George Blaney is in his seventh season as a member of the Connecticut basketball staff in the 2007-08 season. He was named the Associate Head Coach in July of 2007.

Blaney brings to the Connecticut staff more than 30 years of coaching experience. He was an All-New England college basketball standout at Holy Cross, scoring 1,012 points in his college career and leading the Crusaders to back-to-back 20-win seasons before graduating in 1961. Blaney was a fourth round selection of the New York Knicks in the 1961 NBA Draft and played during the 1961-62 season with the Knicks.

In the summer of 2003, Blaney was inducted as a member of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

Blaney began his coaching career as head coach at Hudson Catholic High School in Jersey City, NJ in 1965. He moved into the college coaching ranks two years later when he was named head coach at Stonehill (MA) College. After two seasons at Stonehill, Blaney spent three years as head coach at Dartmouth College before returning to his alma mater and coaching the Holy Cross program for the next 22 years.

While directing the Holy Cross program, Blaney led the Crusaders to three NCAA tournament berths, five invitations to the NIT, and a 357-276 overall record. Holy Cross posted seven 20-win seasons during Blaney’s tenure as head coach.

In 1994, George Blaney joined the BIG EAST Conference and spent three seasons as head coach at Seton Hall. He departed the college coaching ranks to become Vice President of Basketball Operations for the International Basketball League in 1998. He remained in that post for two years before joining the University of Rhode Island as an assistant coach during the 2000-2001 season.

In 30 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Blaney posted an impressive overall record of 459-382.

During his coaching career, Blaney spent 12 years on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and served as the organization’s president in 1993-94. He has earned numerous honors including the 1996 Bob Cousy Humanitarian Award; 1994 Eastern Basketball Magazine’s Man of the Year; 1990 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year; 1982 inductee into the Holy Cross Hall of Fame; 1981 inductee into the Hudson County Hall of Fame; 1980 U.S. Olympic Festival coach; 1977 Eastern Coach of the Year; and 1976 Hugh Greer Memorial New England Coach of the Year.