Two Coaches, One Dream
Lonergan Reaches Division I, D'Alessio Is Still Trying
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 3, 2006; Page E01
In some ways, Mike Lonergan and Luke D'Alessio are exactly where they want to be, sitting in their coaching offices deep into the night, discussing basketball with anyone who will listen. Their young sons run around in circles, their players and assistant coaches gradually trickle out, and their postgame pizzas sit untouched, dough and sauce unable to match the allure of rebounding differentials and second-half field goal percentages.
For two guys who couldn't bear the thought of being away from musty old gyms, it seemed only proper for their coaching careers to begin almost the minute their playing careers ended. But as both Lonergan and D'Alessio will tell you, not all musty old gyms are the same.
 "They're both basketball nuts, obviously," said Bullis High Coach Bruce Kelley who has known Mike Lonergan, left, and Luke D'Alessio, right, for more than 20 years. "That's part of the reason for their success: they're junkies." (Burlington Free Press/AP) Making the Grade Duke, Connecticut, Villanova and Memphis are the four No. 1 seeds in the men's NCAA tournament.
Michael Wilbon: It looks like the person who wins the office pool this year is going to have to go out on a limb.
After boasting that theirs was the best conference, the Big East is validated with eight tournament spots.
After finishing the regular season with the nation's best record, George Washington is disappointed with receiving an eighth seed.
Georgetown is in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2001 and the 23rd time overall.
George Mason and suspended guard Tony Skinn are relieved to be included in the NCAA event.
Amid unusual circumstances, Maryland opts to play in the NIT.
Billy Packer criticizes the committee for not taking more teams from the power conferences.
 Tony Kornheiser's bracket was so poor a year ago, why have him back? It's gotta be the new hat.
Odds and Ends: Inside the NCAA tournament
JOHN FEINSTEIN'S ANALYSESCAPSULESON OUR SITETOURNEY TRACKER Share and compare your NCAA brackets until right before Thursday's tip-offs. Then keep track of your teams and see how well you are doing.
Tip-Off Challenge: Which team is the best to come out of the Washington area?
MULTIMEDIAAudio: NCAA's Craig Littlepage explains how the field was chosen.
CONFERENCE FINALSACC: J.J. Redick hits consecutive three-pointers down the stretch as Duke beats Boston College, 78-76.
Big Ten: Jeff Horner scores 14 of his 16 points in the second half and adds 10 assists as Iowa beats Ohio State, 67-60.
SEC: Joakim Noah scores with 11 seconds left, then blocks a shot and Florida holds off South Carolina, 49-47.
Big 12: Julian Wright makes the game-turning steal and dunk in the final minutes as Kansas upsets Texas, 80-68.
Save & Share |
Saving options
Patrick Gymnasium is a 43-year-old building that seats 3,266 and draws nearly that many, even on a late-December Vermont night in which snow mixes with sleet and freezing rain. It is the home court for a men's basketball team that entered last year's NCAA tournament with the best grade-point average of the event's 65 teams, and exited the tournament with one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history.
Three turns away from Patrick Gymnasium is the four-bedroom house occupied by Lonergan, the University of Vermont's first-year men's basketball coach. The second floor of that house offers a majestic view of Lake Champlain, just beyond Burlington's automobile-free main street, on which Lonergan and his assistants are minor celebrities.
It is, as one of the assistants says, "paradise."
A.C. Jordan Arena seats just more than 2,000 and has the same straight-out-of-high-school aura that pervades Patrick Gymnasium. It is the home court for a men's basketball team composed largely of transfers from other schools, a team that was for a time ranked the best Division II program in the country last season.
A few steps from the arena floor is the small office occupied by D'Alessio, the most successful men's basketball coach in Bowie State history. The arena is not air conditioned, and so the basketball office has both a portable heating unit and a portable cooling unit. D'Alessio's assistants -- one of whom is full-time, although he also doubles as the Bulldogs' softball coach -- share the office's sole computer with the head coach.
They do not use the word "paradise."
Lonergan, 40, and D'Alessio, 46, have strikingly similar backgrounds. Both played point guard at Catholic University under legendary coach Jack Bruen. Both later served as assistants for Bruen: Lonergan at Colgate University, and D'Alessio at Catholic, where he helped coach a young Mike Lonergan. Neither could imagine life without basketball, and so both grabbed onto the lower rungs of the coaching ladder as soon as their playing careers were finished. A few rungs later, both took over modest local programs -- Lonergan at Division III Catholic, D'Alessio at Division II Bowie State -- and turned them into national powers.
"They're both basketball nuts, obviously," said Bullis High Coach Bruce Kelley, another former Catholic player who has known the two men for more than 20 years. "That's part of the reason for their success: They're junkies."
Not surprisingly, Lonergan and D'Alessio dreamed of becoming Division I coaches, although both felt locked into the lower levels of college basketball, especially after the untimely death of Bruen, their mentor. One of them -- Lonergan -- has moved on. The other -- D'Alessio -- has not.
In the Blood
Lonergan didn't like to read, but he still had a favorite book: "From Orphans to Champions," by DeMatha Coach Morgan Wootten, one of his childhood heroes. When Lonergan said he wanted to be a coach and began mapping out career plans, people told him he was crazy. He was in the eighth grade.
