As Chicago State enters a new era in the NEC, the team will also be led by a new head coach. The school announced on Saturday that assistant Scott Spinelli had been elevated to head coach, following the departure of Gerald Gillion.
“I was impressed with Scott’s vision to build our program into a conference contender,” AD Dr. Monique V. Carroll said in a statement. “His experience at Power Five programs and developing winning cultures, along with his demonstrated ability to recruit and develop student-athletes into elite performers elevated Scott to this role. I am confident he can build champions at Chicago State University as we enter the Northeast Conference.”
Spinelli joined the CSU staff last year after seven years at Boston College, where he was an assistant and later interim head coach. He has significant collegiate coaching experience, with stints at Maryland, Texas A&M, Wichita State, Nebraska, and Loyola Chicago, among others.
The Massachusetts-native played at Boston University and got his start coaching at prep schools on the East Coast before moving to the college game in 1996. In between his time at BC and Chicago State, Spinelli helped run basketball recruiting combines and also spent some time as a television analyst on NESN in Boston.
The Cougars are coming off a successful season in which they won 13 games – the most since 2014 – and earned the program’s first-ever D-I postseason victory by upsetting 2-seed UC San Diego in the CBI. Gillion and staff faced a number of added challenges as an independent program but Spinelli comes into the job as the program will finally be back in a conference.
credit to Chicago State Athletics for the image
