Men's Basketball | 7/20/2016 10:02:00 AM
Moon Township, Pa. – July 20, 2016 – Earlier this month,
Jimmy Langhurst spent four days in a gym at Albright College evaluating high school basketball talent. As he pored over notes and scouting reports during those 12-hour sessions in Reading, Pa., it struck him that life is good.
"Everybody says this is work, but it's not to me," Langhurst said. "I'm watching basketball. The only thing I'm missing out on is the sun. I get made fun of because I'm pasty white, but that's just the gym rat in me. I love being inside watching basketball. When I played, I spent all my time in the gym. This is just natural for me."
A natural shooter during his time as a
Robert Morris University guard from 2006-10, Langhurst now serves as the top assistant at Le Moyne College, a Division II program in Syracuse, N.Y. His duties include recruiting, scheduling games, conducting individual workouts, breaking down film and preparing scouting reports. Long days are the norm for this Willard, Ohio, native, who aspires to lead his own program one day.
"I have my hand in a lot of jars, and that's a good thing," said Langhurst, whose boss is Patrick Beilein, son of University of Michigan coach John Beilein. "There could be a day when I'm driving six hours to pick a kid up to bring him to the school. That's part of the job, and I love it. The days can get long, but I call that a 'Man's day.' All of these experiences are things I can put on my résumé."
After a four-year career at Robert Morris, where he averaged 8.7 points as a two-time captain and was part of two NCAA Tournament teams and one NIT squad, Langhurst played internationally in the British Basketball League for a season. He averaged 19 points and shot 45 percent from three-point range before deciding he wanted to chase his coaching dreams.
"I had a great time playing over there, but I wasn't going to make millions and I was losing connections with coaches here," said Langhurst, a quasi-celebrity in Sheffield, England, where he once, uncomfortably, accommodated a fan's request to sign the head of a newborn baby. "I made the decision to stop playing and to look for an opportunity in the coaching field."
Thanks to a huge assist from former RMU coach Mike Rice, Langhurst got his first break three years ago. Rice let Langhurst stay at his home in New Jersey, rent-free, for six months while the latter worked for Hoop Group. Rice, the Team Tournament Director at the youth basketball training academy, got Langhurst a job as an instructor.
"Coach Rice took me in without hesitation," said Langhurst, who played for Rice in his final three seasons at Robert Morris. "I was able to network with coaches and learn more about the game. Coach Rice is the one that put me in the right direction."
Langhurst got a break at the end of his six-month tenure when he ran into Matt Hahn, an assistant at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania at the time. Within a month, Langhurst was part of IUP coach Joe Lombardi's staff.
Within nine months, he was part of an IUP program that made a run to the NCAA Division II national championship game. Langhurst called it one of the great experiences of his career.
"I soaked up as much as I could," Langhurst said. "I have so many great things to say about Coach Lombardi. He gave me my first chance to get my foot in the door. Coach Lombardi and Matty Hahn really helped to pave the way for me."
At Robert Morris, Langhurst said he had great coaching mentors in assistants
Andrew Toole, now the Colonials' head coach, and Jimmy Martelli, a former assistant at RMU under Rice.
And, of course, Rice.
"To see all the work those guys put into this was always impressive to me," he said. "I didn't want to coach when I was a player, but when the ball quit bouncing, I knew I had to stay around the sport."
Langhurst recalled a seminal moment in 2007-08, when Toole helped him through a shooting slump.
"He had received an email from somebody, and it listed the top point guards in the country who were 5'11" and below, based on offensive efficiency rating," Langhurst said. "I was No. 2 or No. 3, ahead of (Pitt's) Levance Fields. Well, Coach Toole gave that to me with a hand-written note and folded it in my locker. I still have that note today in a frame. It goes with me to every office where I coach. It's a little reminder of what assistant coaches do to pat you on the back and uplift you."
Langhurst paused, before adding, "I got out of that slump, too."
A Northeast Conference All-Academic honoree who majored in social science, Langhurst was a silky smooth scorer and a natural leader. He produced 781 career points, a number that would have been much higher had he not suffered a late-December knee injury that ended his senior season.
Among his highlights, Langhurst led the NEC in three-point field-goal percentage (48.1) as a junior, was ranked the 40th-best shooter in the nation by Fox Sports.com, went 7-for-7 from the field two different times, scored 15 points, going 5-of-9 from behind the three-point line, in a first-round loss to Syracuse his sophomore year; and was part of three postseason teams, including a pair of NEC Tournament champs, in four years.
"Mike Rice came in and turned it around for us," said Langhurst, who played his first season for Mark Schmidt. "I have to say, there's no other place I'd have rather been than at Robert Morris. It was just a bunch of great guys, from the players to the staff and everyone involved with the program."
Langhurst remains close with former teammates such as Karon Abraham, Tony Lee, A.J. Jackson, Khalif Foster, Josiah Whitehead, Gary Wallace, Velton Jones, Dallas Green and Rob Robinson, among others. Many of them gathered at an RMU basketball alumni dinner last month.
"We have a group-chat every day, with probably 10 to 12 of us on there," Langhurst said. "They're just all a bunch of great guys."
As Langhurst prepares for his second season at Le Moyne, he will continue to grind and challenge himself, much the way he did as a player. Someday, he might find himself working at a Division I program, and, perhaps, as a collegiate head coach.
All of those things remain goals, but for now, he is enjoying the journey.
"I get to be around basketball," Langhurst said. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
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