Entering his 14th year at the helm of Augustana Vikings men’s basketball, head coach Grey Giovanine has firmly established his program as one of the best in all of NCAA Division III. In his first thirteen years he has compiled a record of 245-100 (.710) and a CCIW mark of 123-59 (.676) including conference championships in 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2011. The three year run from 2006-08 marked the first time in 28 years that any CCIW program captured three straight outright titles.
The 2011-12 Viking season was marked by the squad’s first national number one ranking of Giovanine’s tenure, and Augustana’s first since 1981. The squad spent the entire season ranked in the top 25, spurred by a series of exciting late game finishes. The Vikings made the conference tournament for the seventh year in a row before falling in the semi-finals to eventual champion North Central. Augustana is the only team in the CCIW to qualify for the conference tournament in all seven years of its existence.
The 2010-11 season marked one of the many highlights in Giovanine’s coaching career. The Vikings posted a 27-4 record, which is the second highest win total in school history. The Vikings were ranked seventh in the final D3hoops.com poll for the season after advancing to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Division III basketball tournament where they lost to St. Thomas, the eventual national champion. The Vikings opened the season with 20 straight wins, the longest winning streak in school history. They also won a share of the CCIW regular season championship for the fifth time since 2003, and they won the conference tournament for the third time since 2007.
Giovanine’s 2007-08 team finished the year with a 23-6 record and ranked fifth in the nation. Over the three year stretch from 2005-06 through 2007-08, his record was 68-18, a winning percentage of .791. In addition to the three consecutive conference championships, the Vikings also made three straight NCAA Division III Tournament appearances, the first time that’s been accomplished at Augustana since 1980-83. In the same time frame his teams won 20 of 21 games at home against CCIW competition. His 2005-06 and 2006-07 teams both finished the season ranked 11th in the nation and Augustana was ranked in the top 25 in every poll since the first week of the 2005-06 season through the middle of 2008-09, a stretch of 56 straight weeks.
Giovanine was named the 14th head men’s basketball coach at Augustana College in April of 1999. Energetic as a coach and a recruiter, he put down a foundation during his first year in 1999-2000 when the Vikings were 10-15 overall and 4-10 in the CCIW but opened eyes all over the league with their hard-nosed defense and a tenacious, never quit attitude. During his second year things fell into place and the result was a 17-8 overall record and a 9-5 mark in the CCIW, good for fourth place in the standings. The Blue & Gold were tremendous at home in 2000-01, compiling a 10-1 record in the Carver PE Center. It was excitement all around as Giovanine’s second Augustana team ended the season ranked 26th in the nation in the final NCAA Division III national poll. The Vikings defeated three teams that participated in the NCAA Division III national tournament and also took the measure of division one school Western Illinois.
In his third year, 2001-02, there was more of the same as Augustana once again compiled records of 17-8 overall and 9-5 in the CCIW, this time finishing second in the league. The Vikings once again brought back the “Carver Magic”, going 11-1 at home and spending three weeks in the top 25 national polls. In addition, sophomore Drew Carstens was named to the d3hoops.com NCAA Division III All-American team.
After the 2001-02 season Giovanine was selected as the Illinois NCAA Division III “Coach of the Year” by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.
Those first three seasons were just a prelude for a huge year in 2002-03 as the Vikings won the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin with an 11-3 league mark and a 20-5 overall record. At home Augustana was 10-1, making the Vikings 31-3 in the Carver Center over a three year stretch. The success continued in 2003-04, his fifth year, when he led his team to a 16-9 overall record and a 10-4 mark in the CCIW, good for second place in the league. They were also 9-3 at home.
When six seniors who made up his first recruiting class graduated in the spring of 2004, there was uncertainty heading into the 2004-05 season. Instead, the Vikings went 17-8 overall and 9-5 in the CCIW, including a mark of 11-2 at home. The 2005-06 campaign was Giovanine’s best so far as he led his team to a 23-6 record and the outright championship in the CCIW. Ranked as high as third in the nation at one time during the season, Augustana advanced to the “Sweet Sixteen” of the NCAA Division III national tournament for the first time since 1992-93. He was named CCIW “Coach of the Year” and won the same honor from the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association for all NCAA Division III coaches in the state.
The success continued in 2006-07 as the Vikings went 22-6, won the CCIW title for the second straight year and third time in the last four. They also won the CCIW tournament and participated in the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. Giovanine was selected as the conference “Coach of the Year” and the NCAA Division III “Coach of the Year” by the IBCA for the second consecutive season. They were 15-2 at home.
In 2007-08 Giovanine captured his third straight CCIW “Coach of the Year” award and garnered IBCA honors for the third season in a row as well. The 2008-09 season marked the ninth straight winning season for the Vikings under Giovanine’s leadership. His 2009-10 team went 16-10 overall and 9-5 in the CCIW, good for fourth place in the CCIW.
Since 2000-01 Giovanine’s teams are 189-74 (.719) overall and 99-41 (.707) mark in conference play and have fashioned a 124-21 (.855) overall mark at home and a 66-11 (.857) record in the CCIW at Carver PE Center.
Giovanine (GEE-O-VON-EE), who compiled a record of 80-85 while rebuilding the NCAA Division I Lamar Cardinals from 1993-99, formerly served as the Vikings head men’s golf coach in the spring. When his team defeated Wisconsin-Stout on March 4, 2006 in the NCAA Division III regional championship, it was his 200th victory as a college coach.
Giovanine came to Augustana after leading Lamar to three straight winning seasons for the first time in over a decade, including a 17-11 overall record in the 1998-99 campaign. It was the Cardinal’s best record since a 20-11 season in 1987-88. He has an overall collegiate coaching record of 279-174 in 15 seasons (six at Lamar & eleven at Augustana).
The native of Sheffield, Illinois, where he played for his father “Chips”, a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, at Western High School, Grey was excited about coming back to the Midwest.
When Giovanine went to Lamar, an NCAA Division I school located in Beaumont, Texas with an enrollment of 8,194 students, the Cardinals needed a jump start and that is exactly what he provided. In his first year of 1993-94 Lamar went 10-17 overall (6-12 in the Sun Belt Conference) and had an average attendance of 2,987. By 1998-99 Giovanine had the Cardinals at 17-11 overall (11-7 in the Sun Belt) and led the conference in attendance at 4,551 per game.
He guided Lamar to its first ever wins over Baylor, LSU, Ole Miss, Houston, USC and Western Kentucky and he was instrumental in initiating such events as the “Cardinal Connection” – an innovative reading program which was featured in the January 26, 1998 issue of the NCAA News.
Under his tenure, the first two GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in Lamar history were produced, including Matt Sundblad who was named Academic All-America of the Year in 1998-99. That emphasis fit in well at Augustana where the school currently ranks sixth in the nation on the list of Academic All-Americans produced all-time.
Prior to coming to Lamar, Giovanine was an assistant coach at Wichita State University for a year from April of 1992 until June of 1993. He was the recruiting coordinator and his first recruiting class was rated as the best class in the Missouri Valley Conference and was ranked in the top 25 nationally. For the five years before that (1987-92), he was the assistant coach at Rice where the Owls put together the school’s first 20 win season in 40 years. At both Wichita State and Rice he worked under head coach Scott Thompson, who has Quad City ties. Thompson played at Moline High School where his father Herb was the highly successful head coach.
Giovanine was an assistant coach at Oral Roberts from 1985-87 and was also an assistant at Valparaiso from 1982-85. He served as a graduate assistant coach at Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri during the 1981-82 season.
He has a degree in psychology from Central Missouri State where he graduated in 1982. Prior to that he received an associate degree from Highland Community College in Freeport, Illinois. He enjoyed tremendous careers at both institutions. He is the all-time leading scorer at Highland with 1,024 points in his two year career. At Central Missouri he captained a team that finished 26-2 and was ranked number one in NCAA Division II for five straight weeks. He was also the leading free throw shooter in the nation with a percentage of .904. Grey and his wife Kelly live in Moline with their sons Grey, Reid and Luke.