany and at Ualbany.”
Dannton Jackson
After his stint at Xavier, he spent four seasons as associate head coach at Alabama-birmingham and spent the past season in the same position at Alabama State. Jackson, a native of Los Angeles, was coaching at Xavier when Hurricane Katrina forced the school to cancel its 2005-06 season.
“That was an unbelievable season,” Jackson said. “It is similar (to the COVID -19 season) in regard to how you handle adversity, and, like coach Killings talked about, the process. When we came back from Hurricane Katrina, we focused on the process, and that’s what we’re doing here.”
Dan Madhavapallil
Madhavapallil spent 10 seasons at Marquette, the past three with Killings, whom he called “one of my best friends, not just in college basketball, but in general.” He was team manager, program assistant and assistant video coordinator before becoming director of basketball operations in 2019.
“Being at Marquette, in the Big East Conference, we played a lot of teams in the Northeast corridor,” Madhavapallil said. “The Northeast is tough, physical. That’s what Northeast basketball is, and that’s who coach Killings is.”
K.J. Baptiste
A suburban Boston native, Baptiste was a graduate assistant manager with Penn State the past two seasons, handling player development, recruiting, scouting, and administrative scheduling/ planning.
“At Penn State, I did a lot of video breakdowns, edits, player development through video,” Baptiste said. “So here I’m just breaking down all of our video edits. If we’re recruiting a guy, I’ll break down a little edit for the staff so they can see it. Anything with video, I’m doing.”