DeMatha hires alumnus Peter Strickland as interim head basketball coach filling vacancy left by Mike Jones now at Virginia Tech

HYATTSVILLE, Md. — DeMatha Catholic, one of the nation’s most storied boys’ basketball program, has appointed Peter Strickland as the interim head coach.

In true DeMatha fashion, the suburban Washington, D.C. all-male school, hired one of its own. Strickland, who played for Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame coach Morgan Wootten, is from the Class of 1975. After his career with the Stags, Strickland played at Pittsburgh, graduating in 1979.

Strickland, 63, whose wife teaches at DeMatha, took over when Mike Jones left for the Virginia Tech associate head coach position at the ACC school.

Under Jones’ tutelage, the Stags had a 511-119 mark for a sparkling .811 winning percentage. When the pandemic struck, Jones managed an 11-0 record, playing an abbreviated and will finish No. 2 in the Blue Star Media Elite 25 rankings.

In 2019-20, his team earned a 30-3 record and won an eighth Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2020). The WCAC is widely regarded as the nation’s top schoolboy league.

Strickland is veteran college coach of 22 years and assisted at Virginia Military Institute, North Carolina State, Old Dominion, Dayton and George Washington. He was the head coach at Coastal Carolina from 1998 to 2005 and is presently at the helm of the Ireland National Team. Strickland helped recruit Jones (Class of 1991) to Old Dominion, where he was a standout player.

Following his playing days at Pittsburgh, Strickland came back in the mid-1980s to assist his mentor Wootten.

Strickland met with his assistants late last week and is expected to do the same with the team on Monday.