With a Merrick coach, LIU heads to NCAA tourney

With coach Jim Ferry, of Merrick, at the helm, the Long Island University Blackbirds basketball team defeated Robert Morris University on March 7 to win the Northeast Conference championship. With the victory, the team qualified for the NCAA “March Madness” tournament for the second straight year.

For the Blackbirds, who make their home in Brooklyn, it’s the fifth conference championship in the school’s history, and the first time they have won in consecutive years. “To win it back to back, it’s a very challenging thing to do,” said Ferry, who has lived in Merrick since 2001. “That doesn’t happen very often.”

Ferry has been LIU’s head coach since 2002. At the time, he inherited a team that was coming off a five-win season. Last season, the Blackbirds won 27 games, and this season, they won 25 en route to capturing the conference championship. “That’s what’s nice about it. We didn’t just build a one-hit wonder, and then you’re out and have to rebuild again,” Ferry said. “You know you have a stable program when you’re able to compete for championships every year.”

It was a challenging year, said Ferry, who noted that the team lost two of its leading scorers last year, Kyle Johnson and David Hicks, to graduation. “It was a different team, a different year, different challenges, but it feels great,” Ferry said. “It was much more difficult because we were getting everybody’s best shot every night, because we were the defending champs.”

Ferry, who grew up playing basketball in Elmont, received his first coaching job at Keene State, his alma mater, shortly after graduation. His first head coaching job was with Plymouth State in New Hampshire, before returning to Long Island to coach at Hofstra and then LIU.

Last year, the Blackbirds required overtime to win their conference championship, which was also against Robert Morris. This year was a little less stressful for the team, which captured the title game 90-73. “Last year it was a war, it got to overtime, and this year was a tough battle too,” Ferry said. “We had to play really well to beat those guys, and we did.”