Stanford Basketball 2013-14 November 2013, Issue 4.1 | Page 3

STANFORDBASKETBALL November 2013

Staff Spotlight:

Tim O’Toole
Assistant Coach
Tim O’Toole comes to Stanford from Syracuse,
where he most recently served as the Director of
Basketball Operations. O’Toole has 20 years of
Division I coaching experience, and he has spent
time at Army, Iona, Syracuse, Duke, Seton Hall
and Fairfield, where he was honored as the 2003
MAAC Coach of the Year. He also completed a
distinguished playing career at Fairfield, where
he led the Stags to a pair of MAAC titles and
NCAA Tournament appearances and was named
the Male Athlete of the Year in 1987. O’Toole
received his M.B.A. and later taught at the
Fordham Graduate School of Business. Before
his second stint at Syracuse he worked as a
college basketball analyst for ESPN, SNY-TV and
the St. John’s radio broadcasts. O’Toole and his
wife, Joanie, have three children: Collin (11),
Jameson (9) and Christine (7).
As a lifelong East Coaster, what are your
impressions of Stanford and the Bay Area so far?
It’s overwhelming. It’s hard to believe
how overpowering Stanford is as an institution. I
hate to say this, although it might be a positive
thing, but I’m not even familiar with the Bay Area.
I tell Joanie that we live 35 minutes from one of
the major cities of the world, and we’re not even
aware that it exists. You’re so consumed in Palo
Alto. I’m from New York, half an hour outside of
Manhattan, but even there we were not as
absorbed as we are at Stanford and this area.

Austin, and Jeff was kind enough to leave me
tickets, so I went to the game that night and
rekindled this relationship with the staff here. We
ended up playing extremely well here, went back
to D.C. and played extremely well there, and the
next thing you know we’re in the Final Four in
Atlanta. For every coach, if you had a bucket list,
that’s number one on it. We didn’t win it, which is
unfortunate, but it was an amazing experience.
And then you move the clock ahead three
months after Mark left, and something incredibly
powerful and great had to be there for us to leave
Syracuse. It was a place we loved and my family
You were here in March with Syracuse, is from that way, but when you have an
eventually advancing to the Final Four. What opportunity at Stanford, it’s like a gigantic magnet
was that incredible postseason run like?
pulling you, and here we are.
It’s been a fairytale. The whole journey,
from being back at Syracuse after being out of You’ve coached along two real legends of
college basketball for six years to today. I was college basketball in Mike Krzyzewski and Jim
doing TV for ESPN and radio for St. John’s, and Boeheim. What are some of the lessons you
then ended up going back to Syracuse and the learned during the time you spent with them?
next thing you know we’re having a pretty
When I worked with Coach Boeheim first
successful season.
So we make the NCAA in 1991-95, I had been to Fordham, West Point
Tournament and end up in San Jose, but for the and Iona. The first day of practice he asked me,
life of me, I had no idea where San Jose was. I “Timmy, are we a lot different from the places
thought it was in the middle of the state of you’ve been to?” When I said yes, he said,
California, like near Bakersfield. I think the first “Remember there are a lot of ways to skin a cat.”
person I called was Jeff LaMere, because
My next job was at Duke with Coach K.
someone had mentioned that it was near San The first day of practice he asked me if Duke was
Francisco, and I knew Stanford was also near a lot different from Syracuse. And I told him
San Francisco. Sure enough, as fate would have everything they’re doing is all out, full court. And
it, we practiced in Stanford’s practice facility. he said, “Well there are a lot of ways to skin a
That night was the NIT game against Stephen F. cat. I like to piecemeal these things through.”