By: Rich Flanagan
PHILADELPHIA –As he drove the team bus back to Roman Catholic in the late hours on Monday night, a lot was going through Matt Griffin’s mind. Following his team’s loss to Archbishop Wood in the Philadelphia Catholic League championship game just hours before, Griffin was mulling over what he could have done differently to potentially change the outcome and what to improve upon so the result could be in his team’s favor next season.
As he pulled into the fabled school at the corner of Broad and Vine Streets, he received a call from an old friend: Dwayne Killings. Killings had just been named the new head coach at the University of Albany as the Cahillites and Vikings played the latest installment of the Philadelphia Catholic League final, this time at Cardinal O’Hara.
Roman Catholic head coach Matt Griffin will become the assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Albany - PSD Photo by Geneva Heffernan
He had pitched the idea of having Griffin join his staff with the Great Danes for a few weeks, as the deal evolved from more of a possibility to a reality. It was at that moment that he formally offered his longtime friend the opportunity to become a Division I assistant coach.
“Because we’ve had a relationship for such a long time, it was something that we had talked about,” Griffin said. “He did reach out to me as soon as he got the job on Monday night. We talk a lot but he officially reached out when the word got out that he was going to be named the new head coach at the University of Albany.”
Griffin will step down as Roman Catholic’s head coach and athletic director, effective April 1, and become an assistant on Killings’ staff at Albany. He will officially sign his contract with the university on Thursday. As he transitions out of the program and school, he “will not be in charge of any type of hiring for my position” and “won’t have much say in who takes over for me.”
Almost five years after taking the job at one of the most successful and notorious programs in Philadelphia (and abroad), Griffin will head north to play in the same league where he played his last two years of college basketball.
“It’s a situation where I get to work for someone like Dwayne Killings is humbling and great to be a part of it,” Griffin said. “It’s an adjustment for me and it happened so quickly. It’s bittersweet because I’m going to miss my kids so much. These young men here at Roman mean so much to me.”
He informed his players of his decision on Tuesday as they wrapped up the season and got together one last time. Griffin played his first two collegiate seasons at Rider then transferred to play at Boston University, where he met Killings, who was an assistant with the Terriers at the time. Playing and developing under Killings and former Penn State head coach Pat Chambers, Griffin was an integral part of the Terriers 2011 America East Conference Tournament Championship as a junior and helped the team advance to the NCAA Tournament against No. 1 seed Kansas. It was also there that he met teammate D.J. Irving, the former Archbishop Carroll standout who would later join Griffin’s staff at Roman Catholic.
Matt Griffin leaves Roman Catholic after five years, in which he won two PCL championships and one state title - PSD Photo by Mike Nance
As the school has no plans to hire a permanent head coach yet, Irving, assistants Kyle Bernard and Mike Wild, a member of the Cahillites 2000 Philadelphia Catholic League title team, will collectively oversee the program in the interim. All three have been assistants alongside Griffin since he was hired. Griffin stressed that “those three guys are really going to run the program. They will take the reins at the moment as we get prepared for spring and summer workouts.”
Taking the position at Albany comes at an opportune time for Griffin as he believes there is stability in place to continue the program’s recent success.
“It’s been discussed here that things at Roman are going really well,” Griffin said. “Our basketball program is in a great place. We return almost our entire roster and I think the staff has been together for a really long time. The plan is to keep that going and that’s the goal.”
Griffin accrued a 96-29 overall record, including going 54-12 in the Philadelphia Catholic League. After taking the job in June 2016, he led Roman Catholic to four consecutive league title games, winning in 2018 and 2019, as well as the 2018 PIAA Class 6A state title. His first Philadelphia Catholic League title consisted of Seth Lundy (Penn State), Hakim Hart (Maryland), Allen Betrand (Rhode Island) and Lynn Greer III, who is headed to Dayton. That league title game came to a climactic finish as Greer found Hart for the game-winning basket in the closing seconds.
The second team was led by Greer, Hart and Lundy as well as highly ranked freshman in Justice Williams and 6-foot-10 big man Jalen Duren, both of whom are now at Montverde Academy (Fla.).
Roman Catholic's Matt Griffin cuts down the net at the Palestra, after the Cahillite's defeated Bonner-Prendergast 51-48, taking home the 2018 PCL Title:
After serving as an assistant for two seasons at St. Joe’s Prep, his alma mater, under legendary coach William “Speedy” Morris, Griffin succeeded Chris McNesby, who had stepped down after winning back-to-back Philadelphia Catholic and Class 4A titles.
He understood the expectations that came with taking over a program like Roman Catholic and he wanted the team and fans to have the same aspirations as those that previous head coaches and players have established as a precedent.
“When I got the job, someone gave me this advice, ‘Just win,’” Griffin said jokingly. “Another person said, ‘Every time I drive by the Palestra, my son knows Roman is in that game. Make sure you’re in that game.’ You almost have no other option other than making sure you keep Roman’s tradition of competing at the Palestra as a goal.”
He and his staff immersed his players in what he called “the Roman Way,” where he pushed them to achieve their individual goals of success at the high school level while working to play collegiately.
For a program that has churned out the likes of Eddie Griffin, Marc Jackson, Rasul Butler and Maalik Wayns, Griffin believed any of his players could reach their potential if they followed his coaching model.
“To me, seeing our young men graduate from Roman and go live out what I call their ‘hoop dreams’ makes it all worthwhile,” Griffin said. “I truly believe that the experience we have Roman Catholic prepares them for the next level.”
While his final season at the helm of the Cahillites ended in the title game, Griffin is leaving a talented corps for whoever takes the job. After a 10-2 season, which saw the exodus of Williams and Duren along with playing around restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Roman Catholic returns 6-6 junior forward Daniel Skillings Jr., who averaged 19.5 points and 8.1 rebounds, 6-4 junior guard Khalil Farmer, who avg. 19.1 points and scored 30 against Cardinal O’Hara, and 6-1 sophomore Xzayvier Brown, who avg. 10.1 points and 6.9 assists. Junior Jhamir Martin is also a returning starter as is 6-7 junior Matija Radunovic.
Just as Killings was a highly successful recruiter in this area, both while serving under Fran Dunphy at Temple for five seasons and Steve Wojciechowski at Marquette for three, Griffin suggests “I’m sure I’ll be recruiting within this area and in the surrounding area.”
Photos of Matt Griffin during his time at the helm of the Cahillites
Having played at St. Joe’s Prep, been a First Team All-Catholic in 2007 and coached in the area for years, he has a terrific understanding of the landscape and will work to recruit the right players to join the Great Danes program.
Becoming a Division I coach is something Griffin’s family has a wealth of success doing. His father, John Griffin Sr., played at Roman Catholic and was the head coach at St. Joseph’s University from 1990-95. His brother, John Griffin Jr., is the associate head coach of the Hawks.
As he moves onto his next endeavor, Griffin was able to reflect on the success he had at Roman Catholic and what coaching has always meant for him.
“We’ve won almost 80 percent of our games here and have been in four Catholic League title games, winning two of them,” Griffin said. “Forget all the expectations about winning; the most important thing of why I got into coaching is to make a difference. We still have great relationships with all of the guys who come through our program.”