University of Hartford

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Led program to first-ever America East Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance (2020-21)
• Posted highest winning percentage in program history (.625) with a 15-8 record (2020-21)
• Guided Hartford to back-to-back America East Championship title game appearances for first time in program history (2019-20, 2020-21)
• Coming off most successful four-year run in Hartford’s DI history (2017-21), totaling 70 wins
• Four consecutive top-four finishes in the America East (2017-21)
• America East co-Coach of the Year (2017-18)
• Winningest coach in Hartford’s DI era (157 wins)
• Set the program’s DI record in regular-season victories (18) and total wins (19) in 2017-18
• Piloted two players (Pancake Thomas – 2015-16, Malik Ellison – 2019-20) to NABC All-District 1 honors
• Led 32 players to All-Conference honors, including four First Team, seven Second Team, eight Third Team, six All-Defensive Team, three All-Rookie Team and five All-Academic Team members
• Guided Justin Graham to a major conference award (Sixth Man of the Year) in 2014-15
• Produced three DI-AAA Athletics Director Association (ADA) Scholar-Athlete Team honorees
• Piloted Hartford to first-ever Division I postseason appearance (CIT) in 2012-13, and program’s second postseason berth (CIT) in 2017-18
• Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award finalist (2012-13)
• CollegeInsider.com America East Coach of the Year (2012-13)

 
CAREER BIOGRAPHY
 Now in his 12th season as head coach of the Hartford men’s basketball team in 2021-22, John Gallagher brought the Hawks to new heights as his Hawks are coming off the program’s first-ever America East Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance this past season.
 
Named the 10th head coach in the 72-year history of the program prior to the 2010-11 campaign, Gallagher has led the Hawks to 70 wins — an average of 17 per year — over the past four seasons, the most in a four-year span in Hartford’s Division I history (since 1984-85). With 157 career victories, he enters the 2021-22 campaign as the all-time winningest coach in Hartford men’s basketball’s Division I history, surpassing legendary coach Jack Phelan (124 wins) in 2019-20.
 
A Philadelphia native, Gallagher has coached 32 All-Conference Team honorees, with 17 of those awards coming over the past four seasons. During his tenure, the Hawks have earned four First Team, seven Second Team, eight Third Team, six All-Defensive Team, three All-Rookie Team and five All-Academic Team selections. 
 
The highlight of Gallagher’s career — and arguably the program’s 37 years as a Division I program — came in 2020-21, one of the toughest seasons that college basketball has ever endured. 
 
In a year that was abbreviated due to COVID-19, the Hawks became the first team in America East history to win four games on the way to claiming the league’s tournament title. Knocking off Binghamton, UAlbany and perennial power Vermont as the No. 4 seed, Hartford, which was picked to finish sixth in the conference’s preseason poll, downed No. 6 UMass Lowell in the Championship Game to punch the program’s first ticket to the NCAA Tournament.   
 
Drawing No. 1-seeded Baylor in the First Round, the Hawks fell to the eventual National Champions, 79-55, in Indianapolis. The Bears’ win against the Hawks marked their smallest margin of victory against any opponent throughout their NCAA Championship run. 
 
The banner-raising campaign was not the only accomplishment for Gallagher and his Hawks in 2020-21. Under his guidance, Hartford, which won 10 of 11 home games, finished the campaign with a 15-8 overall record for the highest winning percentage in program history (.625).
 
Gallagher had Hartford knocking on the doorstep of the NCAA Tournament for quite some time before the historic 2020-21 season. The Hawks have top-four finishes in each of the past four seasons, and have qualified for each of the past two America East Championship title games.
 
Despite losing all five starters from a 2018-19 squad that won 18 games and lost in double overtime in the America East’s semifinals to defending champion UMBC, the 2019-20 team was one game away from raising the program’s first-ever league championship banner inside Reich Family Pavilion. 
 
Posting an 18-win season for the second time in as many years in 2019-20, the Hawks were set to board a bus and head to Burlington, where they would face Vermont in their second America East Championship appearance in program history. Moments before departure, though, the storybook season came to a screeching halt, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancelation of the game.  
 
Known for developing potent offenses that are typically dangerous from three-point land, Gallagher has transitioned Harford into one of the top defensive teams in the America East. The Hawks ranked 31st in the nation in scoring defense (63.9 ppg) and 10th in nation in three-point field goal defense (.290) in 2020-21. The previous season, his squad was the second-best in the nation in defending the three-point line, holding opponents to a .275 clip from behind the arc.
 
In 2017-18, Gallagher piloted Hartford to a program-record 19-win season, earning America East co-Coach of the year honors. That only scratches the surface of what the Hawks accomplished that season. 
 
Picked to finish eighth in the America East after a 9-23 finish in 2016-17, Gallagher led Hartford to one of the best single-season turnarounds in program history. Making a 10-win improvement, the Hawks broke the program’s Division I records in regular-season wins (18) and overall victories with a 19-14 record.
 
Hartford’s record-breaking campaign also featured the program’s second Division I postseason appearance, as the Hawks were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). The program’s first-ever postseason berth — a CIT invitation — also came under Gallagher in 2012-13. 
 
In addition to the team’s successes, Gallagher has also reached key milestones in his coaching career over the past two seasons. Three days after becoming the fifth coach in program history to reach 100 wins with a 79-62 victory at New Hampshire (Jan. 31, 2018), Gallagher became Hartford’s most successful Division I coach after defeating Stony Brook, 73-64 (Feb. 3, 2018). 
 
In addition, several of Gallagher’s players have signed professional contracts, including a program-record five members from the Class of 2019. George Blagojevic (Cairns Marlins — Australia), John Carroll (BK Nová Hut Ostrava — Czech Republic), Dunne (BKM Lucenec — Slovakia), J.R. Lynch (Bahia Basket — Argentina) and Travis Weatherington (Bahia Basket — Argentina) extended their basketball careers beyond the hardwood of West Hartford after inking contracts during the 2019 postseason.
 
Prior to that, Mark Nwakamma (Israel), Corban Wroe (Australia) and Yolonzo Moore II (Cyprus) each played professionally after graduating in 2015.
 
The Hawks have also excelled in the classroom during Gallagher’s tenure, with five student-athletes earning All-Academic Team honors and three receiving Di-AAA Athletics Directors Association (ADA) Scholar-Athlete Team distinction. Hartford earned a National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) Team Academic Award for the third straight year in 2020-21. In addition, the Hawks’ 3.61 combined GPA ranked first among the America East’s 10 men’s basketball programs. 
 
The Hawks posted back-to-back winning records for the first time in Hartford’s Division I history under Gallagher. Breaking out for a 17-win season that was capped by the program’s first-ever Division I postseason bid — all while boasting the 11th youngest squad in the nation — in 2012-13, Hartford posted a 17-16 record the following season in 2014-15. 
 
At the conclusion of Hartford’s breakthrough season in 2012-13, CollegeInsider.com named Gallagher the 2013 America East Coach of the Year. That year, he was also a finalist for the prestigious Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, which is presented annually to those who not only achieve success on the basketball court, but who also display moral integrity off of it. 
 
Attributing to the Hawks’ success in the 2012-13 season was their tenacity on the defensive side of the court. Holding its opponents to a school record 61.2 points per game, Hartford, which won 17 games that season, also led the America East in steals (8.2 per game) and forced turnovers (16.0 per game). 
 
Gallagher’s hiring as Hartford’s fifth Division I coach in 2010 served as a reunion with the University of Hartford, as he previously logged two seasons as the Hawks’ associate head coach, from 2006-08.