Sharing the Wealth: Gainey Gives Pointers As Elon Assistant

The Greensboro News-Record ran an article on former Pack point guard Justin Gainey yesterday, who recently became a part of the Elon basketball coaching staff. The article explains how Gainey went from being the coach on the court, to the coach on the sidelines. After Gainey left his dent in the NC State record books (9th in assists and 4th in steals) he went on to play two years overseas (France and Austria), then came back to serve as an intern within the NC Athletics department. Gainey's role expanded as he eventually took on an administrative role with NC State Basketball as the Director of Basketball Operations and also helped serve as the Assistant Varsity Coach at Cary Academy.

Gainey told the Record that he was very excited about his new opportunity at Elon but that leaving NC State wasn't easy.

“It’s a great opportunity for me...Everything lined up right, and I’m excited to be at Elon...It was very tough...I’ve got a lot of friends at State, and I’m still driving from Raleigh to Elon every day. But (Wolfpack head coach Sidney) Lowe and his staff gave me their blessings. They know my dream is to become a head coach and they encouraged me to take the job"

While Gainey was at NC State he was unable to assist in the recruiting process due to job restrictions. In his new position at Elon the tables have turned and he has been dubbed the point man for in-state recruiting.

“That’s the target, the emphasis,” Gainey said about recruiting the state. “It’s been fun. It’s been a long time coming because my job at State had a lot of restrictions. It’s great to be able to develop relationships with coaches and players.”

According to the article, it seems like Gainey and Head Coach Matt Matheny have hit it off real well. Here is what Matheny had to say to Record about the significance of the addition of Gainey to the Elon staff:

“Justin brings invaluable experience both as a player and a coach in this area. His number one quality, however, is that he is a person of high character who will represent Elon with an incredible degree of integrity.”

We are excited about Justin's advancement in his pursuit of one day becoming a head coach and we are looking forward to tracking Justin's success.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.