First-year University of Southern Mississippi men’s basketball coach Jay Ladner told Area Development Partnership members he feels great about coming home to Hattiesburg.
Ladner said the coaching job is a homecoming for him, when he spoke at the first Accelerate Breakfast of 2020 at Southern Oaks House & Gardens on Friday.
“I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be your head men's basketball coach at the university,” he said. “I still wake up and am honored to be here and want to do everything that we came to do.”
Landry’s connections to USM started early.
“I grew up here in Hattiesburg,” he said. “I grew up the son of a basketball coach. My mother worked at the university as well. She worked in the old Department of Independent Study, which is gone because they don't do it like that anymore.”
Ladner graduated from Oak Grove High School in 1984, and then he graduated from USM with a degree in pre-medicine/biology. He played baseball in the 1985-86 seasons, but played basketball from 1984-88. He was a member of the NIT champion team in 1987. He received his master's degree in educational administration from Southern Miss in 1999.
The NIT championship team defeated Ole Miss, Saint Louis, Vanderbilt, Nebraska and La Salle en route to the title in Madison Square Garden under legendary coach M.K. Turk.
Ladner said he has enjoyed working with young people.
“I love helping them, having a tangible effect on their future success later on in life,” he said. “So, it's been a labor of love.”
Ladner came to the Eagles at a disadvantage, taking the job after the National Signing Day of April 18.
“Signing Day for college basketball was in early April, so we were basically given the hand that we were dealt with whatever returning players and coaches,” he noted. “In the end, we've hit the ground running and we're building a program with a strong foundation; it is not going to be built overnight if it's meant to last.”