Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1990
- Class:
- 1969
The first in a line of great point guards from Mullens, W.Va., to star at Marshall, Lewis Joseph “Dan”  D’Antoni II not only served as the triggerman for some of the most beloved teams in Thundering Herd history, he eventually became the team’s head coach. Playing alongside fellow Hall of Famers Bob Allen, Jim Davidson, Bob Redd and George Stone, Coach Ellis Johnson’s “Iron Man Five” rarely left the court as Marshall made back-to-back trips to the National Invitation Tournament in 1967 and 1968. The 1966-67 team finished second in the Mid-American Conference with a 10-2 league record and then made one of the greatest postseason runs in school history when it beat Villanova and Nebraska at Madison Square Garden to advance to the NIT final four. In the 119-88 win over Nebraska in the quarterfinals, D’Antoni narrowly missed recording the first triple-double in Marshall history as he logged 24 points, 12 assists and 9 rebounds. The following year, D’Antoni’s junior season, Marshall again finished second in the MAC and received another NIT bid, falling in double overtime to Saint Peter’s University in a first-round game.
D’Antoni received second team All-MAC recognition as a junior and was a first team all-league selection as a senior, and when his career came to a close he had scored 1,109 points in his three seasons with the Marshall varsity. Assists did not become an official statistic until after D’Antoni finished playing at Marshall, or he would undoubtedly be among the school’s all-time leaders in that category.
Upon graduation, D’Antoni began his coaching career as mentor for the Marshall freshman team, a squad that included his younger brother, Mike. He went on to an illustrious career at Socastee High School in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where he won more than 500 games in 28 seasons and established the Beach Ball Classic, one of the top high school tournaments in the nation. D’Antoni then served for nine seasons in the NBA as an assistant coach for his brother Mike with the Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers and as head coach for the NBA Summer League teams for the Lakers and Knicks. In the spring of 2014, he accepted the head coaching job at Marshall where, in 2018, he led the Thundering Herd to the Conference USA championship and then the school's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, 81-75 over Wichita State.
D’Antoni was inducted into the Socastee High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014, the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2016, and into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.
