Third assistant

[Sir Lawrence]

Dale Layer:  I think Dale knew Buzz at Colorado State

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/sports/college/liberty/article/flames_face_losses_but_remain_hot/4541/

Liberty men's basketball coach Ritchie McKay announced two high-profile departures from the Flames basketball program Friday, confirming that starting guard B.J. Jenkins will transfer and that assistant coach Dale Layer will leave to become an assistant at Marquette.

Edit:  yes on the Colorado State connection.

[77ncaachamps]

Assistant Coach
College: Eckerd College ('80)
Start Date: 4/2/2007

When Liberty Head Men's Basketball Coach Ritchie McKay first started to feel the Flames' head coaching job was coming to fruition, he immediately thought of an old friend who would be a perfect fit on his new staff.

The friend on McKay's mind was Dale Layer, who had spent the last seven seasons as the head coach at Colorado State. The lifelong friendship between the two men dates back to 1989, when a young McKay was hired as an assistant coach at Queens College in Charlotte, N.C., by Layer.

The job was McKay's first full-time coaching job, and even though it was only one season, before he moved onto his alma mater at Seattle Pacific in 1990, there was an unbreakable bond formed between the two men.

The ties were such that eight years later, when McKay took the head coaching job at Colorado State, he thought immediately of Layer. So Layer packed up his family and moved to Fort Collins, Colo., to assist McKay with the Rams' program. When McKay left for Oregon State in 2000, Layer took over the Rams program.

While with the Rams, Layer had a 103-106 record, including a 17-13 mark in 2007. In 2003, Layer led Colorado State to the Mountain West Conference Championship and its first NCAA Tournament bid in 13 years, falling to Duke in the first round.

"I am elated that we were able to get someone with Dale's knowledge and experience," said McKay. "He has been a very successful coach at all levels and his impact on our program will be significant. We have worked together, competed against each other and have had a great friendship over the years. I admire Dale and am excited what he will bring to Liberty University."

"I have great respect for Ritchie McKay," said Layer. "This will be the third time we get to coach together and it is exciting to work with such a terrific coach and a great friend. It is an honor to be a part of what is going on at Liberty University."

Layer has a career 270-193 record as a head coach, including nine seasons at the helm of Queens University (formally Queens College) in Charlotte, N.C.

After graduating with a bachelor's of arts in psychology from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1980, Layer started his coaching career as an assistant under Jim Harley, his former coach. Before moving on to Queens University, Layer spent seven of the next eight years at Eckerd College, except for the 1982-83 season where he was an assistant at Eastern Kentucky. While at Eastern Kentucky, Layer completed a master's of arts in counseling in 1983.

Layer made the jump to Division I in 1998, when McKay took the head coaching job at Colorado State and named him to his staff. During McKay's two seasons with the Rams, Layer helped lead Colorado State to the NIT Tournament in 1999, defeating Mississippi State and Colorado, before falling to eventual champion, California.

"Dale's integrity, experience, coaching ability and the way he works with guys individually is a tremendous asset," noted McKay. "For us to have someone of his stature help develop our young people and develop our program is priceless."

There is no doubt Layer can find and develop players. One such player is former Colorado State center Jason Smith. The seven-footer, who was very raw coming out of high school, scored over 1,500 points for Layer's Rams during the past three seasons. Due to his development under Layer's tutelage, Smith was chosen with the 20th selection of the NBA Draft's first round by the Miami Heat. Moments after the selection, the Heat traded the rights to Smith to the Philadelphia 76ers in return for the rights to Ohio State freshman guard Daequan Cook. Several of Layer's recruiting classes at Colorado State were ranked among the top 40 nationally by various recruiting publications.

Layer resides in Forest, Va., with his wife, the former Brenda Peterson, and the couples' three children: Valerie (23), Tim (20) and Ethan (15).


http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm?PID=10867&CoachID=98&TeamID=6


Looks like Buzz found the "elder statesman" of the coaching crew. Maybe Layer's the X's and O's guy.

[ChicosBailBonds]

A different Buzz comments on Dale Layer 


http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/sec/tennessee/buzzpeterson04.htm


I like the part about him being highly organized and having run a program as long as he did, that's good news to me.

[Sir Lawrence]

 CigarBoy:   Let me pull one out of left field, Dale Layer.



Peterson:     I was at State and he was at Queens College, coaching there.  We talked about playing.  Dale went out there and moved himself up.   I'll tell you what, the people working his recruiting, work hard for Dale Layer.  He's going to tell you who all the better players are in the country.  He's somebody who's a very highly organized person.

[Tugg Speedman]

Steve Yanda on the MU Tribune had a long article on Buzz back on April 18.  It had a lot of comments about Dale Layer.

(Side comment, this is about the best article I have read about Buzz.  Yanda has outstanding potential and it's sad that of all the reporters that actually get paid to do this, it took an unpaid college student to get this level of detail/insight.  And, to be clear, I'm not slamming Rosiak, I am slamming just about everyone else)

Excerpted

Williams ready to make an impact on men's basketball team
By Steve Yanda The Marquette Tribune
April 18, 2008
http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/uwire/041808aaa.html#


Milwaukee, WI (UWIRE) -- Dale Layer has been in Buzz Williams' shoes before. He's replaced the man who hired him. He's felt the rush of that first press conference, the one where the athletic director officially introduces you to your first Division I head coaching gig. He knows that rush subsides quickly.

Layer took over the Colorado State men's basketball program on April 11, 2000 and spent the following weeks flying all over the country. He met with recruits. He met with boosters. He met with the media.

Soon, he met with exhaustion. Beat down, worn out and ready for a vacation, Layer had one spot left to fill on his coaching staff. He already had interviewed two candidates, but a few of his close friends in the coaching realm suggested he talk to one more. There was this young, vigorous assistant from Northwestern State (La.) that Layer just had to meet, they said.

"I was so tired I wanted to tell him we'd hired somebody else and send him on a plane back to Louisiana," said Layer, now an assistant men's basketball coach at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. "Within 36 hours, Buzz not only was hired, he was one of my best friends."

[skip]

When former Marquette head coach Tom Crean left to take the same position at Indiana, Williams won over university officials in much the same manner as he did Layer. On April 7, one week after Crean's departure, Williams was named the program's new head coach.

"He has a way of appealing to your intellect and to your emotions," Layer said. "He can relate to every person in any situation. He's been at the junior college level as a student manager, and if you're the last guy on the totem pole at a junior college in Texas, you immediately know and have relationships with kids that no one else has had."

[skip]

Dale Layer, the former Colorado State head coach out of whom Williams once charmed an assistant position, can attest to that. He said Williams has what is called "positive insecurity," and it is that trait, maybe more than any other that makes Layer believe Williams will succeed at Marquette.

"He has high-level motivation, he wants to achieve and he's competitive," Layer said of Williams. "But in another sense, he doesn't want to fail. As a head coach, he'll wake up scared to death of failure every morning. He doesn't want to fail."