BUFFALO, N.Y. — Thursday marked the start of a new era for Canisius men's basketball.
The Golden Griffins introduced Jim Christian at the Koessler Athletic Center as the 25th head coach in program history.
Christian arrives at Canisius with 19 years of previous head coaching experience, including stops at Boston College (2014-21), Ohio (2012-14), TCU (2008-12) and Kent State (2002-08). He spent the past two seasons as an assistant with the Golden Flashes, the team he started his head coach career with.
In his time at Kent State, he led the school to two NCAA Tournaments. Canisius' last appearance in the big dance was 1996, when the Griffs' also last won the MAAC Tournament.
It's that standard to which Christian is hoping to return the Canisius men's basketball program.
"That's my goal here," Christian said at his introductory press conference. "My goal is to leave a tremendous impact and let's make no mistake about it, win championships. The year 1996 means a lot to me, I understand what happened in 1996 here. I understand the work it took. I understand the process it took, and I told the guys today. These are tough times in college basketball. The guys who stay will be champions."
Canisius Director of Athletics Bill Maher spoke at Thursday's presser and said one of the factors that made Christian a top candidate was the Bethpage, New York-native's familiarity with the recruiting footprint of the Northeast and Midwest.
That will help Christian as he looks to navigate the current college hoops landscape of NIL and the transfer portal, as he recruits high school athletes and current college players, from other team and his own.
"In this day in age, like I used to say, when I first started there was a pool of players... This pool now is an ocean of players," Christian said. "So, it's unbelievably important now to attract the right type of player, the guy that can thrive in the system we have and there's more of them than ever before."
The players on Canisius' 2024-25 roster will look to help turn around a Griffs program that last made a postseason appearance in 2018 in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). That season was also the last time Canisius eclipsed 20 wins in a season, finishing with a 21-12 record that marked former head coach Reggie Witherspoon's most successful season at the helm.
"There's a lot of places that turn around programs," Christian said. "This is not something novel or new. My job here is to do just that, so I'm committed to do it. There's no specific formula to turn a program around, except for every single day you've got to work as hard as you possibly can."
Witherspoon was one of several former Canisius head coaches, along with Canisius Hall of Famer John Beilein, who went to a Final Four with Michigan, that were named by Christian as example of those whose footsteps he is grateful to follow.
"It's humbling for me to stand here because I'm very familiar with the Canisius basketball history," Christian said. "Those are the guys I've known over my career, guys that I respect and have tremendous amount of respect for their ability as coaches, as men and as leaders. ... To have my name alongside those fantastic coaches is humbling to me."
A two-time MAC Coach of the Year at Ohio ('06, '08), Christian hopes his energy and enthusiasm translates into results on the court and in the community.
"Don't always tell me what you're capable of; show me what you're willing to do to have success. There's a million things I could tell you what I'm capable of. I know what I'm capable of doing, but I'm looking forward to every single day that I wake up here — the drive, the energy the passion to make this program successful — I'm going to show you over time. I'm going to show you Day 1. I'm going to show these young men Day 1. First second we get on the floor, they're going to understand that," Christian said.
"I understand how this program, the basketball program, how it can act as an arm to generate energy and enthusiasm on this campus, and I couldn't be more excited to start the process."