The University of New Orleans found its new men's basketball coach, and he doesn't need a GPS to find his way around the city.
Stacy Hollowell, who led Loyola to the 2022 NAIA national championship, will take over the Privateers program, the school announced Thursday afternoon.
"Stacy Hollowell is a coach that I have watched for the past several years," UNO athletic director Tim Duncan said in a statement. "From his national championship season through his time at Ole Miss and Texas Southern, we have talked about the alignment of our basketball philosophies."
Hollowell, a Mandeville native, had left Loyola to become associate athletic director for men's basketball at Ole Miss, where he spent one season. In that capacity, he achieved a top-12 recruiting class as ranked by ESPN in 2023.
Last season, Hollowell was as an assistant coach at Texas Southern under Johnny Jones, helping the Tigers finish 12-6 in Southwestern Athletic Conference play and advance to the SWAC championship game, marking a five-game improvement from the previous year.
"Coach Hollowell is a family man, a strong recruiter, an innovative basketball mind and has links to our glorious past through his unique and personal relationship with New Orleans Athletics Hall of Fame Coach Tim Floyd," Duncan said. "I am confident he is the leader we need to compete for Southland Conference Championships and NCAA postseason berths."
Floyd served as a mentor to Hollowell dating to Hollowell's childhood days, when he met the legendary UNO coach and befriended him.
"As a young aspiring player dribbling the basketball down my street in Mandeville, I was lucky enough to meet coach Tim Floyd," Hollowell said in a statement. "From that moment until now he has been a friend and mentor and I am honored to be able to follow in his footsteps."
Hollowell's winning résumé coupled with his knowledge the New Orleans basketball scene made him a strong candidate to take on the challenge of getting the Privateers back to a high level after a challenging 2023-24 season, when they finished 10-23 in their final year under Mark Slessinger.
Slessinger went 171-222 in 13 seasons at UNO. He led the Privateers into the NCAA tournament in 2017 and fielded mostly competitive teams, but his program had taken a slide the past two seasons, going 22-43.
"As a kid I had the fortune of seeing how electric Lakefront Arena could be and how galvanized Metro New Orleans could be when UNO basketball was winning," Hollowell said in a statement. "Throughout my career I've been able to work with and build relationships with a number of former UNO coaches. This opportunity is the one I've hoped for all along and I could not be more excited to be the next head coach at the University of New Orleans."
Hollowell spent eight seasons at Loyola as head coach and amassed 166 victories, including five 20-plus-win campaigns and five appearances in the NAIA national tournament. His 2021-22 championship season saw his team finish with 31-1 record despite getting displaced by Hurricane Ida.
Hollowell coached NAIA National Player of the Year Zach Wrightsil and NAIA tournament MVP Myles Burns.
He also gained international experience coaching professionally in Qatar, Lithuania, Bahrain, and China. As assistant coach for the Qatar national team under former UNO men's basketball coach Joey Stiebing. Hollowell helped that team qualify for the 2006 FIBA World Championship, the only world championship appearance in Qatar's history.
Before his coaching career, Hollowell served as a volunteer assistant men's basketball coach at Western Kentucky, following his completion of a bachelor of business administration degree from Saint Edward's University in Austin, Texas.
Hollowell was born in Shreveport and raised in Mandeville. He was a four-year player at Mandeville High School.
UNO will introduce Hollowell at 11 a.m. Monday at Lakefront Arena.