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 From the moment Gordon
Gibbons arrived in Atlanta in the spring of 2001 as the Clayton State
men’s head basketball coach, the fortunes of Laker men’s basketball have
been reversed for the better. In fact, Clayton State has gone from an
also-ran program in the depths of the Peach Belt Conference to a program
making its mark on the national Division II scene.
Gibbons, one of the NCAA Division II all-time winningest coaches, has
led the Lakers to a an average of 19 victories the last eight seasons,
the best stretch in the school’s 19-year history. In his seven seasons
at the "Lake", Gibbons is already the winningest head coach in Clayton
State history with an impressive mark of 155-86 for a winning percentage
of .660.
Under his leadership, the Lakers are coming off eight of the finest
seasons since the program moved to NCAA Division II status with the
Peach Belt Conference in 1995. Since his arrival, Gibbons’ teams are
87-59 in Peach Belt play. Prior to his arrival, the Lakers’ Peach Belt
mark was 24-40 in four seasons.
Now entering his ninth season at the Clayton State helm, Gibbons has
the second-longest tenure of any current head coach in the Peach Belt
Conference. Only Georgia College’s Terry Sellers has served longer in
the Peach Belt.
When one talks about a Gibbons-coached team, the first word that comes
to mind is "defense," and the Lakers have demonstrated that over his
tenure. Clayton State has led the Peach Belt Conference in scoring
defense each of the last six seasons, and the Lakers have been ranked
in the Top 10 in the nation in both scoring defense and field goal
percentage defense more than once during the Gibbons era.
 The
2007-08 season was a clear indication of why Gibbons is so regarded as
one a nation’s elite head coaches at the Division II level. His Lakers
literally "limped" into the Peach Belt Conference Tournament with a
13-14 overall mark and 9-11 ledger in the Peach Belt Conference.
However, Gibbons unleashed his magic as Clayton State, seeded seventh,
shocked the Division II college basketball world by winning four
straight games, capped off by an epic triple-overtime thriller over USC
Aiken for the program’s first ever Peach Belt Conference Tournament
Championship.
The Lakers and Gibbons were far from finished. Earned its second
straight NCAA Division II National Tournament berth, Clayton State
advanced to the Division II "Sweet 16" for the first time in program
history with thrilling victories over both USC Aiken and Lenoir-Rhyne.
Only a loss to eventual Division II national runner-up kept the Lakers
from advancing to the Division II "Elite Eight."
The 2006-07 season was perhaps the banner season for Clayton State at
the Division II level. Gibbons led the Lakers to a 24-8 mark, their most
victories in a season at the Division II level, and the championship
game of the 2007 Peach Belt Conference Tournament for the first time in
program history. In addition, the team started the season on fire,
winning its first 17 games and the Lakers were ranked for much of the
season at No. 2 in the nation in Division II.
In fact, Clayton State spent the entire season ranked in the Division II
Top 25 - the first time that has happened in program history. The
20-victory season was the third in the last four seasons for the Lakers,
and they were ranked sixth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing
only 61 points a game, seventh in the nation in steals, 15th in
rebounding margin and 18th in field goal percentage defense.
The Lakers used this the 2006-07 season as a springboard from a
successful 2005-06 campaign in which Gibbons had Clayton State ranked as
high as 20th in the nation in NCAA Division II. He led the Lakers to a
21-7 overall record and 14-6 mark in the Peach Belt. It was the second
20-victory season in the last three seasons for Clayton State and the
fourth in the program history. In addition, the Lakers ranked second in
the nation in field goal percentage defense, 10th in steals, 12th in
scoring margin and 17th in scoring defense.
In 2004-05, Clayton State finished with the second-best record in the
12-team Peach Belt Conference and was ranked ninth nationally in the
preseason. The team captured the biggest win in school history, knocking
off NCAA Division II defending national champion Kennesaw State, who at
the time was ranked second in the nation, in an overtime thriller.
Gibbons led the Lakers to a 22-8 record in 2003-04, the third-best
record in school history. The Lakers had several NCAA Division II school
bests in 2003-04, including a 14-1 home record, an 11-1 start to the
season; and a 13-game home winning streak. In addition, Clayton State
was ranked eighth in the Final South Atlantic Region poll and finished
the season ninth in the nation in scoring defense, 11th in field goal
percentage defense and 15th in rebounding margin.
In addition, Gibbons won his 400th game in February of last season, becoming
one of the fastest Division II coaches to reach the plateau. The Lakers won the
2001-02 PBC Championship with a 19-9 overall and a 15-4 mark in the
league in Gibbons’ debut season at Clayton State.
 Winning at the national level is not foreign to Gibbons, evidenced by
his 10-year career at Florida Southern, where he had a 246-65 record
(3rd winningest Div. II record) and posted nine 20-win seasons. His
success on the national stage at Florida Southern included six trips to
the NCAA Division II National Tournament, two appearances in the Elite
Eight and one appearance in the Final Four.
Gibbons averaged a 25-7 win-loss record at Florida Southern and a .790
percent winning percentage. His top season came as recent as the 1999-00
campaign when he led the Moccasins to a 32-2 record, a trip to the Elite
Eight and a No. 1 national ranking in the final Division II poll.
In the 1998-99 season, Gibbons led his team to a 28-8 record and a third
place finish in the country. Florida Southern defeated California
State-San Bernandino in Louisville, KY in the third place game. His
Florida Southern teams were either the regular season or tournament
champions in the Sunshine State Conference in eight of his 10 years and
were ranked in the top 20 six times.
Overall, in 18 seasons at the NCAA Division II level, Gibbons is 401-151
for a winning percentage of .726, ranking him sixth amongst all active
head coaches at that level and ninth all-time.
In addition to team accomplishments, Gibbons’ players also excelled
academically and athletically. In his 21 years combined as a head coach and an assistant coach, Gibbons had eight All-Americans, two
National Players of the Year and one player drafted into the National
Basketball Association. He also had 22 players play professional
basketball in the United States and Europe.
Gibbons three times was selected the Division II Bulletin’s National
Coach of the Month, and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year in
1999-00 by Basketball Times. He was also selected the 1995-96 NCAA South
Region NABC Coach of the Year and is a three-time Sunshine State
Conference Coach of the Year. At the conclusion of 2006-07 season,
Gibbons was honored as the John "Whack" Hyder State of Georgia Men’s
College Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club.
Prior to coaching at Florida Southern, Gibbons was an assistant at the
University of South Florida for three years and was named interim head
coach of the Sun Belt Conference Bulls during the 1979-80 season. He has
also been a head coach at the professional, junior college and high
school level.
In 13 years at the high school level at both Tampa Jesuit (1970-78) and
Tampa Catholic (1982-87), he averaged over 20 wins per season, leading
four teams to state "Final Four" appearances in Florida. He left the
high school ranks in 1987 to join head coach George Scholz’s staff at
Florida Southern as the top assistant coach. Gibbons spent three seasons
as an assistant at Florida Southern before being elevated to head coach
of the Mocs in 1990.
A native of Tampa, Fla., Gibbons played his collegiate basketball at
Springfield (Mass.) College, receiving his Bachelor’s Degree from
Springfield in 1968. He and his wife Joyce have one daughter, Holly, 33,
and one son, Jay, 31. Holly is a successful real estate broker in the
Atlanta area, and is married to former Florida Southern soccer player
Clark Oeting. Jay, who played for his father at both Florida Southern
and Clayton State, is now an assistant coach at Savannah State.
The Gibbons welcomed their first grandchild - grandson Ried Jamisen
Oeting - born on Sept. 12, 2008.
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